Bradford winger, Shaun Ainscough has rejected a new contract offer in favour of trying his hand in Australia. The 22 year-old was asked to take a pay cut to remain at Odsal but believes he is financially unable to do so. READ MORE ON THIS STORY....

Bradford winger, Shaun Ainscough has rejected a new contract offer in favour of trying his hand in Australia. The 22 year-old was asked to take a pay cut to remain at Odsal but believes he is financially unable to do so. READ MORE ON THIS STORY....

I wonder whether he's been "tapped up" by an Aussie team while the bulls have been going through there self induced plight?
Reminds me of another player that walked because he wanted to look out for his family, financial situation ect, you guys gonna put Ainscough in the same category?

Why would we? He wasn't under contract for next year and rejected a new deal. Totally different situation.

Think Ainy will get more games under his belt than he did at Bradford
Improved confidence will follow and he will come back and bite bulls next year! With
Whichever club he signs with but it won't be Bradford bulls

Probably will with an amateur side. It's about his level, well maye he's a bit better than amateur.

You want some salt and vinegar for that chip?

Best of luck Shaun. Enjoyed watching you in a Bulls shirt. Gave your all in every game. Think he'll be a miss, we've lost one of our top try scorers and someone one will chase down the opposition when they make a break.

Nah, well not salt anyhoo, its bad for me heart and dries me out.

Don't think Ainy would have been anything more than a squad player in the coming season and the contract offer obviously reflected that. Good luck to the kid, the effort and commitment to the cause was outstanding and I wish him nothing but the best!

Pity, the boy did ok and was certainly full of energy. Wasn't far off being a good SL winger, defence aside.

Good luck to him in Oz. Lifestyle over there v Odsal Top = no brainer.

feel ainy gave his heart and soul to the club and has been shafted so to speak!
i dont think kear is anywhere near as good as ainscough with his great jumps for high balls and defensive efforts chasing rival players until his dying death. he does lack height but i feel his attributes are way more than kear. sad times when players are leaving because they dont feel the club can offer them finincial stability

I think I posted before, re Ainey, that fans will forgive a lot of shortcomings in a player who puts in the sort of effort that Ainey did and that tends to be my position. Don't know if you went to the forum last week, but it was made clear that they felt a number of players have been on higher wages than they should have been over the last few years and they were going to reduce that.

It seems a fair conclusion on the face of it; if Wigan Leeds and Wire are all paying the same wages as us, then they're getting a far bigger bang for their buck than we are - of course there are 'extras' to be considered, presumably not caught by the cap, which we can't manage - but the principle remains, and it seems Ainey has been identified as not supplying enough quality for what he was on, so was offered a cut, which he declined.

Sorry to see him go myself, but I do have to accept the club's reasoning.

What we ended up with in the previous two or three seasons, was a squad that was reportedly being paid almost full salary cap, yet playing at a standard that was significantly short of top 8. League table position may not be the full story, but many of the performances confirmed the superficial story, and so you'd have to conclude that as a squad they were being considerably overpaid.

Last season the squad overall performed magnificently, taking everything into account, and the adversity that they faced, however were and are a long way short of a top-four squad, so arguably they were still overall being significantly overpaid, or else half a dozen clubs above us were getting significantly more bang for their buck.

Some argue that the likes of Cas, London and Widnes were also spending pretty much the full cap, preposterous though it may seem that the Vikings' wage bill (for example) should be comparable with the Warriors or Wire.

I have heard it said that there's a reverse psychology at work, that for a bottom-dweller club to sign a team of decent (if not top rated) players it has to pay then [imore[/i rather than less, as some sort of premium, as why else would a quality player sign for such a club, if not for the money? Maybe there's something in that. If it is true that as a league, the clubs all pay say 90% of the salary cap, then that means any team trying to impose a meaner structure may have few takers, if higher paid jobs are available elsewhere.

There's little doubt that the better players tend to gravitate to the clubs which already have a strong squad, and given even money, I'd guess that most would join the club they perceive as having the best chance of getting silverware - maybe some players, hard bitten pros as they are, would genuinely forsake a little cash for a good chance of a medal. The old adage about 'being a long time retired', will always be true, but it must be nicer to have the odd memento to hang on to, or even pass down to your kids.

Sponsors providing non-cap input into things like training facilities, healthcare and more coaching staff is something we clearly don't have at anything like the levels of the top clubs, and obviously, we can't forget the influence of 'non-connected third parties', who may provide 'jobs' away from rugby or even work for spouses (and more if they don't stick to the legal, taxable elements, not that they ever would, of course ) - in the final analysis it all adds to the 'package' and may well be the clincher in a tight decision and is an area in which don't have any clout.