I can't see Whitehead playing for Dewsbury, and I would suspect FC will know this. FC's comments are insinuating to Whitehead and his agent that the Bulls are prepared to keep him until an agreement is met.

Whitehead will not play for Dewsbury, in fear of collecting a serious injury, which would scupper any chance of a transfer.

FC just wants all to know what the Bulls are prepared to do if this drags on

I think that if he came back in the right circumstances it shows that the club is big enough to accept that one mistake doesn't make a player persona non grata for ever.

As no-one I've ever met, ever has been known to go through life without making a mistake [indeed, it's from those mistakes that we often learn most, I'd guess the other players would be happy to know they were in a caring environment and not one run by some dictatorial fundamentalist, ready to chop off their fingers for the slightest error.

'course, I could be wrong.

If he returns, FC would have to make sure he just doesn't waltz back into the team at the expense of one of our other 2nd rowers.

He would have to prove his worth to his team mates and the fans again before we can all begin to get behind him.

Interesting choice of terminology there.

Er, well, yes you may [ifeel[/i that way but that is rather out of the Basil Fawlty School of Management. There are ways of dealing with humans in your employ that are more likely to benefit the organisation than a damn good thrashing.



Whitehead, like any player, needs to do whatever his employers reasonably ask him to do. he can't refuse to turn out, he would risk being in breach of his contract.


All as it should be, too, but it would be an easy enough scenario to sort out, if Whitehead had second thoughts. I think such things matter more to fans than the actual players, who all entirely recognise that they are in it mainly for the money, and all do what's best for them, while they can. I don't see any issues. I mean, look at Wayne Rooney; he hands in a transfer request at 4pm most days, but he still seems to be on great terms with his teammmates, and playing well.

Disagree with this - Elliot has a contract to play for the Bulls, no other club. He can also state he is contracted to play in Super League.

If the club forces him to play championship rugby, this could be a sign of being forced out by the current management, and he could claim constructive dismissal. (less convinced with this as he's already stated he wants out)

Employment law is pretty tight when challenged, a player is contracted to do what his contact asks. Any grey area (such as "any other reasonable request made by the employer"icon_wink.gif will not be enforceable. I can't imagine his contract specifically states being loaned out to a championship club.

IMO, Elliot's management will be advising him not to risk injury.

I doubt Elliot's management could organise an orgy in a brothel TBH.

If Elliott's 'management' are really having difficulty finding another club I'd guess they might actually be suggesting he patches up his differences with the Bulls and puts himself in the 'shop window'. As I suggested earlier, if he were to come back in a motivated frame of mind, it would be to everyone's advantage, even if it were to be only temporarily.

Wrong and wrong. You don't seem to understand the basic point, that a player is on a Fixed Term contract, and the club agrees to pay him £X for Y years. That's it. Dismissal doesn't come into it. As long as neither party breaches the contract, then they have to pay and he has to play. I haven't seen it, but you are surely not suggesting any player has a contract GUARANTEEING first team rugby??

Are you seriously telling us you think that all the players in SL clubs' first team squads who don't get a regular game could theoretically refuse to play at all, or claim this amounted to some sort of a dismissal? Well, that must make picking the team tricky especially at places like Wigan and Warrington.

"Sorry Shane, I know you want to pick Tomkins again but you need to give A.N.Stiff some regular game time so he doesn't take us for dismissal". Is that really how you think it works?


IMO his agent ("management"?

) has feck all to do with the contractual relationship between player and club. They might advise him to have porridge for breakfast, it would be equally relevant.

Widening the argument there I think FA. My argument is the player is contracted to the club, therefore is contracted to play for the club. I never mentioned a any dispute relating to not getting picked, only being farmed out against their will to a dual registration club in a lesser competition. IMO, this is a separate argument.



Completely agree - that's why we never had to pay Awford for shopping round whilst he was on contract. Agent Mimmis never said a word to said player, and he never interfered in any way. TBH, I got the impression agent Mimmis may have adised his client to eat numerous bowls of porridge.......

Looking at the RFL player rules, there is a slight conflict on the subject of dual registration. Rule "G" under Dual Registration states player needs to approve the move, and sign a document confirming so (which would indicate he had agreed to dual register), and then there's rule "N" which states the club will confirm which fixture the player plays in.

At the end of the day if Whitehead would have to play for Dewsbury and his agent advises him not to play, Whitehead may wake the morning of the game and find that his hamstring is a little tight, in fact, he may struggle to walk to the ground. The Bulls could then send a medical expert to test Whitehead's claim, to find that he is in fact struggling to walk, and when he inspects the area causing discomfort Whitehead may scream in pain. See where i'm going with this?

For those wanting an aid to help them sleep tonight, players rules are found below;

[urlhttp://rflmedia.therfl.co.uk/docs/Section%20C1%20-%20Players.pdf[/url

Well, any training and game time will be beneficial to Whitehead at the moment.

As it stands, the Bulls have budgeted for his contract, so although they'd be down a player, there's nothing to stop them saying "until we receive the required transfer fee, you can sit at home and rot until your contract is up".

If he'd signed a 12 month deal, maybe that wouldn't be such a hardship for a player. But he's signed up until 2016. 3 years with no top level rugby? That's your career over with. Certainly in terms of getting a top 4 team to take you on.

I still feel that, although it's petty and spiteful, that the club shouldn't even let him train with the juniors or allow him to go on loan to Dewsbury. Mind you, he'd be under Morrison there. He might knock a bit of loyalty back into Whitehead.

FA, if you [imust[/i always have to have people agree with you then you really should not always talk so much twaddle.

I agree with FA

Well that is me and you finished Roger.

Well that is me and you finished Roger.





Don't be like that baby x

I think you’re confused.
1. You haven’t seen Whitehead’s contract so you don’t know what’s in it. Therefore you don’t know whether the club can dictate to a player that he is farmed out to a dual reg club.
2. However it’s even less complicated than that, since he is not a slave, and cannot be “forced to play Championship rugby” or indeed forced to do anything at all. The only issue is, does any refusal amount to a breach of his contract.
3. There is no sensible distinction between being farmed out to a dual reg club, and being told he’ll not either play or even train with the first team, in the terms you were discussing, namely “being forced out by the current management”.
4. In any case I am struggling to understand how it could be concluded they were “forcing out” a player who, despite being under contract, has very publicly slagged the club and insisted he wants to leave. Maybe you could help. And explain that one, as it beats the hell out of me.


Now you need to be very careful. Awford produced medical evidence that led to events turning out the way they did. I do hope you aren’t claiming this was fake, and something like a scam engineered by him and his agent? I’m not sure whoever provided the medical report would be too impressed.

As for shopping around, surely, that is precisely the full time job of every player’s agent? As in “perfectly normal”? What do you think agents actually do?


… is a waste of time as while the player is bound by them, they are not his contract with the club, which is a completely different thing…
.. unless you actually read it, in which case it says no such thing


Yes, you’ve moved on from casting serious aspersions about Awford to suggesting that Whitehead might get round any request to play by faking injury and being able to fool doctors. I’m not sure he’d be happy at any suggestion he might act in this deceitful way nor do I think for a second that the Bulls’ medical staff are so stupid that they would fall for any such ridiculous ploy.

There are those who succeed and get it right...

... and then there are epic fails


They don't have to, but in fact I find only the people who are right ever agree with me.

, though this cleared up almost instantaneously when exposed to the miracle working, physios at Saints...

They were semi-pro back then, of course, and I'd guess the contracts were much different to the current ones.

Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eliot can play if he apologizes???

I thought Tommy Cooper had passed away???

Eliot doesn't have to do anything now does he?

I'll say this only once:-

Eliot would not have put himself in this position without having another deal lined up.The fact that its not public yet is an irrelevance and what really caused this situation in the first place?

Most are spouting cr*p without having one FACT about what's behind it all.Its entertaining though reading the keyboard warriors coming up with their conclusions/solutions to it all.Eliot has talent and someone ELSE wants to harness that TALENT,that's it.But what was the initial cause that made Eliot.a bradford lad, say "Im Free",that's what you should be mulling over imo.

A new club/challenge awaits Eliot,time for the Board and our "Honorary" Chairman to get things moving in the right direction.They took the applause,now its time to deliver.Call me picky but,"No decent signings" for next season is not the way I would try and increase season tickets sales.
Was not convinced BEFORE,but what has happened since makes me even more sceptical.
They'll do well to make the top 8,but even if they did they'd be out first game.
Long,long hard road ahead imo.

Elliott, if you're going to post on this forum at least spell your own name right



Good luck wherever you end up but you might want to work on that tackling technique.

No one said there won't be any "decent" signings next year, IIRC it was "marquee" signings that we couldn't afford.

And yes, of course it is going to be a long hard road ahead [wasn't that a John Mayall album back in the sixties? that's what we signed up for, and be honest, on reduced competition money and no Mr Moneybags, how could it be any different?

If we're talking contracts, it would be interesting to know the disciplinary options in a standard RL contract.

Something similar to the football option of "fine of up to 2weeks wages for refusing to train in reserves" would change things a little.

I have no idea if RL have those kind of clauses in their standard contracts although they are fairly widespread in football where training with the reserves is seen as a standard punishment for various offences.

Which kind of proves my point Re Keyboard warriors.They post things as if they know what they are talking about.

Most of the rubbish is just made up rhetoric.

Lets see how we go.