The new owners of Bradford are lining up the former Bulls player, Henry Paul, as the likely candidate to succeed the previous incumbent, Rohan Smith, after it was confirmed on Tuesday he would leave his role as coach of the newly reformed Championship club.
Smith, who was appointed as coach of the recently liquidated Bulls midway through last season, had previously indicated he wished to remain in charge upon the club’s reformation before the club’s new owners, Andrew Chalmers and Graham Lowe, revealed their identity on Tuesday following a successful bid to assume control at Odsal.
However, the New Zealanders have decided they will instead look to appoint another coach – and despite a potential appointment of a senior player on an interim basis, the Guardian understands that Paul, who played for the Bulls between 1999 and 2001, is the preferred choice of Chalmers and Lowe to take charge.
The owners released a statement on Tuesday confirming the club will look to remain full-time in 2017, while beginning negotiations with players and staff about new contracts for the upcoming Championship season which Bradford will begin with a 12-point deduction in just a few weeks’ time.
“We do not see this as a quick fix and we will work through the immediate issue of offering full-time playing contracts to the team,” they said in a statement. “This is expected to be accomplished in the next 48 hours and following that we will look at bolstering the playing squad as necessary to replace those players who have secured contracts elsewhere.”
The Rugby Football League, which approved Chalmers and Lowe’s bid last Friday, have now switched their focus to securing the old club’s intellectual property rights from the administrator who liquidated the club earlier this month.
Items and rights such as the domain name, logos and franchise name were initially sold to a third party who expressed an interest in buying the club while it was in administration, but they have subsequently been forfeited back to the administrator, leaving the RFL to try to negotiate a deal and purchase them.
