Bradford Bulls CEO Jason Hirst has confirmed that their head coach, Eamon O’Carroll, was approached by a Super League club recently.
O’Carroll, a former Ireland international, started his playing career at Wigan Warriors before moves to Hull FC and Widnes Vikings.
He has Super League coaching experience with Widnes Vikings and Catalans Dragons, as an assistant coach.
He had his first head coach role from 2020 to 2022, with Newcastle Thunder, and joined the Bulls on an initial three-year deal ahead of the current season.
Currently, Bradford sit in fourth place in the RFL Championship, level on points with third-placed Toulouse Olympique.
His positive start to life at Odsal Stadium earned him a further one-year on his contract, announced last month, showing how much the club believe in his ability to be the right man to take them forward.
At the time, CEO Hirst said: “The fact that we were able to shake hands on this new deal after literally a ten-minute conversation yesterday afternoon speaks volumes of our utmost confidence in Eamon and the mutual trust and respect that exists between him and the club’s Board of Directors.”
QUIZ: Can you name these 10 ex-Super League players?
CEO confirms ‘Super League approach’ for Bradford Bulls boss
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Via The Telegraph and Argus, now, Hirst has confirmed that a Super League club approached him before the contract extension, but that it wasn’t who some believed it to be.
Speaking at Monday night’s fans’ forum, he said: “Eamon had an approach for Super League a few weeks ago, which wasn’t from Salford as reported by some by the way.
“But we had no doubt he’d turn it down because he wants to write his name into this club’s folklore and I believe he’ll do that during his contract (until at least the end of 2027) here.”
If this was for a head coaching role, it’s hard to see this being anyone other than Leeds Rhinos, currently without a head coach, but it may also have been for an assistant coach role similar to how he started his coaching career.
