The Bulls' Phil Veivers has ruled himself out of the assistant coach role at Super League rivals Wigan Warriors.

Speculation is mounting on both sides of the Pennines that the Aussie is lined up as Ian Millward's right-hand man.

But Veivers, who is the Bulls' defensive coach, insists that is not going to happen.

"I've had plenty of phone calls from people and had a great laugh over it!" he joked.

"But I've been at Bradford three years now and I'm happy with my roles here."

Veivers is a major part of Brian Noble's management team at Odsal, where he also takes charge of the under-18s, after joining from Leigh.

He has also been Hudders-field Giants' player-coach and bossed Swinton Lions but lives in Wigan.

Although a likely potential candidate to replace Dennis Betts at the JJB Stadium, Veivers said: "It's easy to put two and two together and come up with five, isn't it?

"I've had plenty of conversations with loads of people around the town, put it that way!"

Veivers played nearly 400 games for St Helens after joining them with Aussie legend Mal Meninga in 1984.

Linking up with arch-rivals Wigan would certainly upset those who still adore him at Knowsley Road but he said: "They call me Judas now anyway, so that's irrelevant."

The 41-year-old added: "I'd definitely like to become a head coach. You come into this game to do that but I'm still in the apprenticeship era.

"Hopefully it will eventually lead to a head coach job but at the moment I'm still doing that apprenticeship and I'm happy to do it here."

Stuart Wilkinson of Leeds Rhinos is believed to be Wigan's first choice.