THE Bulls will have an assistant coach for their League One promotion campaign.

Geoff Toovey operated without a number two last season once he was finally able to take over the reins from interim boss Leigh Beattie.

But the club will have a full structure at the top in place for 2018 and are scrutinising potential candidates.

Nothing, though, will happen on that front until Toovey has made the decision on his own future.

He is due back from Australia within the next couple of weeks and will then sit down with the club to finalise the situation. The players are due to begin their pre-season programme at Tong a week on Wednesday.

Joint-owner Andrew Chalmers confirmed they have started sifting through the list of possible assistants. Interested parties have also made contact about the top job if Toovey decides to return Down Under.

Chalmers said: "We've got a few names that have cropped up (for the assistant position). We'll obviously wait up until the decision has been made in terms of the head coach.

"We're relaxed about allowing Geoff time to form a view. We'll talk when he gets back and make an announcement mid-November.

"We're comfortable with that. It hasn't impeded the quality of the players we've recruited.

"It's not impeding our planning for the commencement of off-season training at all. The juggernaut rolls on."

Chalmers once again shot down the speculation that continues to link outgoing Salford owner Marwan Koukash with the Bulls.

He said: "There's no substance to it – nothing."