WITH the Betfred Championship season fast-approaching, the Bradford Bulls and head-coach Eamon O’Carroll are in the process of putting the finishing touches to their squad.
On Thursday morning the Odsal outfit announced the two-week loan signing of Keanan Brand from Super League side Leigh Leopards, and last night they confirmed the season-long loan of Corey Johnson from Leeds Rhinos.
With time ticking ahead of the season’s curtain-raiser at Wakefield, Bradford are expected to be busy.
Giving his thoughts on Brand’s arrival, O’Carroll said: “I am really pleased to have Keanan on board with us because I know him well and know what he can offer to this group. When I was still playing at Widnes, he was one of the young lads coming through and back then I could see the potential he possessed. He’s really kicked on now which has been good to see.
“I think he’ll add some much-needed depth to our squad, not only that, but he’s also got some good qualities about him and he’s a strong competitor.
“When I spoke to him, he had a real excitement and energy about joining us, and it was clear that he wants to play, so I’m certain he’ll add value to the group.”
Given his thoughts on where he thinks Brand will slot in in relation to positioning, O’Carroll said: “He’s going to give us some good cover in the outside backs because we haven’t got a lot of depth there.
“We probably see him as playing centre for us at this stage, but signing someone of Keanan’s quality will give us a number of options. I know he’s been playing at full-back with Leigh this year, which is a department that we are really pleased with currently.
“It will give us the ability to possibly get Jayden (Myers) back into the centres too, with Keanan being able to play on the wing, which is a nice option to have considering we haven’t had that much freedom in positional sense recently.”
O’Carroll went on to confirm his desire for Brand to stay at Odsal beyond his two-week loan spell, when he said: “It’s a short-term loan at the moment, but I’ve said from day one that if we bring anyone into the club then I want it to be a long-term deal.
“If Keanan is happy here and we’re happy with him, which I imagine will be the case, then we’d love to keep him longer than the two-week period.
“Obviously, that will be dictated by Leigh. We wouldn’t have brought someone in for two weeks if we thought that we had cover, but it’s no secret that we have some injury issues.
“Thankfully, we’ve been lucky enough to bring someone in of Keanan’s quality to help the team out, so let’s see how it plays out from here.”
It had been speculated that Australian hooker Tyran Ott was set to sign for the Bulls after a successful trial period with the club, but O’Carroll went onto quash those rumours.
He said: “It’s not true (that Ott has been on trial). We are aware of his availability and believe that he’s in the country, but that’s not true; he’s not here.”
Discussing transfers further, O’Carroll confessed: “We don’t feel there will be any departures, well I hope not anyway, because we are quite happy with the squad, and I’ve said that on a number of occasions.
“However, it’s no secret that we are heavily in the market for players. Conversations and discussions with players are ongoing and they’re developing, which is positive, but I don’t see anyone coming in the near future. In the next month or so, however, we are hoping that we can accelerate those conversations and bring in some new faces ahead of the start of the season.”
One man who Bulls did miss out on was Fenton Rogers, despite having him on loan at Odsal last season from the Huddersfield Giants, as his short term transfer to fellow Super League opposition London Broncos was confirmed during the week.
Discussing the move, O’Carroll said: “We are big fans of Fenton so there was a desire to bring him back to the club.
“From afar, I saw what he brought to the group last season, and I was very impressed. Everyone speaks really highly of Fenton too, and more importantly I think he really enjoyed his time here.
“We understand that just because he’s been here before, we don’t have a right to get him straight back. There’s a plan for his development, a long-term plan, and Huddersfield think it’s best that he goes to London, so we totally respect their decision.”
With Rogers’ move down south being another two-week loan, O’Carroll admitted that the Bulls would jump at the opportunity to bring the talented forward back to the club if the chance was to arise once more.
He said: “Of course we would (look to bring Rogers in again if he became available). The beauty with that one is that we know Fenton, or the club certainly know Fenton and what he can bring to the group.
“He’s close to the group and the group trust him, so if there was ever an opportunity to bring him back to Odsal, then we would do so.”
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