BATLEY BULLDOGS coach John Kear says he spoke to Mark Moxon before accepting the challenge of succeeding him and trying to steer the Yorkshire side away from the second-tier trouble zone.
The highly-experienced 70-year-old has returned to the Bulldogs, where he was at the helm from September 2011 to the end of the 2016 season, until the end of this campaign.
It’s a move designed to provide a lift in playing fortunes while giving the club, chaired by long-serving Kevin Nicholas, time to assess where they and the game as a whole stand before making a longer-term appointment.
“There’s a lot of talk about potential changes to the competition structure and we’re still not sure of funding levels, and both those things have a bearing on our plans,” explained Nicholas, who was at the helm when Kear arrived the first time around, bringing in Moxon as his assistant.
Moxon had played under Kear at Huddersfield, then coached in the Wakefield Scholarship system when he was Trinity team chief, and currently works under him in the Wales national team set-up.
After Kear left Batley for a second stint at Wakefield, this time as head of rugby, Moxon was assistant to Matt Diskin then Craig Lingard before stepping up to the top job when the latter took charge of Castleford ahead of last season.
He stepped down at Batley following eight defeats in the first twelve league games of this year (there had been two wins and two draws), saying he felt the team needed a different voice and direction.
Kear will take full charge after assistant coaches Jaymes Chapman and Ben Kaye led the side for a second time at home to Sheffield (Batley previously lost 32-6 at Bradford).
And he said: “Mark’s a good coach who gave Batley full commitment, and we spoke about him, the players and the club as a whole before I accepted the job. I wanted to know he was comfortable with the situation.”