Eamon O'Carroll is on Bradford Bulls' final shortlist for the vacant head coach position, Rugby League Live understands. The Bulls are understood to have whittled down their shortlist to just a few candidates and the 36-year-old is believed to be one of those people being considered.
Bradford are expected to make a decision and announcement on the coaching front this week. Their recruitment process has been ongoing since Mark Dunning left the club over a month ago. Candidates have been kept tight-lipped but O'Carroll has now emerged as one of the final candidates still in contention.
The 36-year-old was previously head coach of Newcastle Thunder but left midway through last season to take on a role at Catalans Dragons. He had previously acted as an assistant coach to Steve McNamara before taking the job with Newcastle. As a player, O'Carroll played for Ireland and domestically played for Wigan Warriors, Hull FC and Widnes Vikings, making over 150 career appearances before retiring in 2017.
He has since turned to coaching and after spending a year at Widnes as their performance coach, he made the move to Catalans to work with former England head coach McNamara. He subsequently went to Thunder, where he won 12 games out of 36 matches.
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Bradford, who announced the signing of Lee Gaskell on Monday, are fifth in the Championship with twelve games of the season remaining. They are five points clear of seventh-placed Widnes and just three points adrift of second-placed Batley Bulldogs. Their last outing was a 22-22 draw with local rivals Halifax Panthers.
Lee Greenwood and Brian Noble have been in temporary charge since Dunning's departure. Noble is a football consultant and is expected to continue in that role while Greenwood was Dunning's assistant coach and while he confirmed he did not want to main job permanently, he has confirmed he is keen to continue as a number two.
In a statement, the Bulls have confirmed their plans to keep Greenwood and Noble in position for the remainder of the season. CEO Jason Hirst said: “We do not envisage making any changes to the 1st team coaching arrangements at the club before the end of the 2023 season. Under the interim leadership of Lee Greenwood and Brian Noble there has been a positive and visible improvement in performances. The players are enjoying the new regime, as are the coaches, to whom the club are indebted. The recruitment process remains ongoing with a view to determining and installing the right coaching set up for season 2024 onwards."
