No but it might be next seasons. He's signed a 3.5 year deal hasn't he? Peanuts this year for the salary cap but an increase next?

Indeed. Which also gives credence to my point that it won't happen until next year at the every earliest.

I thought salary cap meant your wage averages out. So a club can't get away with paying someone 100 quid a week one year and 2000 quid a week the following year.

AFAIK Leeds Rhinos had to make a choice between keeping Burgess/ Scruton for salary cap reasons. Probably a bad choice in hindsight for me, but at the time Burgess was firing. Scruton has improved loads whereas burgess has kept at same level.

tbh it doesn't look like sculthorpe will ever pull on a bradford shirt. therefore we are short in terms of props. most people are of the opinion that crossley isn't up to standard and both younger burgess' are still a way off from being ready for SL. so, if we had the chance to sign him then I'd say get him signed.

but i'll believe it when i see it

Before this gets shot down by Leeds fans, it's not an accusation and I'm just thinking out loud, but they have just brought Lee Smith back in and so the question of how they have managed it under the salary cap must be raised. Could it be that they are looking to offload a forward (where they are pretty well covered if their squad is fully fit) to accomodate a new three quarter (where they are not) and if so then would such a deal have had to be completed prior to Smith's arrival?

To be clear again, I'm not suggesting that anyone is breaking the salary cap here. It's not Warrington after all.....

under the live cap they wouldnt be allowed to register smith without having cap space afaik. They may have an issue going forward with some of younger players getting a pay rise due to number of 1st team appearances, which they are having to play due to injuries to senior players. So they may want to create some cap space for this reason.
That said the comments on leeds board were along lines of burgess wanting to leave rather than leeds wanting to offload him.

Leeds can keep Burgess, Scruton is a much better prop.

ah, but the scruton back to leeds bit was added by someone on the leeds board as to what they would LIKE to see.
this thread is about having both scruton AND burgess at bradford. and that would be a good thing for us as we'd have 3 seasoned props to share the work that at the moment lynch and scruton are having to do

FFS SAKE SCRUTON ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE!

I heard we're swapping him for L Burgess, anybody seen this?

yeah iv read that on a forum somwhere

If Burgess is unsettled at the Rhino's then we should be interested IMO. He is a decent SL Prop who still have some improvement left in him and could be a great interchange player for us. Unlikely to happen anytime soon though for reason stated above.

Why would Scruton want to leave to go down to a team languishing near the foot of the table?

Personally I think Luke Burgess is just a big plodder in the mould of Koppy. We need something that provides impact and not just more plodders.

I for one rate luke, would be a vast improvement on koppy, as he carries the ball much stronger. He's in a dip in form at the mo but you could say that about alot at leeds. When he was on top form he's a line breaker which is something we need.

That's fair comment. To be honest, I like Koppy; he puts the effort in and and runs hard but he suffers from the same problem as one or two over the last few years at Odsal (Rob Parker, for instance) of not being quite big enough for prop nor quick enough for second row. It's disappointing for lads in their position but physical factors seem to rule them out from ever being 'top class' in the game, despite their best efforts. Of course, we mustn't forget that cap restrictions will always mean that players who aren't quite 'top class' will always figure in all (well, nearly all

) squads.

I still feel though, for reasons already mentioned, like players being contracted and fees involved, not to mention priorities probably laying elsewhere AND the fact that we still have a prop yet to play, that this whole idea is a non starter.

Koppy is plenty big enough for Prop at 6ft4! He just doesn't seem able to make best use of his size and dominate the opposition. He doesn't make too many errors or give away many penalties but he'll never make that game breaking play either. If we're sticking with a smallish squad next year, we'll need to think carefully before offering him another deal.

Are you mad? The lad is a Giant, to much of a BFG though IMO. No nastiness about him and doesn't use his size and weight to his advantage.

scrutes doubled his money signing for the bulls and is the only reason he left so why would he come back ?

Luke Burgess certainly makes ground when he takes the ball up and has a good offload too. Offensively I really rate him. Potentially a great impact player if used well.

Defensively he's got some real issues. He plants his feet and gets stepped very easily, he's not the quickest big bloke around either.

I think he certainly would add some grunt to the side but he's not the complete front rower by any means.

Yes and no, hes on more money now, but contract offered by leeds included add ons, ie appearances due to injuries, still wouldnt have been on as much at leeds but wouldnt be double.

Scrutes has steped up to the mark this year, i think he has more to offer, we need to keep him for a few more years yet

That's not the way I recall it quite the opposite in fact, no Leeds fans I know wanted him to leave but fully understood his reasons, I even remember being on here trying to convince Bulls fans he was a cracking player when you were less than impressed by the signing.

Very good assessment, he can't tackle further than his arms reach at times.