Mousdale happy to combine on and off field roles

Not many players would combine their efforts on the pitch with a role as the general manager of a club, but North Wales Crusaders’ Andy Mousdale has bucked that trend and he is relishing the new position.

“I don’t presume there are many other clubs that do it but it fits in with what I do outside of work and what the club are looking to do,” he told Love Rugby League.

The 29-year-old is a sales man when he doesn’t have a rugby ball in hand so when he was offered the position it made perfect sense.

“I comes from a sales business background anyway,” he said.

“The commercial side is something I am doing already and I have played rugby for years so the two sort of fit together.”

Mousdale will still feature as a player next season and he admits the mood has been positive during the past few weeks.

“There have been cutbacks and we have lost some players,” he said.

“We have managed to keep a lot of the lads together and we have brought in some good players as well so it’s pretty positive at the minute.”

The Crusaders suffered a narrow defeat in the League 1 Shield last season at the hands of Newcastle Thunder, but Mousdale thinks they should be aiming for a finish in the top half of the table this time round.

“Top eight is our aim,” he said.

“We can push for that but if we can get in that I think we will sort of overachieved.

“We have got a good squad I just think it’s going to be a tough league next year.”

Mousdale, who has been with the Crusaders all his career, thinks they can harbour big ambitions because of the players who have come in.

“We have signed some proven Championship 1 players and Championship players,” he said.

“We have signed two wingers from Rochdale, who featured quite heavily in their promotion season last year.

“There are also some arrivals from Salford who’re going to have good pedigree.”

As well as a new general manager, North Wales also have a new head coach in place for the new season.

Mike Grady has come in and tried to maintain a sense of continuity, which Mousdale believes can only have a positive effect.

“After arriving he didn’t want to change everything,” he said.

“Throughout both the good and tough times there have been a nucleus of boys who have been involved so I think it’s really important that we had five or six who stayed.

“It’s the core of the club that the fans can relate to and the boys enjoy being part of the team.”