Bradford Bulls v Warrington Wolves: Lee Greenwood happy to go all in at Odsal

The blockbuster signing of John Bateman certainly grabbed most of the headlines, but there was also the announcement of a new two-year deal for assistant head coach Lee Greenwood.

The 45-year-old had taken a 12-month sabbatical from his day-job as a salesman - selling leadership courses - to go full-time on Bradford’s return to Super League.

Now he has taken the plunge by remaining as head coach Kurt Haggerty’s assistant, heading into 2027 and beyond.

“When you start playing rugby as a kid, you want to play at the highest level,” said Greenwood.

“When you start coaching, you want to do it at the highest level. So, that's what I've chosen to do.

“(Previously) I was a salesmen working on training courses. A nice and secure job it was. Not like a rugby coach.

“It was training courses, so we sold leadership courses to schools and sports clubs and things like that.

“Sports leadership generally. It was more the sports side of it that hooked me on. I'd done the course when I was younger, the sports leadership course. So, I knew the course and I'd done it myself, so I knew the impact it had.

“So, then I went into selling that to schools. But at the end of the day, it was an office job.

“As a lad, brought up playing rugby league, you want to be out on the field and putting some cones out, running around with a ball and stuff, and getting freezing and muddy in December when you're in Bradford.”

Greenwood previously coached at Dewsbury Rams, and enjoyed a playing career which included spells at Sheffield Eagles, Huddersfield Giants, Halifax and Batley Bulldogs.

“I am really pleased to be staying, I wanted to be involved in Super League having been here for a few years in the Championship, I would have been sat at home disappointed watching the team roll out in Super League so I was really pleased to have the opportunity.

“Being full-time, you can look into everything with more detail, your time is very limited when you’re part time so this year has allowed me to concentrate more on my department.

“I concentrate on the backs and edges and you’ve got to unlock defences and defend against Super League players so you have to be on it not only by showing the players but by practicing too. I’ve really enjoyed that element of it and the step up has been great, it has obviously been a challenge but I have really enjoyed it.

“There’s some great things to look forward to, there’s obviously Vegas but we also want to improve our league position. There’s exciting times in terms of the team growing, we’ve proved we deserve to be here and we’ve been competitive throughout. We’ll keep working hard for these last six league games and hope to build on that for the next couple of years and be fighting it out at the top.”

First of those six games, is today’s visit of Warrington Wolves to Odsal.

After that they have home games with Wigan Warriors and Castleford Tigers, with trips to Leigh Leopards, Toulouse and York Knights.

Given that three of those clubs sit just above 12th-placed Bradford, and only a two-point gap, in the Super League table, there is plenty left to play for in 2026.

“It is a long season, and that season's still got another six weeks to run yet.

So we want to maintain our levels, be competitive all throughout, and we're still preparing to win every single game as well. So we certainly don't want to be going through (21:09) just as gallant losers for the rest of the season.

“We want to pick some wins up.”

Guy Armitage’s season could be over after suffering a hamstring injury in last week’s defeat to Hull KR.

But Loghan Lewis (knee) and Ryan Sutton (calf) could feature against Warrington, while hooker Tom Doyle - on loan from Wakefield Trinity - is available.

“It's just another patch we're going through at the minute where it's literally whoever's left standing, you're in the mix to play,” said Greenwood.

“We're really at full stretch now. We've got a list in our office that is so long, we’ve had to use another whiteboard to put all the names of people that have been injured down.”