Brilliant news.

Apparently it is only a 4 year deal not 5 according to whitehead

Great bit of news that. Started looking at the rest of the squad out of contract and i'd hope the following are also tied down:

Chev Walker, Olivier Elima, Bryn Hargreaves, James Donaldson, Tom Burgess, Danny Addy, Jason Crookes and Karl Pryce.

From what i've seen I think Manase Manuokafoa and Jarrod Sammut (if the quota allows it) could also be given a new deal but I can't see the following being given new contracts:

Ben Jeffries, Ian Sibbit, Shaun Ainscough, Kyle Briggs, Liam McAvoy and Phil Joseph

Its essentially a 4-year extension as his current contract already has 1yr to run after this season but this one supercedes his original contract, hence it being a 5-yr deal.

He's now contracted upto end of 2016 season.

Doesn't that make it a 3 yr extension to his old contract?

4 or 5 who gives a he staying that is the main thing

I have no idea now... thought i had it all worked out but it does apear wrong...lol

I would hope the club and the player know what's been agreed as it's not been very well communicated to us has it???

Tbh I'm struggling to see what you are struggling to understand.

agree completely. Nas v Sammut a thorny one, but hopefully if we keep these recent performances and results going there may be other young Fed players with potential, like Gale and Kear, that want to join us, or an u20s player makes a great leap forward (eg Ball)

It's really not hard to understand.

The new contract OVERWRITES the old one. So forget about his current deal.

1 = 2012 (this season)
2 = 2013
3 = 2014
4 = 2015
5 = 2016 (runs out at the end of that season)

Therefore it's for 5 seasons / years

Some very positive news coming out of Odsal lately regarding your youth policy

This is the best way back to the big time for the Bulls by signing up all of your talented juniors on long term deals

I look forward to our derby games that once again attract 20,000 plus crowds and at both venues, as a healthy rivalrly works very well for both clubs

that was my initial assumption too. But after thinking about it presumably his new deal is an improved one. if it kicked in immediately how would we accomodate it under the salary cap which we are supposed to be right upto?.

Pretty certain they brought in rules re back-weighted contracts after wigan fiasco. while you can have a contract that rises in stage think as far as salary cap is concerned they now add up total value of contract and divide it by number of years its for and apply that figure for salary cap each year whether players receiving the money yet or not.

Could we maybe have voided last year of whiteheads old deal (2013 season) and given him a new 4 year contract which starts when his current one now expires (end of 2012 season). he gets improved terms but not til end of season so we can budget for accomodating the raise in the following years salary caps.

Great news. Now need Bateman, Addy, Crookes, Burgess & Donaldson (who i still think will be a star for us) signed up.