Thats the point. Is it because the club seems to have adopted the air of no ambition.

It could be interesting to see what League Express and Sadler come up with on the story from Aus and if they have managed to obtain any further comment from The Hood.

With regards players wanting to leave, most had spent a long part of their carears at the club and won everything there was to win. A new challenge and chance of more cash meant they moved on. Only Sam has wanted to move on early and thats to move to another country! At the time of Fielden leaving he had gone to Aus rather than Wigan we'd of had all the same debates we've had here.

I'm not too concerned about the ”sales” in previous seasons and don't believe we are a selling club. We're not pursuading our stars to stay though and that is an issue.

After Sam goes we have no marquee player left in my eyes. Who can we use to sell and promote the club?

I'm quite chilled ta. I have simply stated MY OPINION it's you that's got your knickers in a twist over it.

No it's you, really it is. Your reference to me had little to do with Burgess moving down under and was more a personal swipe. You know I know what it was..

Just chillax dude, nobody is getting suckered in, they are just replying to posts.

lets face it, Sam has had his head turned by Russel Crowe and is set to go. It will bring a substantial fee in which if used correctly could signal the start of a much brighter era. The big problem i have is the timing. Who is out there to buy? and will it be like Man UTd who cannot bring anyone in because the price has gone up due to everyone knowing they have money!

We need to move quick and send Sam on his way like Leeds did with MOrley. We should be proud that he is wanted in the NRL and wish him all the best. also, securing him a couple of yeras ago on an extended deal was good business, and maybe this was planned? knowing he would go at the end of 2009 and bring a fee??? perhaps i give hood too much credit?

I'd be amazed if there is much of a fee to be honest - as far as I understand it transfer fees count towards the salary cap down there.

The fee will no doubt be undisclosed, which means you cant buy much more than a box of matches with it.

Apparently not.

They don't count on the cap? We might get something the, it was an Aussie league fan who told me they did, though it is so rare a fee is paid he said he wasn't 100% sure.

You'll have to forgive me, because I have no idea where I read it, but in some Aussie press Shane Richardson said that the fee wouldn't count on the cap.

Would there be a sense of irony if he eventually came back and signed for Leeds only for GH to discover that he had a contractual arrangement with the Bulls that resulted in a court case and an out of court settlement...



It's a shame to see one of your best players leaving at a time when your club is already at a pretty low ebb, but you should never keep any player who does not want to be at your club, and the only thing left to do then is get the best deal you can for them (see Newlove and Fielden).

Hope you can improve the squad (over and above those already named as additions) for next year. It would be good to have some regular competition from this side of the hill.

Yeah, I remember how much Southstander loved the competition we provided in the first decade of Super League.

Hello???......Michael Platt???

Can have Fielden back if you like.

Whilst I've been sat in the background for the majority of this Burgess debate, as I always felt he'd leave at the end of 2010 (and I still hold a few shreds of hope this remains the case), the stories that are breaking in Australia seem to suggest Sam will not be wearing a Bulls shirt next year, which I find disappointing on so many levels.

If he wants to play in Oz fair enough, but is it right for him to go at this age? Does he owe Bradford at least another year? Will he sign some sort of agreement that will see him return to us? These are all questions that remain to be answered over the coming weeks. Our silent chairman Mr Hood has questions and signings to repsond to, how does he seriously expect fans to get season tickets if we're letting the likes of Morrison and Burgess to leave and replacing them with.. er... help?

Please. No.

If you were referring to leaving the starting line-up..... Worrincy?

Oh god I'm getting the shivers.

[url=http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/rabbitohs-sign-english-prop/story-e6frexqr-1225779913951Update[/url

An update that was posted 6 pages back




But I appreciate unless you were online at the time, you won't have seen it due to the 6 pages of discussion that followed. I certainly wouldn't have gone back and read it all!

Yay, looks like once again the Bradford board fail in on field matters. it's all very well saying we're financially stable. But how long will that state of afairs continue if we have another season like this one and keep getting rid of our star names?

the board should have been all over this story. head off the press, put your own spin on things. accentuate the positives and push the negatives to the side.

but once again the silence from Odsal is deafening and speaks far more than the board ever will

If this has been mentioned elsewhere, I apologise as there is a lot to get through but I seem to remember af trying to tell us all how Burgess wanted to stay with the Bulls, primarily because of a certain Mr S McNamara. How does this theory work now then?

But what can you say to this?
"Yes we're selling one of our brightest stars, who doesn't want to stay here, and we've got nothing to announce because we haven't got any replacement let alone a suitable one"

They will only start commenting once they've got something positive to say and I'd say that will be multiple signings rather than just announcing a straight replacement for Sam who'll obviously be directly compared and probably found wanting.

If Sam goes the only way this can be a step forward is if whatever fee we get is used to address the obvious weakness' in the squad and that doesn't mean stockpiling fullbacks.

Knowing the board we'll get Fielden and it will be spun as the "returning hero"

We are a bit like Arsenal who pretty much have to sell a big name each year in order to balance the books. It is just a shame that they got a smashing big arena to play at for their outlay and we still have nothing more than a pile of plans and paperwork and a team in complete decline.

What's worrying me a little is the "balance" of the squad for next year.

Macca will have planned for Burgess to be still around in 2010 and thus has not been on the look out for a front rower. Now we're looking as though he's on his way and we're probably hanging fire on signing overseas backs as he sees the Burgess replacement as a bigger issue.

We have two overseas spots available, both of which were looking as though were going to go on backs Kearney and possibly Walker - now we've probably got to ditch one of those to obtain a replacement for Sam - possibly Moi Moi as there are no suitable UK players available - please nobody say Paul King!

If we do receive a fee, who can we spend this on? Danny Brough could be an option but personally I don't see it happening. Shenton wasn't interested last time around and possible targets Myler and Atkins have already jumped ship to Wire.

Add to this we're probably losing Semi to Union and we will be VERY light in the backs department.

Halley, Sheriffe, Platt, Nero, Sykes and Deacon - and I think that's it for recognised first teamers - Crookes has not established himself in the main squad yet and he has just been out for a season with injury.

OK we'll have some salary cap to play with but there's not too many quality players around for us to chase who are UK fed trained.