Bradford Bulls coach Lee Greenwood "didn't want to leave"

He has coached at Bulls since joining ahead of the 2023 season, including a spell as interim boss for a few months following the sacking of Mark Dunning.

Greenwood was helped in that stint by Brian Noble, with the pair now linking up again, the club icon having been named as head coach for the 2025 season.

Noble knows the value Greenwood brings to the set up, and the latter said: “I am really happy to be staying.

“I told the club I didn’t want to go anywhere and it probably suits both me and the club just to do it year to year.

“I obviously joined as assistant and ended up stepping up last year, then the club got a full-time coach in and I really enjoyed working alongside Eamon (O'Carroll) and Brian this year. 

“I like the direction the club is going in, I have enjoyed my time here and I was wanting to stay in whatever capacity.

“The club have decided to put their trust in me and Brian, which will work on a similar basis to how it did in 2023, but right from the start of pre-season. 

“I am excited to see what we can do and see whether we can improve on those third placed finishes, that’s the challenge.”

Bulls fell agonisingly short in the play-offs after coming third this year, losing 21-20 in their semi-final away to Toulouse. (Image: Frederic Speziale.)

Consistency with regards to concentration and discipline has been highlighted as key areas where the Bulls can improve under Noble next year. 

They also used nearly 50 players last season but Greenwood believes the squad is ‘pretty much there’, and do not expect to have to look externally for reinforcements as frequently next term.

He said: “We haven’t been consistent enough in terms of our performances, whether that is when we haven’t played to our ability, or our concentration levels through mistakes or poor discipline.

“That is something that has let us down in certain games across the last two years. 

“We want to try and get the understanding of the players but also get a set of players who can concentrate, keep errors and poor discipline down to a minimum.

“That’s the biggest challenge for us as staff and players. 

"You can see in pre-season if you are going to be consistent, whether it is because of recruitment or like last year, where we had medical and strength and conditioning staff leaving during pre-season.

“That left us short and then we got quite a few injuries in a short space of time, meaning we had to bring other players in, so when you look at it as it was, we were probably aways going to struggle to be consistent. 

“We have got our Medical, Strength and Conditioning and Performance team in place now and we feel like we are pretty much there with a squad, where we’ve got everything covered.

“We are definitely looking to bring in one or two more people but if we need to be patient and get the right people in throughout pre-season, we will do that.

“We want to have a squad where we don’t need to rely on loans and dual regs.

“If we do get a few injuries in one position we may have to, but we want to go into the season using our own players ideally.”