T'Other Side: Bradford Bulls

 

Head Coach: Eamon O’Carroll

This season Eamon O’Carroll has taken overs as the head coach of Bradford Bulls, succeeding Lee Greenwood who became their caretaker coach in May 2023 following the departure of Mark Dunning. O’Carroll was the head coach at Newcastle Thunder from 2020 to 2022.

As a player he was a prop forward. He made his first team début with Wigan Warriors in 2005 and stayed there until he signed for Hull FC in 2012. After one season with Hull FC, he moved on to Widnes spending six seasons with them until he retired in 2017. He also played for the Ireland national team and was in their squad for the 2013 World Cup.

 

 

Captain: Michael Lawrence 

Michael Lawrence played well over 300 games for Huddersfield Giants, his hometown club, between 2007 and 2022. He was the Giants captain in 2021 and 2022.

In 2023 he signed for Bradford Bulls and was immediately appointed as their captain.

He has also played for the Jamaica national team and for England Knights. For Jamaica he was a starting prop in all their matches in the last World Cup.

Loan players and dual registration

Bradford do not currently have a dual registration agreement with a Super League side in 2024 but they do have one with Rochdale Hornets which saw Jordan Baldwinson, Ben Blackmore and George Flanagan play games for Rochdale.

There have been a very large number of loans both in and out. Too many to list here but you can see them on the Bradford Squad chart above.

The Fev connection 

There have been 125 players that we know of who have played for both Fev and Bradford. They include:-

Walter Best was a winger who played for Bradford Northern mainly during the time of the second world war. During his time with Bradford accrued winner’s medals in the Championship, Challenge Cup and Yorkshire Cup. During the war he also played for Leeds as a ‘wartime guest’ player, Best joined Fev towards the latter stages of the 1947-48 season and was then made captain for the 1948-49 season. However, he decided to retire in December 1948 because he needed to spend more time with his work commitments. He played 28 games for Rovers and scored 5 tries.

As a result of Peter Fox coaching both Fev and Bradford and the loyalty so many players felt towards him there are a whole host of quality players who followed Peter from one club to the other. One such was scrumhalf, Deryck Fox. After going on tour to New Zealand with the BARLA Great Britain youth team, Fev signed him from Dewsbury amateur side St. John Fisher. He made his Fev début as a sub at the age of 18 in 1983 and after a second game coming off the bench he became Rovers regular scrumhalf until the end of the 1991-92 season. Peter Fox then fell out with the Fev committee over their refusal to extend the contract of Jeff Grayshon. Peter became head coach at Bradford and Deryck was one of his first signings. After 3 seasons with Northen Deryck returned to Fev for another three years (1995-97).

Apart from his time at Fev and at Bradford Deryck also played for Western Suburbs in Australia, Batley and Rochdale. At representative level he played for Great Britain U21, Yorkshire, England and Great Britain.

For Fev he played 353 games, scored 84 tries, kicked 373 goals and 63(!) drop goals for a total of 1,145 points. At Northern he played 107 games scored 17 tries, kicked 330 goals and 16 drop goals for a total of 744 points.

 

Bob Spurr (hooker) had been at Castleford for 15 years and made over 300 appearances before Fev signed him for the 1983-84 season. He played a further 108 games for Rovers and scored 14 tries before retiring in 1987. During the 1986-87 Fev had quite a few hookers in the squad and Bob Spurr had a brief loan spell at Bradford where he played 2 games.