Rumour confirmed by the club. Jake Mullaney has left the Bulls and returned home to Australia. www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/news/pos ... ly-reasons

Rumour confirmed by the club. Jake Mullaney has left the Bulls and returned home to Australia. www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/news/pos ... ly-reasons

Big big loss. Personally I'd like I see Clare has the full back now.

I'm really at a loss as to why the club have announced this the day before our season launch party?! I suppose there is never a good time to drop the bombshell that one of your top stars is leaving. Perhaps the club will be announcing his replacement tomorrow?

We really do need at least one quality SH now as we can't call on him anymore. Massive loss as he was one of our "quality" players. Not good news for ticket sales for those waverers.

Bollocks.

Our 2nd best attacking option. He'll be very sorely missed. Prob Clare or Campbell to play there when fit.

So much for him fitting in at halfback too.

Hope there's better news tomorrow.

Great, that's one less option now for half back as well...

At least its official now rather then just a rumour.

I'm hoping timing of announcement just before collection day is deliberate. Case of getting bad news out of way before giving us some good news tomorrow re HB to overshadow this. Although given the evidence so far of Ferres' poor PR skills I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get any sigining announcements tomorrow.

That was my thoughts also, surely the club will have at least one signing up their sleeve for tomorrow?

Or maybe it was always scheduled for today, as late as possible before the supporters get to the club to ask the awkward question? Least impact on sales announcing it now and not 3 weeks ago?

Definitely a huge loss for the club.

The club really need to pull out the stops now and get in a good quality replacement - there should be space available on the cap now as I would imagine that the loss of Siejka and Mullaney would free up a decent chunk of the cap

There's clearly room for [at least another signing now. Since the rumour had been around for a while I guess the club has known for the same amount of time, so maybe there is another player [hopefully a half to be announced tomorrow?

If they wanted to avoid awkward questions tomorrow they could have just waited til Monday to make announcement.

I disagree, it's announced now, they don't have to deny the rumours, if they hadn't announced it they would have had to lie or announce it!

Well whatever, I have no issue with them limiting the negativity it could cause. It's just made the need for a good quality halfback even greater now. If we've got a deal done on one then I expect we'll hear about it at the members event tomorrow.

Our squad as it currently stands does not have a cat in hell's chance of getting back into SL. We need to replace last season's 1 and 7, with not much time left to do it.

Lee smith and Jarod sammut, both available, or so it seems?

As it stands I agree we've no chance. But look how much our squad changed throughout he season this year. The full back role we can see how it pans out with Clare, Thomas and I'm sure we could sign someone up later in season.

HB is a different story. They are like gold dust as it is and the chances of a decent one being available later on in season are slim. Not to mention allowing them time to gel.

Hopefully we've got someone signed up

Lee Smith is currently on trial at Hull FC.

Best get in quick then!

If Hull FC are after Smith, can we get Naughton back?

This is obviously not good news for us, but I hope it works out for jake back down under and I'd like to thank him for his efforts, was always exciting to watch.

Naughton would be good but id really doubt he'd come back to play in the championship. I'd be tempted to see how thomas goes at 1, and keep Claire on the wing which I think is his best position. Makes the signing of the full back from Batley clearer if this has been on the cards for a while.

mullaney doesnt feature in the booklet in membership pack so must have been sorted when that was printed which was presumably a couple of weeks ago which ties in with when rumours started.

At least the booklet still lists Purtell as a centre and not a half

Was wondering when this bit of news would surface.

From talking to Jake personally he was always in two minds about going home at the end of season gone.

Unfortunately the Harry Siejka/Steve Ferres incident was the major factor in the decision making process.

Brothers in arms and all that. A huge blow to Lowes' preparations.

I didn't give a monkeys about losing Siejka. I'd rather play a centre or 13 at scrum half than him. But losing Mullaney is a huge blow. He, along with Gaskell and O'Brien was one of the very few players we had that could change the game and inject that bit of pace and flair just when we needed it.
The other fullback options, while ok, are nowhere near the quality that Mullaney was.