I'm not sure who's leaving this year. aCan someone clarify, Jefferies is off to Celtic and Tadulala is off to Union and Newton and Morrison are off to Wakefield but is anyone else off?

Solomona apparently on his way to Warrington.
Burgess to NRL is another
Both rumours though for now.

Has anyone heard the rumour about McNamara joining the navy?

Was talking to a guy in a bar last night and asked him what he thought of McNamara, he said he though he will like it in the navy but would not give any more details. Is he too old though? I suppose he is from Hull so will have lots of maritime experience

Seems an odd line of work for an RL coach.

Edit: Maybe he will coach the navy RL team

Yep, when i dared to say a few months ago that newton, morrison and jefferies would be all leaving I was basically told i was an idiot and why would we let our best and second best players go.
Also cook is going, been told kopzak has signed a new deal, but same bloke who told me said we were signing oloughlin last year to play stand off.

koppy isnt out of contract this year, although we may have got him to sign an extension early.

I didn't think that either Jeffries or Tadulala were confirmed?

In fact it's not at all clear that Tad is leaving at all - he's supposed to be hoping for a one year extension.

I believe the only confirmed departures are Morrison, Newton and Solomona - although there'll obviously be others

Solomona hasn't actually been officially confirmed as far as I know.

Jeffries has more or less said he's leaving. Not official, but he's said words to that effect in interviews.

Its a little bit worrying that Solomona has not announced offing to another club.

I expect a flurry of announcement once the Sept deadline has passed. I heard a rumour he was off to Salford which I could see, but Wire have also been mentioned. Perhaps Wire want a 2nd row to replace Westwood?



I doubt the Bulls would have announced Morro/Newton leaving if Wakey hadn't wanted to announce their signatures.

From our point of view, that doesn't matter (although I'm sure that it will be a concern to the Solomona family). His contract will finish, so we don't need to pay him.

I think you missed his point?

[uShould He stay or Should he go[/u? players in the 1st team squad who's contract is up this year who we have no confirmed news about;

Ben Jeffries - has asked for an extension, rumoured for Celtic
David Solomona - likely to be released at end of year
Semi Tadulala - In negotiations to stay for one more year (or Union?)
Matt Cook - No confirmed news
Matt James - No confirmed news
James Donaldson - No confirmed news
Duane Straughier - No confirmed news

[uConfirmed Leavers[/u
Terry Newton - Wakefield 2 year contract
Glenn Morrison - Wakefield 1 year contract and coaching under 18s

Taken from Silsdenbulls squad thread.

Given that we have had a steady drip feed of news about contract extentions, presumably in the order of importance it seems to me, anyone we haven't heard about are either definatley off, or might be off depending on if we can find a replacement. Anyone on that list who we really want to keep I would expect to be announced resigning before 1st Sept, otherwise I think it'll be safe to assume they are off and we're looking at replacements.

I'd also suggest Donaldson needs sorting out pretty quickly as he looks like a "good 'un" to me, unless I've missed that news already?

pretty certain donaldson isnt ooc of contract this year and its a mistake in the sticky. Think RER cleared this up in a thread a couple of weeks back.

semi and maybe straugheir would be the only ones in that list I'd want to retain from that list tbh.

I reckon this will be announced the day before the season ticket application forms arrive on our doorsteps.

The problem with Straughier is that he will be 20 next year and too old for the new Under 20 Reserve Grade. There's never been a suggestions (that I remember anyway) that he is anywhere near the first team, so what would be the purpose of retaining him.

I see from the Bulls website that he is 'a strong running centre'. He's been with the club for four years, yet he hasn't really had a sniff of the 1st Team. So unless we are planning to send him to Rochdale, why retain?

thats why I said 'maybe'. Dont know enough about the lad to comment. maybe a 1 year extension out on loan at rochdale and see how he goes?

For Straughier, if the club think he has some potential that would seem a sensible option to me, but like you I've not seen the lad play so can't comment on if we should retain him or not, I'll just trust the coach on that one, same for James, but when I have seen James I'm yet to be convinced.

Donaldson is a no brainer - must keep (and I hope it is a mistake and hes not OOC). And semi would be useful to have in the sqaud next year if we sign another outside back or not, but if he wants to go to union then it wont be our choice probably.

Of the others, it really does depend on who we might get instead. If we sign no more halfs we need to retain BJ as we'd again have no cover and dubious quality in the 2 most key positions. But he publically asked for an extention months ago and nothing happened so its a fair assumption the club dont want to retain him.

Cook looks to be behind Whitehead, Worrincy and Olbison in the second row options. I've always been a fan and I would keep him for the right money, as we might end up a bit light in experience in the second row (!) and he always brings lots of energy to the team IMO, but I can see the logic in letting him go as he's not kicked on as we expected him to.

Solo, times up, best for both parties that he moves on.

The thing that suggests to me that Straugheir may not be kept is precisely that he is a centre.

At times this year, there's been opportunity for a centre to come in (Crookes & Nero have both had injuries, Sykes has been needed elsewhere) and he hasn't even been in the 19. The fact he hasn't got near the team even when we've been short of players for his position, suggests to me that the coaching staff don't think he's good enough.

Also couple that with the fact he wasn't named in the initial super league squad and was only added when Richard Johnson went to Australia.

Not seen Straugheir play nearly enough to comment myself on how good he is, but it seems to me the coaching staff have their minds made up.

No he won't be.

James Donaldson is OOC till the end of next year.

Anyone else a little concerned that we've been through the pain barrier with Solo and Morrison, and that next year they'll put in 20+ games, just not for us?

More so with Morrison as Solomona can be inconsistent anyway. But yeah, I definitely am.

Morro and Sol will more than likley suffer injuries again next season, both players are injury prone at the back end of their careers. I can't say that I'm sad to see either of those guys leave when we've got plenty of back row cover.

Contracted till end of 2010 Wouldn't mind giving him an early extension though. I've talked to him a few times and he seems geniunely happy with the setup at bradford.


Already Celtic bound





I wouldn't mind keeping him, but we do have better prospects coming through, I'd prefer to see Whitehead get some more gametime, but equally if Worrincy and Cook were both out of contract, i'd chuck Worrincy. Although i'd say he's in front of Olbison atm.


Don't think anyone disagrees with that.

As lomg as Steve Mac is Bulls coach then there is no chance of Dolonaldson leaving the Bulls.