BRADFORD BULLS, beleaguered by injuries all year, have appointed Andrew Dixon as their head of performance from next season.
The 36-year-old, who played as a secondrower for a string of clubs, will lead the Bulls’ strength and conditioning and medical departments.
He joins from Championship club Oldham, where has been head of performance for the last two seasons.
Dixon made just short of 250 appearances during a 16-year playing career, turning out for St Helens, the old Salford, Leigh, Toronto, where he was also involved in strength and conditioning, and Toulouse.
He has become highly-qualified in sports science, gaining a PhD in which he studied contact collision in sport.
Dixon can’t wait to get started at Bradford, saying: “I know both (coach) Kurt Haggerty and Brian Noble (who has a consultancy role) pretty well along with some of the other people in the performance staff, so I am really looking forward to getting involved and seeing what we can do next year.
“The club are ambitious and are trying to move forward and they are making the right steps to do so and it is my role to support that, support the players and get them and the club to where they want to be.”
Dixon will implement new systems and processes and assess infrastructure such as the playing group, gym and pitch.
Haggerty believes Dixon will be a valuable addition, with his appointment a mark of the club’s progression.
“Andrew will bring experience to the role,” he explained. “He’s played at the elite level and has also been a full-time conditioner previously.
“He’s somebody I know well, he’s extremely studious and very hard-working, so he’s going to offer a lot to our workforce and our staffing.
“The appointment shows how quickly we want to improve the club and bringing in new staff members like Dicko, in such a high capacity, shows the level we want to get to.”