Following on from the thread about players we didn't expect to sign for us what about those players who nearly signed for us? I remember back in the early 90s we were gazumped by Warrington who nicked Kelly Shelford from under our noses. We also missed out on Brendon "the original baby faced assassin" Tuuta who went to Fev. Both would've been super signings.

We made an offer to Jeremy Guscott in 92/93 apparently but he didn't fancy trading Bath for Bradford for some reason.

Around the mid 80s Graham Steadman had some trials with us but we didn't do a deal for some reason (must have been insanity) and he went to York, then Fev then Cas and tormented us frequently.

In the mid 80s we were linked with Wally Lewis but this was all a fiction spun by the Board to keep up interest in season tickets according an interview with Peter Fox after he left the club. I think the same applied to the reported interest in Argentinian rugby union flyhalf Hugo Porta - what a leftfield signing that would've been!

Further back the great Clive Sullivan apparently had trials with us and we didn't take it further



More recently I remember us nearly signing Barrie McDermott and he confirmed that in his book. Anyone remember any others?

Gareth O’Brien… be nearly signed in the season when we ended up playing wakey in the MPG oh what could have been

Didn't he actually sign, but then had a blinding couple of games for Warrington due to them having injuries and then they wanted to keep him so we allowed him to stay.

Frank Winterstein and Pheonix. Both signed for us but then both left before playing a game due to liquidation. I’d have liked to have seen both. As well as Alex Foster in a Bulls shirt.

These players all officially signed a contract to play for the club but ended up never actually playing any games.

Ryan Hudson. We signed him as a replacement for Jimmy Lowes after a great couple of years for Castleford where he broke into the GB team. He ended up getting banned before playing a single game.

Gareth Carvell. He joined us in the turbulent off season of 2013/14. He played one pre-season game before he packed his bags and went back to Hull FC. I've included him in the thread as he technically never played a competitive game for the club.

Lachlan Burr. A decent NRL forward that we brought in for 2017. The club went bust (again) and he ended up going to Leigh before going back to play in the NRL.

I'm sure there are a few more that I've missed off.

I seem to faintly remember attending one of the final fans forums of the Hood era where it was disclosed by Peter Hood that we had almost signed Scott Dureau from Catalan Dragons.
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Greg Bird

That was my understanding.

I seem to recollect that there were 'visa issues' due to his convictions in Australia. The French weren't as fussy, so he went to Catalans.

Micky Higham is another who signed and never played for us but we did get Terry Newton as a result.

We were in for Wakefields Gareth Ellis big time, even Had Jamie Langley as part of a swap deal, it all fell through and looked like he'd stay at Trinity.

Leeds had other ideas and swooped in for him

Remember this at the forum however it was Stuart Duffy, and he mentioned somebody else as well that we missed out on....

I think that was the intended result. IIRC, wasn't it Wigan who wanted Higham but Saints(?) wouldn't let him go to Wigan. They would let him go to us though, so we signed him and then 'let him go' to Wigan in return for Terry Newton. Basically it was a con between us and Wigan, though it was suggested that it was Saints fans who were most against letting him go to Wigan, and the Saints board actually connived in the deal too.

It's not like Micky had form for signing contracts then going back in it

Is anyone old enough to remember the time when we almost signed Hugo Porta. He was captain of the Argentinian RU team and at that time there were no crossover players. Big news back then.