can you name any?

Bulls have some good young players but all the players they have signed for next season are hardly top players, I don't see why people are tipping Bradford to do so well next season.

They cannot do any worse, so I suppose the only way to go is up....I reckon a top 8 finish at least.

Looks as though he is finally on his way here, good news for us. 2yr deal i hear.

If it's just for a year I'd rather take a gamble with Garath Moore from Batley, because even if we had Sammut for a year we wouldn't make the 4 in my opinion, long term we could build around him to challenge for the four, on a one year deal we would be back to square one on 2012 and the whole cycle would start again.

There have lost 3 of there best young players in the close season to Souths, Warrington and Huddersfield, the 2 backrowers they have look to have potential though.

Not sure about Briggs, maybe Agar rates Nicklas more than Briggs and Moore?

We had this debate at the time. Players are worth whatever a club will pay for them and clubs will generally pay more or offer longer deals for the roles that they need most. At the time with Yak, Radford and Dowes all scheduled to leave and with no other options available securing Radford was a must. With other interest in him we needed to offer a 2 year deal or be short of a prop.

In an ideal world i'm sure we'd have given Radford a 1 year deal and brought in a new prop in place of Dowes but it's all about who is available as replacements and we were obviously priced out of the market on some of our other targets.

Which is the single most frustrating thing about the timing of Berrigan going, with the available money we could have strengthened better.

Having the money is one thing. Having a wage structure that's fairly inflexible is another i guess.

The problem with an inflexible wage structure is it ends up, in my experience, with some people earning more than they should, particularly the Local Authority model. You want to give someone a bit of a pay rise, you think they deserve another £1000 a year (for example) but the next step up on the scale gives them £1450, you have two options, keep them where they are (de-motivates them) or pay them the increased wage which is more than what you genuinely believe them to be worth.

Maybe FC have suffered the same in recent years.

I am a firm believer that your wages are a matter for you and the boss, nobody else.

yeah i agree it's a big problem. if we knew berro was leaving then we could have put in slightly bigger offers for LMS or fielden - probably better options than dowes


regarding Danny Nicklas, i noticed his contract runs to 2012, does this imply Agar may rate him more than he does Moore/Briggs? at least Nicklas has a few SL games under his belt

indeed. And from a recruitment point of view sometimes the boss needs to make the call to break the wage structure to recruit the best talent. I'd have happily seen us break our structure a few times in the last few seasons for a decent 7 and in the last off season i'd have happily seen us bring a top prop in above the structure.

I'm absolutely of the view that a wage structure is needed to provide consistency and principles but not to inhibit through it's inflexibility.

Nicklas has never played 7 though!

Starting to think this might be the case, too.

i believe we're taking about him playing 6 in the absence of horne

if he turns out a better prospect than briggs/moore then i'll be very happy

His game is more suited to 7 IMO.

Spot on Sheldon.... This kid is a 6 Through and through... Seen him play at 7 when forced to and Nicko aint a 7, FACT! .... Really hope he makes it tho.. Having seen this guy come through the ranks at West Hull and Fc..

OMG

Radford as a man and a player completely deserved his deal , i am not a lover of stats but his are awesome , i know i would rather play with him than play against him thats for sure

I'm a fan of Radford also... He's a tackling machine and players simply don't like running at him!! His work rate is amongst the best in the Superleague!!

Uneeded as Nicks is viewed as a better option and one we know all about, if needed he can play both as he did in his amateur days too, very very good footballer with great hands , also working close with Westy so what does that say??
we have lots of cover this year if needed but buying like for like makes no sense....
The Sammut deal is far from dead

The 3 players left as we didnt value them as highly as other teams, but only burgess was a standout at his level. We got a fee for him without a 1st team start and an option to have him back.

As for our youngsters- we already have Whitehead and Donaldson who are u20 and will start. In addition, we have Tom Oblison who is expected to turn into a v good player. All under 20.

We then have 3 16 years olds in McAvoy, O Brien and Bateman who all standouts in there age bracket (look them up if you like) This is not including T Burgess who got the same offer from Souths, Southernwood at half, Finnegan who played v well in the 1st team last year and Danny Addy who has stepped up extremely well. I havent mentioned Crookes because i dont think hes that good.

a minimum of 4 of these players will represent England imo, probably more

absolutely spot on!!
Unfortuinately not all forwards are tackle busters, some have to be sheer grafters and all SL teams have them!
As Radders once said "I am a player built to stop others playing" that says it all,
total commitment
fearless and fears no one
hard as they come
and a decent football brain too
and a class coach !! as the guys who have played under him!

his stats say it all for me

btw, every team needs players like raddford and im betting if you asked the squad to all submit a teamsheet he d be an early name on mosts. Not all roles in a rugby team are as fancy as others

...and to state again what I've said before, last season was his first year at prop and, for a novice, he did extremely well and earned the right to a new contract =#000080and at 31 is hardly over the hill for a prop.