Bulldogs NIHL - 2022-23 NIHL North Two Season Review

NOW the dust has settled on the 2022-23 campaign, with the league positions and play-offs all decided in NIHL North Two, we felt it was the right time to catch up with Bradford Bulldogs’ head coach Andy Brown, to get his take on the season. 

The campaign ended slightly earlier than expected with two games unable to be fulfilled because games couldn’t be rearranged in the timeframe allowed by league bosses. 

It meant that the Bulldogs were awarded wins against Nottingham Lions 2 and Sheffield Titans, enough to give them 10 wins from 28 regular season games, finishing seventh (or second-bottom) in the standings with 21 points.

Two more wins would have seen the Bulldogs finish fifth.

Head coach Brown said at the start of the campaign that 2022-23 would be a rebuild year, given the number of experienced players that had retired from playing, including the likes of Matt Viney and Chris Butler, plus others such as Matty Barlow and Josh Richardson who had moved up to Division One hockey with Widnes and Deeside respectively.

ON THE UP: Bulldogs’ players celebrate a goal in the 14-2 win over Nottingham. Picture courtesy of Alien Aerial Photography.

Going back to September, can you remember what your expectations were?

AB: It was definitely a rebuild year for us. We lost a lot of key players, a lot of experienced players from last year, so we knew it was going to be tough and we were going to have to bring some 18s through and some guys who had just moved on from the 18s and we’ve managed to do that.

What were you hoping to achieve in terms of the league, final position etc? 

AB: We weren’t really expecting great things with regard to league placings - it was more to do with starting to put the foundations in place for the next couple of years going forward. 

And I feel like we have done that to a certain extent. We’ve probably won more games than I thought we would, if I’m honest, so we’ve probably done better in the league than I felt we would.

If we’d won the last game of the season we’d have finished fifth, just one place off the play-offs - that would have been a bit crazy.

SATISFIED: Bulldogs’ head coach Andy Brown gets his message across to the players during a game against Nottingham. Picture courtesy of Alien Aerial Photography.

Are you pleased with how it has gone generally? 

AB: We’ve brought some youngsters through but the commitment from some of the players has not been what I expected at times. 

When we’ve actually had three lines out there, we’ve competed with just about everybody - I’d say Hull Jets are the only team who have really put us to the sword.

Even Telford who finished second, we were competitive with them at times and so, if we’d have had a bit more commitment from some of the players we could possibly have done better in the league but, ultimately, that wasn’t our goal this season, to make the play-offs or compete at the top, so I get that.

But to move forward and play well over the next couple of seasons, we’re going to need the commitment out of the players to buy into what we’re doing and show up and play week-in, week-out.

When you say commitment, do you mean availability or on the ice in games and in training?

AB: I think a little bit of both - being available, making sure we’ve got three lines out there and that they are committing to the majority of the games.

I get it is D2 and nobody is getting paid to play - I’m not expecting everybody to put games before their wives or partners birthdays etc - but just to show up for the majority of the games.

I’d also like to see a bit more commitment in the games and a little bit more commitment in training - be on time, put the effort in.

TAKE THAT: Rhys Edwards scores a goal against Sutton Sting in November. Picture: Andy Bourke/Podium Prints

There’s no magic wand, we can’t just turn into a team that can push for the play-offs overnight, there’s got to be some hard work and if players aren’t at training or are turning up to training with less than 100 per cent commitment, then we’re not going to get to where we want to over the next few seasons.

And where is that?

AB: I’d like to think we could move back up the league and become a team competing for the play-offs again.

Division 2 is a competitive league. It’s tough. Hull are a good team - whether they decide to go up or not I don’t know, they’ve probably got the infrastructure to do it. Telford are a good team. By the looks of things, D2 is only going to get stronger and stronger.

For us to say we want to be a team that wins D2 in the next couple of seasons,I think is way off but, certainly, we want to be pushing to be competitive in every single game and if we are then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be looking to finish top four and putting ourselves in play-off contention.

Would you like to see the Bulldogs become a dominant team at this level?

AB: I’ve often thought that if we have a team that year-in, year-out was right up there at the top of the league, we’ve probably done something wrong.

At Bradford, we’ve predominantly created juniors who have gone on and done better things than playing D2 hockey - that’s what I’d like us to continue to do.

And if that means that our senior team is not a dominant team in D2 and we have ebbs and flows where we have a couple of good years and then we go down a little bit then so be it.

What are your hopes for the future of the Bulldogs in terms of NIHL hockey?

AB: If we had a bigger rink with a bigger capacity etc and we could accommodate D1 or even NIHL National hockey, of course I would want to be a team challenging at the top.

I think D2 is still - or should be - a development league and if we’re developing our players right, we should be looking to develop them to go on and play higher than D2 elsewhere.

So it should always be a stepping stone for players to come through and move on to a higher level and I’m happy with that.

If at some stage we could have a new rink in Bradford that has a 1,000 or more seats it would be fantastic. Then, everything changes and you adjust your ambitions and your targets. 

We definitely want to be a top team in whatever division we may be in but, right now, we’ve got to be realistic with what we’ve got. I think we do well with what we’ve got and we need to continue to do that.