Warrington Wolves CEO reveals he was offered role at Castleford Tigers

Warrington Wolves chief executive Karl Fitzpatrick has seemingly done it all in rugby league.

From player to strength and conditioning coach, from player welfare manager to chief executive, Fitzpatrick has ticked off a number of roles within the game.

And, the former Salford and Widnes fullback has now documented his rise through the ranks.

“I ended up doing a sports performance degree at the back end of my career, great course and I really enjoyed it and I offered my services free of charge,” Fitzpatrick told Through The Wire podcast.

“Tony Smith was really good, he gave me an opportunity to work with the performance department and get experience.

“It was while working the performance department that it became apparent I couldn’t see myself doing it for 30, 40 years as it wasn’t diverse enough.

“But, a position came available; Brian Carney was the welfare manager at Warrington but his commitments at Sky were growing and he stepped away from the role.

“Warrington were pioneers with the welfare position and Tony Smith called me into his office and told me I could be good at that position – it was a paid role too.”

During his voluntary position, however, he was offered another role at a different club.

“In that four-month period where I was working for nothing, I had a job offer from Castleford to work in their strength and conditioning department.

“It wasn’t right at the time and I started having doubts whether it was the career path I wanted to go down.

“Ian Millward was the coach at the time, but I didn’t take that forward and I got appointed as the player welfare manager at Warrington instead.