Does Bailey really fit into the philosophy that RS seems to be running with the squad so far? He doesn't really strike me as someone who would be willing to go that extra mile for the love of the club.



Also, he's a complete and utter bell.

Hard to disagree.



I'd sooner sign Phil Bailey. And I mean of Earth, Wind & Fire fame, rather than the ex Wigan back row.



I suppose beggars can't be choosers though.

I know it was one bad injury but if Dodds was looking to stay over here love us to look at him. Bear in mind his last NRL game was the grand final v Cowboys

He's a complete and utter bell... who can play hard tough rugby. We need that in the Championship.



Tbh, I actually reckon he's too good for us (never thought i'd hear myself say that!!!)

Barring an injury crises, I would suggest anyone chosen to play in the SL Grand Final is probably too good for a Championship side.

Rumoured to have signed Blake Leary from Manly.



Back-rower who can play hooker



Haggerty rumoured to be retiring to take up a coaching role at Toronto.

Nice if true.

Hmm, retiring eh? at 27? I'm sure he'd like to better his coaching CV but I can't see him retiring at his age.



We all know you can't keep a forced recruit, so if he wants to go we'll, no doubt, have to allow him to skip the last couple of years of his contract. Thing is, as the saying says, "you're long time retired", so I can't see him not wanting to play again, certainly no more than I can imagine that Toronto wouldn't want him to play either. That being the background, if he goes, we need to hold his registration until we get some transfer fee.

Hargreaves retired early. But he'd lined up a good job in USA iirc.

Just thinking out loud. Without knowing what AoB's contract is, would anyone be that surprised if we allowed him to leave if a suitable offer came in? RS does seem to be interested in people who can cover hooker, the Fev game showed his thinking, even if he made a public retraction afterwards. He has to be one of our higher earners if his agent did his job properly when negotiations began back in April when Jimmy was in charge. If RS believes he can get a hooker who does the job he wants for the team on much less money, has he gained enough coaching credit to weather the storm if AoB was sold?

Yes. He'd need AoB's replacement to work out but we don't have the budget for sentimentality. I put replacing Odsal with a purpose built, ~10k capacity, all-seater stadium in a similar category. It would sadden me but it would be A Good Thing, and a statement of intent.

Half or three-quarter seater, please

I'm pretty certain AOB will still be here. Think people are obsessing over the Fev game. With only 2 props that day which says everything about our recruitment) i could maybe see why he went big with Addy and Howarth, but it was a flawed decision that he got wrong. Afterwards, OB played big minutes for the remainder of the 8s.



I think RS tactics will be to play AOB for 70 minutes, have 4 big forwards on the bench, and maybe have one of them do a 10 min stint at hooker to give OB a breather. I think RS is of the opinion it's pointless wasting a subs bench on an out an out hooker like Lumb or Halafihi to only do 10/15 minutes.



With Haggerty looking like he's going and if we do sign Leary, it looks like a straight swap.

I think your current coach sees AOB as dispensable.

If we can find a suitable replacement then I wouldn't be putting obstacles in the way of releasing him. He's had some stand out games but he's also capable of some massive brain farts that usually lead to us being penalised.

AOB is one of our key players, we would be absolutely mad to let another gem go. Mind you, I've spent half my life watching us let great players go, so it wouldn't be big change.

If a SL club comes in and triggers the release clause we wouldn't be able to do much about it. No point worrying about that though, such is life in the Championship.

What about a straight swap for Scott Moore, only asking like

I've got a feeling that they may not be a SL release clause in his contract.



O'brien is Bradford through and through and i think he would want to see us get some kind of compensation if he were to go. He doesn't seem the type of player to have requested a SL release claue in his contract. Someone would have come in for him now if they just had to offer him a contract and pay no fee.

Smith's spoken in extremely glowing terms of O'Brien since the Fev debacle. In fact he's figured regularly since then. Smith's admitted his mistake in not playing him. I can see where the speculation he might be out of favour had come from around the time of the Fev game but I don't think it's on the cards now. Unless we're desperate for cash, even then would he raise that much money?

There's no way his agent would have let him sign a 3 year contract without a SL clause in it.

Fair enough Adam might have raised the value of the clause to make sure we didn't lose him for some spare change, but there will certainly be one.

Still, it would always ultimately be Adam's decision at the end of the day, hopefully he has some loyalty to the Bulls. His emotions at full time in the Shield final would indicate that he does.

A slight variation on Emmitts request to be released from his contract at Leigh earlier in the season. Said he had an opportunity in Australia, so was allowed to terminate his contract. He stayed a month, came back, signed a short term deal with Swinton, now off to Toronto. What was that you said about a transfer fee

Yes I would put money on Kurt H suddenly 'coming out of retirement'. Seems Mr Perez is imaginative at getting round the rules. I am surprised Mr Rowley with all his morals and integrity is allowing the early approaches and transfer fee avoidance. Incidentally why did Torontos training facilities share with the Bulls suddenly not happen.

Will you be able to give Moore a lift? Or maybe he can borrow your car

Oh, we know well the problems with Aus and UK contracts, don't mention a Mr Orford near Odsal... Toronto though is a different kettle of fish as they are playing in the European league.



Don't get me wrong - if he genuinely wants to go coaching and is willing to forgo his playing career then good luck to him and he'd absolutely go with my blessing, but I find the idea he'd go, and then that Toronto wouldn't look at a player of his quality and say why isn't he playing, is too much to believe. That's why I suggested letting him go but keeping his registration. They seem to be a club which is minted and we aren't so why would we let him off a two year deal to play elsewhere?



Not really sure about the training agreement - maybe it's about the numbers using the facilities which don't stack up, though, that said, we've had almost two squads in one over the last two seasons and no-one has moaned about lack of space...