Unfortunately though the EU trade laws mean we can't stop people from within the EU coming into the country whereas we (rightly so in most cases) can stop people coming in from outside of the EU if there is reason to do so.

With the court case hanging over him it was never going to be easy for him to get a visa unfortunately.

Never mind all those plumbers and other skilled workers, it's foreign RL players with court cases hanging over them that we want in the UK eh?

If I would you I'd write to Richard Littlejohn and complain.

Good to see the racists out, I'd have thought it was a bit early but it helps the working day get off to a flyer.

Not the best news going into the first game of the season. At least Ben Jeffries will be happy

Hardly a big deal, we have plenty of people who are locked up in prison who haven't been convicted of anything, it's called remand.

Can't say i'm surprised tbh, and I would hope our 'support' is limited to empathy and the odd phone call, rather than involving any financial commitment. If he wins his court case and is still keen to come then all well and good.

Plumbers? Dregs of the building trade. Only turn up if you're having a new central heating system installed and charge a fortune.

Put them on the list with extremist clerics, dutch nazis and short tempered but otherwise innocent until proven Aussie RL players

Given how drawn out the visa process has become, and how drawn out a court case in the public eye might be, is there a strong likelihood that he'll never actually get here even if he isn't convicted? If cleared he's free to plaay in the NRL in 2010 after all.

possibly but he'll want to play some sort of rugby so why not come over to Bradford? He'll get some coin and get to play with Beaver. Sounds like a winning combination.

Welcome to the club of 3. Giants , Hull and now Bradford.

Could be a lot of spare money around in SL at the end of the season

Will Menzies stay for another year?

And there goes our chance of winning owt again for another year, oh the joy of watching jefferies at 7 and morrison at 6 when deacs breaks down again.
Croker is a big loss to hull, but he`s not in a pivotal area of the field, a good half is what we`ve been lacking for yrs, bird could have been the player to drag us around the park, now we back to inside ball deacs.

You mean he'll break his agreement with the Sharks that he won't play for any other NRL team in 2009?

Still at least we don't have the possibility of him coming over, playing well and getting our hopes up. Before going home, being found guilty and having his visa revoked, whilst we get all the negative publicity associated with having played someone who glassed his partner, tried to get his friend to take the blame and then lied to the police.

Obviously we'd only know this after the trial, but it's a big risk, as far as I can see neither he nor his partner has denied he assaulted her, rather she is standing by him, whilst the police/prosecution service consider it serious enough to proceed anyway and Cronulla are of the opinion that he's a major problem who they want rid of. Added to all of that, despite his personal circumstances, I think he is massively overrated as was pointed out by others on here when he was rumoured to be signing elsewhere.

I just hope it doesn't become McNamara's excuse should results not turn out right, as given Bird's circumstances the idea of us planning on him being the final piece in the jigsaw is ridiculous and if we've been proceeding with that in mind, then both Hood and Mcnamara have some serious questions to answer.

I also hope Jefferies isn't unsettled by the whole thing and proves his worth by having an excellent season.

Jefferies have an excellent season!!! I havent seen him have 1 excellent game yet, I `d sooner play wardle.