At the time this first all came to light, it seemed he hadn't signed a contract and Hull were waiting for a medical first.
If you read the offical statement on the Hull website, you will see that he has now had that medical and has now signed that contract, which has been accepted by the RFL and is legally binding.
Hull originally said the medical was at the end of the season, but I presume as things unfolded the way they did, they decided to do the medial early to ensure they got him signed up before any change of mind.

Therefore as things stand, Jake is a Hull FC player for 2017 and 2018.
The contract will take effect from 1st December, by which point Jake will be 22 and therefore we are not required to pay any fee.
If Hudderfield want him as a player from next season, they will have to buy him out of a 2 year contract.

The league rules are that if we don't offer him a contract you can sign him without compensation, if we do and we did and he signs for you before his 22nd birthday and rejects our offer then you have to pay us compensation.

Doesn't matter when that contract starts its when its signed hence your original 'heads of agreement' document. The whole idea of the '22' rule is to compensate the club who have developed him.

The rules are in a post on the Hull board and are fairly straight forward.

Connor is clearly a Hull FC player 2017 & 2018 providing the clubs agree a fee or abide by a tribunal amount if they don't.

Obviously if Hull don't compensate Huddersfield they would have the option to offer him a new contract.

What a mess. Both clubs, the player agent and the RFL need to get this sorted behind closed doors to avoid any further embarrassment.

The problem is that the wishy washy RFL don't state which date takes priority because it is a protection clause to compensate a club for developing the player the contract signing date should surely take precedence but as usual with the RFL there's no black and white only grey.

Interesting whether it's Hulls idea or Connors agent ??

I have no idea who is I the right here.

Given the track record the club's HR people have, I have no confidence that it's the Giants.

The only thing I would say is that if it turns out that Connor has signed for Hull, I wouldn't pay a penny to get him back and I'd tell him to spend the remainder of the summer enjoying some gardening leave. And then move on.

played centre for siddal and scholarship, moved to full back in 19's

no love lost between these two clubs

not long ago they pulled out of a pre season friendly after learning they were to play us in game 1 and i think we had already lost a game to being cancelled

then further back you have the pearson / davy saga trying to buy the football club

seems to me FC have painted themselves into a corner by trying to be a bit snide about getting out of the fee. Either he has signed for hull already in which case a fee is owed to us and we leave him be. Or he hasn't signed in which case there's no reason for any other club to come in with a better offer upon hearing a rumour he's going to leave. Either way it's dissapointing from both clubs. Do we really want to conduct business by pinching others academy products? Not good omens for the young players this league so desparately needs to produce.

didnt huddersfield use underhand tactics to sign craig kopchack (sp)


glass houses and all that.......

The RFL have confirmed that hull FC have registered Jake Connor for 2017.

How have Hull painted themselves into a corner? They were approached by connor's agent as he wanted a move, agreed a deal, signed him, and registered it with the RFL. If hudds and/or the player have been trying to worm him out of that deal I fail to see how Hull have done anything wrong at all. He will still be registered as a hudds player on his 22nd birthday so in what way should Hull be required to pay any fee?

You are wrong there is no grey area. it clearly states in the operational rules that,

NO COMPENSATION FOR PLAYERS OVER COMPENSATION EXPIRY DATE
C1:3:12
A Player's previous Club shall not have any right to a compensation fee in relation to any
Player who has reached or passed his Compensation Expiry Date at the date his contract
with the new club comes into effect.

So as you see its when the contract comes into affect, not when it is signed, In Connor's case the contract comes into affect after his compensation expiry date.

No idea what is going to happen, but we certainly don't owe you a fee as a poster has been claiming along, weirdly it now looks possible like Hull could claim a fee, although if I was Hull I would let Connor stay at Hull if that's what he wants to do.

One thing the resolution needs to happen fast as it will effect both teams recruitment.

Don't disagree with your assertion regarding interpretation but I'd suggest that if the RFL amended that rule to be when the deal is signed, which is essentially when it is effective anyway, we could avoid all this stupidity. But then that would be far too logical for the RFL! Better to argue semantics and exploit loopholes to give each other the runaround.

How can it be effective now when he's still playing for you? Latest reports are that he told Hull yesterday he wants to stay with hudds so down to the clubs to agree an appropriate fee I would think

If it wasn't effective then surely he would be free to change his mind without recourse?
Got to say I think holding out for a fee would be a bit of a liberty. Both Connor's agent and Hull FC exploited a loophole to avoid paying a fee in the first place and now Connor's changed his mind. Chalk it down to experience and move on I say.

Let me just try to get this straight in my mind. ( bearing in mind I have been one of the Giants biggest critics over some of their past dealings )

Giants offer Conner a new deal worth more money that his current one, Conner turns this down and Hull claim he has signed for them ( in some form ) which Conner confirms. Conner then changes his mind and says he wants to stay with the Giants. If the RFL have registered him as a Hull player ( which seems to be the case ) then Conner is a Hull player. It seems to me the Giants have done nothing wrong at this point, so they can either walk away and forget the whole thing, leaving Hull with a player who doesn't want to be with them, Or they can make some sort of offer for Conner, as can any other club, Depends how much they want t him I suppose. Have I got that right.

It seems more than a bit perverse that we have a situation where a club pays a transfer fee to keep a player who hasn't left! But that's what we've come to expect from our administrators these days!

If Connor really wants to stay, he should pay part of the transfer fee as it is him that is messing both clubs about, seems strange to change his mind, if it's the full back thing surely he knew when he signed he was unlikely to play there with Hull have Shaul.

I suspect that he is only motivated by money, and not ambition, one of the reasons for success this year has been team spirit, You have to question if he is the right character to fit into our squad.

As I've said this needs sorting and quick so both teams can recruit good for next year.

Reading between the lines from his Sky interview when picking up the MOM award, I think he had issues with Paul Anderson and they were a big factor in his decision to look for a move.

To be honest I think the talent in the Hull and Huddersfield squads is pretty even overall. Obviously Hull are having a good season while Huddersfield have had a stinker, fair play to you etc, but Hull are not suddenly World beaters. If you look at recent seasons' final league positions, I don't necessarily think it would be fair to question his ambition for deciding he wants to stay at Huddersfield. You could be accused of sour grapes.

Hull's squad is far better than hudds

We have been poor the last few, while you have had some of the best seasons in your recent history and not even come close to winning anything. I think we are on the up and have a real chance of winning something the next two seasons. Hudds is all up in the air, likely to play championship this season, who knows what the new coach will be like, if he wants to play in big games and in front of big crowds the next few years there is only one choice, he needs to look at what Crabtree and Brough have won in there careers.

Please don't do that, nearly spat my coffee all over the keyboard and split my sides laughing!!

Are we going to have a bunfight about which side is the least crap in recent history?


If we are talking about winning things, ambition would be joining Wigan or Leeds (oops!). Anyway, whatever happens with Connor will happen and I hope Hull do well this season for Yorkshire.