Ryan Duckett is a lovely guy. Having had the pleasure of working with him for a couple of years from 1999 onwards I was delighted when he was appointed.

I really hope he is kept on in a senior role.

So would I mate, so would I. About that and a load of other things.

So, like pretty well everyone else, I can only speculate (and he never made any statements to me privately, btw - I could only go on what is in the public domain) and try and form a view based on whatever limited information is available - so much of it circumstantial or impossible to verify or disprove.

I doubt we ever will get to know the truth of it all, though

All I can hope is that all people learn from past mistakes.

Why are you refusing to believe what Adey has said re CC refusing to give edvidence is not fact? I was also given that information by two different Directors (not the recent lot either) prior to 2010, others have also come on here and said so from their own sources. The trouble is the Bulls and Rhinos are legally bound not to speak about it publically so clarification is difficult but I feel its true in this case.
The other problem CC landed the Bulls with, was his insisting that Harris's Image rights were beyond the S C interpretation, Sod Hall begged to differ and the Bulls along with the Pies coped S C breachs 2 years on the trot!

For the avoidance of doubt, I have no evidence one way or the other regarding why the Bulls capitulated. I HAVE been told it was because the club was facing an existential crisis, and the board was increasingly advised that the risks of continuing to defend the action were too high. Indeed, that was the line only a few weeks ago. Any comments about just why we ended up in that situation had to be hearsay, especially given the confidentiality surrounding the whole proceedings.

I've said before that I was gobsmacked when the club conceded, because we had been led to believe - by both administrations - that the club's position was strong. Losing the preliminary hearing was a shock to me, because - on reading Mr Justice Gray's Decision, which I said at the time made perfect sense to me - it seemed clear there was rather more to the contractual suituation between Harris and Leeds than we had hitherto been led to believe. I could perhaps understand why Mr Caisley had argued that the contracts were a restraint of trade, and therefore not enforeceable, but I could also fully understand why Judge Gray decided that the restraint of trade was valid in the circumstances. It seemed to me at the time that the club would only have proceeded with the signing if they were unaware of the existence of all the interlocking agreements, since surely with sight of them all a prudent lawyer could have concluded the same as judge Gray? As to do otherwise could either have been anywhere from imprudent to beyond reckless, or the club had received bad external advice which would surely have led to an action for negligence against the advisors? So I was uneasy but not panicking.

Then we had the Mainstream Developments HoL ruling, which seemed to me to rule out a sussessful action for damages from Leeds, since - if I understood that ruling correctly - an action could only succeed if the defendant's intention in interfering in a contract was to cause financial harm to the other party. Which of course had to be ludicrous in this case (and I still can't see it being other than that, even with what we know now).

And yet, then we conceded. Despite the HoL ruling thats seemed to me to provide a stromg defence.

To this day, I do not know precisely why we did, beyond the generalities of "risk was too high". All I could conclude, in the absence of anything more concrete, was that the club's advisors were concerned that Leeds could argue that the signing WAS done with the intent of causing Leeds financial harm. Which, incidentally, I definitely do NOT believe can have been the intent! And the only way I deemed Leeds might be able to argue that was if the club had been made aware of the existence and nature of all the agreements before we signed Harris, and yet we went ahead regardless. If the club was clear that it was not aware of all the agreements between leeds and Harris, then surely (I reasoned) we mcut still have a strong case.

And yet we conceded. So I deduced that maybe it was far from clear what the club was and was not aware of at the time of signing. And maybe it was also unclear the extent to which the various parties involved woul be prepared to swear to the facts under oath, since clearly both sides could not be telling the facts as they were?

That was - and remains - my reasoning for why we conceded. Because nothing else makes sense based on what we know. Obvioulsy, if there are additional material facts that we are unaware of, then all bets are off anyway.

So, if my deduction is anywhere close, I guess you get down to who said what to whom and who gave what to whom and who took advice from whom...? And I suppose once that sort of uncertainty creeps in - and faced with a monied opponent that seemed intent on getting even - then the risks of defending start to look to be too high?

Well, because it's not fact as Adey has so eloquently explained. Indeed he has always presented this as a well reasoned hypothesis based upon the evidence he had available. So, the variable is whether CC knew of the interlocking agreements. Whilst it is a key piece of information I don't think this gives us enough evidence to state a causal link between CC's knowledge, or lack of, his alleged refusal to enter court and testify, and the Bulls eventual capitulation.

In his letter to the T and A CC said that Peter Hood told him the Harris deal with Leeds was covered by an increase in TV income. Adey's hypothesis suggests there was more to this conversation (or series of conversations) wherein CC was asked to support the Bulls case in court and he refused. Whilst there's an undoubted logic to it, this is still the key 'unknown'.

He may have refused because he realised there was no point going to court, as even if we won the cost of doing so would finish the club. So better to settle for an affordable amount than cut off your nose to spite your face. Whether it was Hood or Caisley that settled is irrelevent, the important thing is they did, for aprox 10% of Leeds claim, payable over 3 years. but its water under the bridge. What is more important is whether Caisley is going to put up the cash and how long that is going to take. Players and staffs salaries are being paid today according to the TnA, and the review continues, so fine for the moment thanks to the fans.