BOTTEN EXTENDS STAY AT THE BULLS

Bradford Bulls are delighted to announce Nick Botten has signed a one-year contract extension to continue as our Head of Strength and Conditioning into 2025.

Botten joined the Bulls in April this year having previously worked for Barnsley FC’s Women’s Squad as their Sports Scientist. 

Nick joined midway through a year that saw us reach two semi-finals and a third place finish in the Betfred Championship and will play a key role in 2025, with pre-season for Brian Noble’s side starting on Monday evening.  

Having spoken of his positive experiences with the Bulls in 2024, Nick has outlined what’s in store for the players next week and how this period will play a huge role in what we want to achieve next season. 

“It’s been great, I really enjoyed it. It was a big challenge starting in April and we weren’t in a great place which was visible by the number of players we had to use due to the amount of injures we had. I came in to build standards and get the players back fit and healthy which we did towards the back end of the season, it was a big change for me moving from football, but it was fantastic and I look forward to continuing it next year. 

“This period is massively important for what we want to achieve next year, the lads have enjoyed some time to rest and recover, it’s a tough sport so their bodies are sore and need time to recover before we start pre-season and go in quite hard, quite early on to get them capable of managing a 26-28 game season. 

“My biggest role is to get the lads ready to go and perform for the fans so pre-season is massively important and everything we do in terms of strength and conditioning will benefit them from the beginning to the end of next season. 

“There will be lots of hard work, we will do a lot of testing and gym work before building in what Brian and Lee want in terms of skill development. Pre-season is supposed to be hard but we will have a good time, make some bonds and develop a harmony, that will be a big part of it. There will be times when they will come off knowing they’ve worked hard but we can have a good time at the same time. 

“We have brought in players who will only add to the professionalism of the players we already retained, the group is getting stronger and the standards are going up. They listen to what I want and do what they are told but do it off their own backs too when they aren’t being supported by us, they are grafting in their own time to be ready for the season. 

“Brian and Lee were very much involved last year and it’s massive for us all to be getting the same messages from the same faces. We know the expectations, we have the baseline now we want to raise it higher. Continuity is a big thing so the lads know what we expect from them, there is no grace period we will be straight in from the start.”