NEW York City Knights signing James Green says he’s looking forward to his role as one of the elder players at the club and will be looking to bring leadership qualities into the young group.

York announced the signing of prop Green from Betfred Championship rivals Bradford Bulls last month - becoming one of five new additions to the Knights during the off-season.

Green, 28, is the third experienced forward brought in by James Ford, after the arrivals of Chris Clarkson, 29, and Danny Washbrook, 34.

There seems to be clear emphasis from Ford to recruit more senior players to his squad, with regulars such as Matty Marsh, Connor Robinson and Jack Teanby all 25 or under.

The former Castleford Tigers, Hull KR and Leigh middle Green admits that being a leader in a squad isn’t something he’s done much of previously in his career but was looking forward to the challenge of doing so at York.

“I’m definitely looking forward to being a part of that pack of forwards next year,” said Green.

“Obviously, with myself, Clarky and Washy coming in, I think we’ll add more experience to what is quite a young squad.

“From speaking to Fordy, he’s explained that he wants us to be senior players in the group and take on that role as leaders.

“That does mean a change of role from my position at Bradford as I’ll have that bit of extra responsibility. It’s something that I’m looking forward to though.

“Before coming in, I didn’t realise quite how young this Knights team was. There were quite a few young players at Bradford during my time there, but there were players like (Steve) Crossley and (Jake) Webster there too.

“I think that there will be more people looking at myself to put my hand up and speak more around the dressing room, but I don’t mind doing that.

“I’ve always thought of myself as a young player but that’s a bit daft considering that I’m 29 next month.”

Green had decided on moving elsewhere before the well-publicised financial problems surfaced at Bradford.

He said that joining York was an easy decision after a meeting with Ford.

“I’m really looking forward to joining up with the York City Knights this year,” added the 6ft 6ins forward. “I think as a club, they’re going in the right direction.

“They had a great year last season, the new stadium is close to being finished, so it felt like a really exciting place to come.

“I was sad to leave Bradford because there are some really good people there and I had some good times there too, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

“When I was looking round for other clubs, Fordy was the first (coach) that I spoke to and after having a really good conversation, I didn’t look any further. It was a pretty easy decision to sign for the club after that.

On the specifics of his chat to Ford, Green added: “He explained what he expected from myself as a player and what I could expect from him and the rest of the club.

“I’ve played against York before so I obviously knew a little bit about them but it was only when I started speaking to Fordy that I got a better idea of what the club is like behind the scenes and how they operate.

“He told me about the players he was bringing in to go alongside the existing players they had at the club and everything just sort of fell into place from there really.”