If Sam's worth 200k...

[url=http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/sport/nrl/story/0,26746,26346041-5016290,00.htmlLink[/url

There is far too much press and coverage in this story for it not to be true. It looks certain we are after Orford, if we get him is another story. I never thought in a million years Deacon would leave the Bulls (again if true), i always thought he would end up on the coaching staff at some point.

As much as I'd love that to be the case I was think more like 50k....

Orford is the sort of player we have needed since 2005.

Is it a coincidence that at the end of the Orford article, there is the comment about Sa signing for the Dragons? Could this have been the NZ player many said we were negotiating with? If so, did we get rebuffed by him and turn to Orford instead?

Last question - if not from overseas, where will we get the additional three-quarter we so desperately need?

Crookes?

BETER SCRUM HALF ME ORFORD

Which sources are they?

Crap ones admittedly! The Sun and a hundred messageboard "experts".

Maybe, but it seems a bit much to be asking him to step straight into a starting role with his limited experience. He will be coming back from a major injury, and in a three-quarter line that will probably have Sheriffe & Reardon on the wings, it's not as if he has a huge amount of class around him to look after him and bring him on.

maybe weve had a look around and there isnt a suitable available. so weve decided to address the other obvious weakness in the squad and sort the halves out. then look for a again next year. in the meantime we have sykes/platt and crookes to cover the spot. platt looked increasingly useful at the more time he had their and crookes is a bit of an unknown quantity so this time next year we may n o longer need to look for a anyway.

plus if theirs any truth in the rumour about signing ryan gaunt from leeds then we get orford for a couple of years as a short term solution and he can help bring gaunt upto 1st team level as the longer term solution to the halves.

Cant see us getting a fee for Deacon, if anything it will be a mutual release.

Theyre the best sort

Agree. We seem to have a pretty good relationship with the Wigan board and may have been working on a deal for sometime. I think this potential deal has benefits for both clubs. We get a marquee signing that some fans have been calling for and a proven quality scrum half. I'd feel much more confident of a top six finish with the Ox leading us around the park! Anyway back to my sun lounger... hope the weather is good back home

According to 606 the deal's done and dusted.

Not sure how reliable the source is!

Red hot - Orford won't even realise he's left Manly.

I'll be happy if we get Orford but I don't want deacs to leave, i know he wasn't good last year but towards the back end he was quite good, I always thought he'd finish his career at Bradford but i saw him in Wigan two weeks ago for the aussie match maybe he was tieing up the deal.

Or maybe he was just going to the match...

Orford or Deacon? Answers itself. I'll be sad to see Deacon leave, but I hope he will one day return as part of the backroom staff. Could be speculation, but it sounds like there's some truth in it. Whatever happens, Paul Deacon will be a Bulls legend and will still be remembered by many of us as the player that led us to five successive GF's.

I for one will be sad to see deacs leave, if thats the case, been a true servant to the club. As regardas orford the only thing against him is his age. For mine i'd rather see us try land brough and bring in a quality centre, then nero could cover back row, which looks thin to me.
B e gentle wi mi its me first time

Good first post mate.

Tbf he's roughly same age as Deacon, and it's fair to say, he is a better player. You're right, Deacon has been a great servant and I will also be sad to see him go but that time always has to come.

I think we'll be fine in the backrow as we have Hallcoming in for Morrison, Solomona hardly played anyway, plus Donno and Whitehead look very capable at SL level.

I do think we need another centre but if there's no quality available then halfback would be my next choice, I don't think it'll be too dire if we have Platt and Sykes fighting for one centre spot and Crookes covering the other. FWIW, Platt did excellent at centre considering he's only ever played 3 or 4 matches there, so worth a shout imo.

Surely we are in real need of a quality winger?

[url=http://www.mwse.com.au/default.aspx?s=article-display&id=21248&25-man-first-grade-squad-announcedthis[/url would tend to blow orford rumour out of the water. cant see manly announcing him as part of their 2010 squad today unless its a massive piece of mis-direction.

How can they confirm Orford, Williams and Robertson when there not even contracted to the club.