Red Devil joins Wolves

FORMER Salford City Reds player Karl Fitzpatrick has joined Warrington Wolves as a Player Welfare and Services Officer to work alongside Brian Carney.
Karl was part of the first team playing squad at Salford last season. With such recent playing experience he is in the ideal position to pass on advice to our current squad and the young talent coming through the development system. Alongside his Player Welfare role Karl will also be working closely with Strength and Conditioner Chris Baron.
Brian Carney was appointed into this role at the end of 2009 and has since raised the awareness amongst the players, at all levels within the club, of the importance of developing their off-field abilities.
Karl has been brought in to work alongside Brian, taking on the more active role working with the players in and around the club on a daily basis.
The introduction of a Welfare and Services Programme at the Wolves has provided all players with accessible and appropriate support throughout their time at the club.
The programme is a well underway and will be used for a long time into the future.
Karl was a product of the amateur side Wigan St Patrick’s. He had playing spells in France and with Swinton Lions before joining Salford in 2002. Internationally, like Brian, Karl represented Ireland. 2004 saw him play in the Rugby League European Cup and he was also named in the 2008 World Cup squad.
Karl said: “This has been the most professional and enjoyable environment I have worked in. The atmosphere, cohesion and work ethic amongst the players and coaching staff is first class. The facilities are possibly the best that Super League has to offer, with these ingredients I am not surprised Warrington is becoming a dominant force in Super League. I was delighted when Tony offered me the role as it allows me to work closely with Chris Baron on the Rugby side whilst also helping the players with non Rugby matter”.
Tony said: “Karl started on a voluntary basis in order to gain experience in the physical conditioning and preparation side of things and he’s been a great help there. We’ve also managed to see some other qualities he’s able to bring to the table to help improve us as a club. The reduction in involvement of Brian Carney given his SkyTV involvement this has created an opening for Karl to step in and pick up in the areas that Brian won’t be able to continue with. We’ve ended up with two quality people in a role that is very much valued in terms of player welfare and also the organisation of players for all sorts of areas within player support. He’s shown that he’s a quality person who has a great understanding of the game from a player’s perspective but he is also studying in order to gain knowledge through education as well as the knowledge of the game he has through experience.”