Bradford Bulls coach Lee Greenwood has revealed how moves for Chris Atkin and Jack Ormondroyd came about after the pair’s successful debut last week against Huddersfield Giants.
The pair appeared in what was the Bull’s third home win of the season with Odsal already becoming somewhat of a fortress for Bradford, however, assistant coach Lee Greenwood has tasked his side with taking the ‘next step’ and winning on the road this week.
He said: “We’ve obviously made no secret of trying to make Odsal a fortress and we’ve made it difficult for teams coming to us there, but that is the next step for us, to get that first away win.”
Bradford travel to Wheldon Road on tonight where they will take on a Castleford side coming off the back of a humiliating 72-6 defeat, however, that’s a result that Greenwood believes does not reflect the Tigers.
Speaking to the media ahead of today’s game, Greenwood said: “We aren’t reading too much into the result of the weekend because that’s a bit of an outlier towards the other results and performances.
“They had a lot of disruption going into the game with late pull-outs and then during the game there were people coming off in the very early parts.
“That’s just one of those games where everything goes wrong on the same day. We’ll be prepping up for the best version of Castleford. There probably will be a reaction from that, but we’re preparing for the best version of them anyway.”
Bradford Bulls signing set to feature against former club
One man who will certainly aid Bradford in their bid to earn a first away win of the season is former Castleford man Chris Atkin, who the Bulls signed on a permanent deal last week.
Atkin made an immediate impact on debut as he came on to play in the halves with Jayden Nikorima freed up as a result of Kurt Haggerty’s tactical switch, and the utility can now offer a strong insight into tonight’s opponents.
Greenwood admitted: “It’s a strange one for him. Obviously, literally the week after he left, that club he’s playing against him but it works out like that sometimes.
“He’s a really valuable player to have. That’s the reason Castleford probably signed him in the first place but for whatever reason, it’s not worked this year.
“He fills a spot that we probably didn’t have in terms of someone that can cover multiple positions that he can, and they’re worth the waiting gold.”
Greenwood also revealed that both Atkin and Ormondroyd, who has joined on a season-long loan from Oldham, were players that the Bulls had been looking to add for a while before last week’s injury crisis expedited their signings.
He said: “Obviously, Kurt has known these two from Salford previously. We’d already had discussions around Jack and Chris fitting into the squad so we just sort of sped that up a little bit and got them in last week.”
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