The newest face around Odsal cannot wait to get the Grand Final campaign going.

Having spent 12 years at St Helens as a player, the Bulls coaching recruit Phil Veivers believes the Super League opener at Knowsley Road will be "the ideal game".

Veivers will be taking the step from a once-a-week NVQ assessor at the club to joining Bernard Dwyer and Jimmy Lowes on the coaching side.

And the former Swinton and Huddersfield coach, who looked set to take up a post at Leigh for the forthcoming National League One campaign, is as happy to be with the Bulls as they are to have him.

"It will be a great opportunity to work with someone like Brian Noble," said Veivers, who has played with and against his fellow assistant Dwyer.

"Every coach looks to be able to offer something different to the players and to the club, and I think I can do that.

"I will learn something from working with Brian and Bernard and hopefully they will learn something from working with me.

"There is a fantastic squad of players here and I think the club will be capable of some great things next year."

As well as Karl Harrison's departure to Salford, the Bulls also lost the services of defensive coach Darrel Shelford recently, who joined his brother Wayne at Saracens rugby union club.

Noble admitted after the Test series that he was struggling to find an extra coach but said he was not going to be panicked into making an appointment.

The promotion of Veivers is set to be a vital move for the club ahead of their all-important January training camp.

"When we are away we will be setting ourselves some goals for the coming season," said Veivers, who joked that he had not yet "told the missus" about the ten-day excursion to Portugal.

"But like most quality teams at this stage we will be thinking that the ultimate goal should be to do the double of the Grand Final and the Challenge Cup.

"We have some very strong players here and have the quality to do some great things next season."

And Veivers is aware of the quality of many of the players, having played against Scott Naylor, Jimmy Lowes, Mike Forshaw, Paul Anderson, Robbie Paul and Tevita Vaikona during his playing days at St Helens and Huddersfield.

But it is the season opener against Saints that already has him captivated.

"It will be a great game and a fantastic advert for Super League," he added.

"It is probably the ideal match for the start of the season. I think I am already looking forward to it."