Assume for a minute that Walker did in fact sign a contract on August 13th. The contract must be submitted to the board within 48 hours. Even allowing for time differences, that's August 16th at the very latest. Waiting around 3 more months until Orford became available simply doesn't work within your scenario.

Aww, turn that frown upside down Mr Rainyface

But if a contract was signed, it had to be submitted within 48 hours. After that, we either wouldn't have been able to submit it, or else we would have faced some sort of penalty. As Orford came up months later (according to Walker's alleged signing date), his availability must be disregarded entirely from the matter.

That's to satisfy the RLF Operating Rules and, I would guess, they'd expect any contract to be signed by both parties. (And as the RFL looked in to the case we can guess that it wasn't)

As to whether a contract had in actual fact been made between the Bulls and Walker (you don't need to have signed something to have made a contract)... that would be up to a court.

it was suggested to me by a fax fan today, that if walker is convinced he had a valid contract with us then that would mean we're due a transfer fee from catalans.