Just looked at his player stats for this year.

Only played 3 times, scores 0 tries but made 13 tackle busts.

Sounds like he could be a hard man to stop.

Can't imagine he'd be on a massive wage so could turn out to be a very shrewd signing. Here's hoping!

Sounds promising. Young and with plenty to prove.

I 've never hard of him, but I'd never heard of Shontayne Hape before he came and he turned out to be a pretty decent centre for us

Nice curve ball from Connor. Went down the 'Potter knows him well' route and we all fell for it, assuming it would be someone from Catalans or Saints Totally forgetting about his coaching career in Australia...

Whos this stranger!

pleasantly surprised by that. was dreading reading news after some of names being bandied about last night. Cant say I've heard of him but said that last year about ah van and hes turned out well. think his stats on wiki are screwed up as cant see anyone scoring 600 odd tries in 6 games

need to see if theres any youtube links ( smash on hayne mentioned on his wiki sounds interesting ).

as others have said, jeffries comes off quota when he gets his uk passport later in year so we should have a quota spot still available IF we dont retain herbert. As lulia played for cook islands in world cup its possible he could be eligble for a cook islands passport gettting him off the overseas quota with him only taking a non fed trained spot then. Only useful if we can find a overseas players who doesnt count on non fed trained quota though.

As I said on the rumour thread yesterday:

"I thought this was a rumour thread, not the Bulls official website, and the source is a tweeting journalist, so if theres any spin, its self spin. On you know what. so dont get upset about nothing, the facts will be there for all to see at 7 tomorrow. anyway what we should now be speculating about is if a half back is ruled out, a prop is ruled out, is it the specialist centre that so many including me want to see?"

So its good to see a centre joining that shows serious commitment and coming into their prime, courtesy of Mick. And its no disrespect to Royston, we need a good utility back, but we also need good specialists.

...and I bet Ainscough is really looking forward to next season and the potential for a big haul of tries.

Happy with this signing from the information I can find about the lad. Lets hope he can deliver for us next season.

wouldnt go as far as saying roystons just a utility back. he's a specialist fullback who can cover backs. in same way lulia is a specialist who can cover wing and 2nd row. these are type of player we need. Specialist on one position but able to cover a couple of others as well.

pleased with way we're signing younger players rather than big names at tail end of their careers. real sense of us building a team rather than buying instant results.

And to think some people actually thought we were about to sign Chris Flannery!

Very pleased with this signing. If Seymour hadn't knocked us back, we'd have just recruited a half back and a specialist centre, the exact two positions many on here had identified as areas we needed to strengthen, so it's reassuring to know that Potter obviously feels the same way.

Excellent news. Another Cook Islander in Super League

Just one point. The Cooks Govt don't issue their own passports - hence we are issued with New Zealand passports - but we can still claim Cook Island citizenship. However, not sure how this affects citizenship for RL purposes? I am assuming the likes of Leroy Joe, Karl Temata & Frank Watene are treated as non-Fed Kolpak players?

we must be expecting another quota spot as we must have been looking at seymour and lulia.

looking forward to seeing hime next yr..

I would say chev's chances of getting a new contract are very slim.. providing BJ comes off quota and I dont think we will re-sign Herbert, maybe we are still looking for an overseas half back, I think next years qutoa's will be-

1. Kearney
2. Heath
3. Lulia
4. Ah van (hopefully re-signing)
5. New half back

As I understand quota rules ah van and lulia will only count on non fed trained quota. Think way quota is filled at moment is:

overseas quota

1. kearney
2. l'estrange
3. herbert
4. royston?
5. jeffries

non fed-trained quota

1. kearney
2. l'estrange
3. lulia
4. ah van
5. herbert

jeffries and royston both have exemptions from non fed trained quota due to them playing over here since before non fed trained rule was brought in. Jeffries is due to come off overseas quota when he gets his uk passport (think club said late july when we signed him?). Not sure whether Royston has a uk passport or whether he still counts on overseas quota?. (I suspect he doesnt count otherwise we could have just not registered royston and registered herbert in his place when orford negotiations were dragging out).

potentially we could have 2 overseas spots and no non fed trained spots, which would allow us to sign overseas players who dont count on non fed quota (not many about). If herbert leaves then we gain a spot on both quotas and could sign another oz/kiwi.

Yet another unknown overseas back comes in. Well done Bradford

I'd never heard of him but Knights fans seem to rate him so he may be just what we need, a bit of strike power in the centre. I look forward to seeing him play.

Royston is non quota already and Jeffries will be too in 2012 (if he isn't already).

So that leaves us with these contracted quota players for 2012 (so far):

1. L'Estrange
2. Kearney
3. Lulia

Two places remain.