Not sure where u get tht from.....basically same age and same position but brett has played MUCH more rep footy....i know it doesnt definately mean he is better but it points to it! i hope he comes back cos we only got cain as a half!

To be honest, I don't know why they bother having the rule. As you say, every club ignores it and just speaks to players covertly. Why not just scrap it and let the talking that's already going on just be legit?

If the current squad was the final one (even if we included potential signings of Elima & Dowes), I would expect Kearney would be the first choice 6.

Plenty of deals are secured before the first, but none will involve players that clubs are determined to keep. Look at what happened with us and Solomona when we signed him from Wakefield.

Either way, claiming that the start of september is too late to sign a player for the following season is ridiculous.

I won't mention the clubs or player involved as I wouldn't want to incriminate anyone, but I certainly know of one case.

John Smith (an assumed name of course) agreed to sign for another club, well before September. He signed the contract and it was put into a safe until September came and it could be announced. John then changed his mind after that due to a better offer from his current club and signed that too. The current club then announced he had signed a contract extension for them.

Of course, because the contract he signed with the new club was against the September 1st rules, it pretty much just had to be ripped up, because if the new club had come out and said "hang on, he's already signed a deal with us", they would have been in breach of the rules.

I know it happened in one case and I'd be amazed if that doesn't happen quite often every year with loads of different players and clubs.

We don't just want to sign 'a' player.

Of course there are lots of players still out of contract but the better ones (like the ones we might be happy to have as a replacement for Matt) will have pretty much been sorted, either with a new deal at their present club or with a new club, by now. Unless we were to drop lucky with a signing (on the back of another deal going wrong, perhaps) we will be snookered now. If you can't work that out it's not me being ridiculous, mate.