Interesting piece in the T&A this morning confirming a core of out of contract players will be offered new deals, including manese, addy, walker, sammut.

Does that men we are expecting to lose one of our current overseas players? Would like us to keep a winger or two also.

Does sound like were losing another overseas, sadly most likely to be Purtell. Kears still under contract so that's one winger. Don't think it's a definitive list of who's being offered contracts so expect there will be wingers in the mix.

It was an interesting article, and at the end of it is has a quote from gale saying how much he is now looking forward to next season! Not the words of someone who's off to shuddersfield.

New deals to be offered to addy, Donaldson, sammut and nas, somit says. If thats Along with retaining whitehead, Bateman, gale, kearney, lulia etc and we have a decent core to build around.

Although, can we offer new deals to both sammut and nas? I thought we had a choice between the two, unless we're creating a space on the quota elsewhere? Possibly sadly purtell like mat says.

If Purtell is advised he can play again, it will be at Bradford.

Which will be a very good result, just need to work out the other quota spots regarding nas and sammut.

It seems that we have " only 16 players signed for next season" (Mick P in today's T & A ). Of the above list Donaldson Manuokafoa and Addy are mentioned as likely to be offered new contracts. Additionally Sammut and Walker are mentioned. Gales quote and the absence of any news suggesting others may take the "Kopscak route" means we are likely to have a decent core of experienced players.
Of the one's who are leaving I think Elima Jeffries and Hargreaves will be the most missed but agree they are not irreplaceable.
The suggestion that we look to long term loans (e.g. Thornley and Evans ) is a good one but I think we need 2 or 3 permanent signings. The savings on those who have left and are likely to leave will be significant. OK has gone on record as saying they will budget for the full salary cap.
I would like one decent half back but cannot think of anyone available. Perhaps they should take a punt on a Championship player. I know Moore didn't fit in at Wakefield but he continues to impress me at Batley.
As regards 2 seasoned forwards I'd be very surprised if Fielden is still at Wigan next year. And from left field how about Menzies as player/assistant coach? Robinson is going from Catalans and it's clear he was enjoying life at Bradford. Of course that's probably not a feasible option given the quota.
We will obviously have a smaller squad than this year-- but surely we can't have the same bad luck with injuries can we?

Luke Gale isn't going to Huddersfield. He'll be at Odsal for many more years to come.

Just trying to understand where your out of contract players are up to, I had assumed (probably wrongly) that they would have had their agents scouring the game for new clubs for 2013, I even recall Potter saying that they all deserved to get fixed up elsewhere to secure their futures etc.

Was all that knocked on the head by the supposed "gentleman's agreement" preventing other clubs (well barring Huddersfield!) from approaching/signing your players. I actually thought that referred to players that were contracted for 2013 and beyond, not those coming off contract. I can appreciate that there would be a few who would naturally "wait and see" and maybe others who hadn't yet signed up, but I thought the majority of the OOC players would have signed elsewhere, but maybe not since there have been no announcements.

The one name we were linked with, Hargreaves, seems to have retired to take up a job overseas. Whether that is a "Galea type retirement" remains to be seen, but at least he has already announced he is going!

By the sound of things not too many hard facts seem to have emerged yet, other than those who have confirmed they are definitely retiring or what ever.

I have re read the article in today's T & A and I can't find any reference to a list of players who will/have been offered a new deal. It does say that with 17 players out contract, the first team squad will be decimated during the close season.

"With 17 players out of contract, the Bulls’ first-team squad will be decimated during the close-season.

Significantly, however, a number of those – such as Chev Walker , Jarrod Sammut, Manase Manuokafoa, Danny Addy and James Donaldson – are set to be offered new deals.

The Bulls are also busy scouring the market for new signings and Potter is confident there is a core group of talented home-grown players like Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman to build a team around."

[url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportbulls/9931063.Departing_Potter_warns_bad_news_may_follow_good_for_Bradford_Bulls/good news and bad news[/url

I have just read the article from the T & A online. The paragraph which mentions those players names is missing from the article in the paper version. I thought that both versions would be the same.

Decimated means we'll lose one out of every ten - suspect we'll lose more than that just by natural wastage...

I expect it will be secundimation, though I hope it will only be sextimation

Chev
Nas
Donaldson
Sammut
Addy
McAvoy
Pryce
Joseph

Those are the remaining ooc players who's future has yet to be announced. So the article might go on about 17 players being out of contract, but we already know where 9 of the 17 will be going.

who are the 9 who have announced where their going?. Can only think of seven announcements

jeffries,hargreaves,sibbit retirement
elima catalans
burgess souths
crookes assumed hull but dont think its officially announced yet.
briggs featherstone
who are other 2 and where are they going?.

Ainy is one of the other 2. Is Southernwood under contract?

Southerwood contract tro 2013

Sykes contract at Bulls to 2013 on loan to Wakefield 2012.
Needs to be recalled IMO unless his wages are too high or Wakefield will pay a transfer fee.

According to this thread viewtopic.php?f=19&t=509092&tsmp=1347736236 the 17th person out of contract is some guy called Jonny Payne No, I'd not heard of him either

According to this thread viewtopic.php?f=19&t=509092&tsmp=1347736236 the 17th person out of contract is some guy called Jonny Payne No, I'd not heard of him either

dont think ainscough has announced hes going anywhere yet.

I asked him on twitter today and he was pretty honest, just said he had not yet received an offer from the bulls, and he's not accepted an offer from elsewhere yet. He's one of the players i would definitely like to keep - try scoring machine!

Given that Khan and Sutcliffe only got the word we were in SL on Friday, I wouldn't think ANY of the OOC players would have received an offer yet.

I'd expect many of them, including Ainscough, to be getting offers next week. We obviously need to sign more players up ASAP, so I expect some announcements pretty soon

I was quite surprised that he/other players have not already committed themselves to other teams, they must have been nervous about what they would do next year.

I thought we would be in a position where all the OOC players were already signed up elsewhere. Maybe we can keep the team pretty similar next year.

I'd sign all of them (Nas/Sammut to be sorted, of course) as they are a decent set of players who have shown commitment last season and I doubt we'll get better players from elsewhere. Not that I glean all the papers to see who is and isn't available, but Id guess any 'bargains' or top quality guys ooc at other clubs would probably be sorted by now.

I did think there were stories about Pryce having signed elsewhere for next year, was it not true then?