but one that was taken out of our hands. we offered him a significantly improved deal at a level we thought he was worth. Hudds offered more. should we pay him more than we think he's worth just to retain him?. Exactly same situation reardon put us in when he went to wire and generally we were proved right in our valuation on that one.

Disappointing this one, no real way to positive spin it either. Sure the club prioritise and offer contracts according to our judgement of the players potential, and if the lad can get more elsewhere at a, recently, more successful club then fair play to him..... but I think its a real shame and he'll make the grade like Atkins has.

Possibly. And of course few are privvy to the details of the offer. As a guestimate, I wouldn't think the Giants offer was significantly more, but then who knows.

Either way, how hard the club tried to retain his services would be interesting.

We've all seen far too many quality players leave the club in recent times. Not always the right ones.

Thought he looked a decent prospect so I am disappointed he has gone to the Giants. Solid defender and looked to offer more than Crookes but we can only offer what we think he is worth to us.

From what's been stated, it seems to me that the Giants offered over the odds for him. Fair play to him to follow the money. It's a short career and you can never know just how short that career will be.

The Bulls offered him what they thought he was worth, Hudds offered over the odds. So he went. I think its a shame but at the end of the day, we can't keep everyone and we can't all offer Warrington/Huddersfield type wages.
I think good on the club for sticking to the valuation. He didn't want to play for us so let him go.

Its really difficult to assess the worth of a young player when an offer comes in, I think its about the timing of where the club sees him in their future structure.
Perhaps thats why we let Atkins go when we had such great centres available and why Leeds let Carvell go for a similar reason.
It is problamatical to project a young players further improvement and make a salary offer on that. You can only make an offer on the information provided by the coaches and if the player goes on to greater things then he has exceeded his expectations.
For example Jason Robinson was rejected by Leeds.

Compo will be waived as part of Luke Robinson deal

a shame to see him go, i thought he was very useful when he played. still, onwards and upwards, I hope he does well for himself! I hope the new signing is worth it.

a shame but we cant keep everyone and from wat i hear hudds payed over the odds for him plus bulls wanted to sign him up mid season and his agent told him not to then started to hawk him round other clubs.only want players who truly want to play for bulls not just what they will get money wise.bulls wise to stick to there guns as could have got in a bidding war and at end of day hes only young fair enough shows potential but how many youngsters have we seen at bulls do the same then disapear off the radar

I suppose it depends on what he's been offer, not only financially but also in terms of game time and development. How many players make a move that they later regret when they don't meet their potential? But on the flip side, how many players move and then develop into a player they'd never have had the oppotunity to grow into if they'd stayed... Maybe he's a Giants fan?

We made an improved offer. He turned it down. Credit to the Bulls for sticking to their wage structure rather than being held to ransom by an unproven player. If the kids agent has been hawking him around as has been suggested what can you do? He's out of contract so is entitled to go where he wants and I'd rather have a plyer who WANTS to play for the Bulls.

Indeed. I don't know what Huddersfield are offering in terms of game time etc, but I'd have thought he could have been 1st choice at the Bulls in 2 or 3 years.

Hudders prefer our juniors to their own.

... which funnily enough is also exactly the point made by Paul Medley in his comments. He says we've got plenty of 'em.

Must have left coz Macca has.