Either 1 or 2 years after his spell at Wakefield. Remember the headlines in the T&A with quotes from the great man, needless to say he found a summer relaxing in Queensland more attractive than the winter season in Odsal

Hugo Porta from Argentina RU was another signing we were going to make

I remember Peter Fox saying that the efforts to sign Lewis and Porta were just a con and weren't serious.

He didnt get on with some of the club directors.

Shame Steve Ferres failed to talk Jordan Tansey into joining you instead of going on loan to Hudds, things might have turned out differently had he done so.

Makes you realize we've been conned for a long time haven't we!

Turned out differently how? We had enough average players who weren't good enough already. One more wouldn't have made much difference.

Is my mind playing tricks on me, or did we try sign Paul Sironen

We did but he fancied a stint in France instead.

Weren't you in the running for Ali Lauitiiti? Would've had the money if you'd not signed Harris...

Or maybe the order of events was the other way around: Leeds signed Ali then Bulls signed Harris?

Don't recall us being in for Ali.

No neither do I, though I certainly wouldn't have minded Ali in his pomp!

I have always sworn I saw it on sky sports news that we had signed him. Always thought it was a figment of my imagination but seen it mentioned once or twice over the years

Yes I remember us being linked with Ali, just before signing for Leeds.

We were also heavily linked with one of the Andersons, cant remember if it was Louie or Vinny?

Chris Walker also from Gold Coast Titans in about 2008/2009?

I seem to remember Wayne Bartrim being linked when Jimmy retired.

It was Vinnie Anderson IIRC.

Chris Walker too! You've got a good memory.

Bartrim ended up at Cas I think.

Another one dredged up from the memory bank, Jamie Thackeray chose Leeds over us when he left Hull. He was paraded as their signing when we played them at Headingly, and given squad number 29, same number as Fielden for us who just left to join Wigan and Thackeray was going to replace. Got to hand it to Hetherington, he was/is very good at twisting the knife!!

Didn't we also nearly sign Nick Zisti, but signed his brother by mistake who hadn't played since he was 12

will have been on our radar in someone's imagination, so why not!

Didnt Walker end up at Catalans after not signing for us? remember a bit of grief around us pulling out of the deal

Yeah he ended up at Catalans. Had a drink problem. They do attract the wayward Aussies don't they?

Yeah, greater atraction than us in some cases..

Remember it being all over sky sports news at the time, we had signed Victor Tordoff from ourselves (Dudley Hill) massive news at the time was being chased by everybody. Was told he would be moulded into our future 13 for years to come only to get offered a miserly full time contract he couldn't afford to accept. Fell out with the game after that, had every bit as much or a little more potential than John Bateman back in the day

We pulled out of the walker deal because Orford came available.

Not actually the case.

I was told the story of the Walker none-signing by Mr Duffy himself.

What happened was that Bradford were in talks with him to sign and had sent him an agreed upon contract for him to sign. This was returned with a number of amendments.
Also, while other Aussie signings were in almost daily contact with the club about their moves with regards to where are they going to live, which are the good schools for their kids to go to and the million and one other things that you need to consider if you're moving halfway around the world there was virtually no contact from Walker.
It was at this point, the club had a call from a couple of NRL clubs all asking the same questions ie "Are you signing Walker and do you know that his agent is hawking him around clubs" so it became clear that he was clearly trying to get an NRL deal but keep the Bradford offer as a backup.

So the club pulled their offer. I can't recall him really setting SL alight while at Catalan so I don't think it was much of a missed opportunity from Bradford's perspective

You've chased some rubbish that's for sure.

And signed some as well to be fair...