Ok cool least that puts it in the picture. Hopefully he will seemed a solid signing on paper

Tupou started well then injuries happened and that was pretty much all she wrote.
Orford showed some great touches but attitude and commitment were his downfall
Hall should never have joined us as there's no way he and his partner were in the right state of mind to move to the over side of the the world

TBH, the "quality over quantity" squad we were promised for 2016 seems to now be taking shape. I still feel we're a little light around the pack, but only to the tune of maybe 1 or 2 decent quality players.

I can't really think of a bad signing made by Smith in his time at Bradford so I'm looking forward to seeing how 2017 plays out

Glenn Hall I could forgive. His circumstances were terrible and I was more than happy to give the benefit of the doubt that it was a mitigating factor in him being severely unfit.
Orford's attitude was shocking. Doesn't matter how good a player you are if attitude is off, it'll never work.
Tupou was a lazy sod, simple as that. We thought to sign another big islander/kiwi winger to replace Big Les and it'll sort it. Not realising at the time that Big Les was irreplaceable and just bringing in someone who looked a bit similar wasn't going to cut it.

I'm sure we could all list some god awful quota signings over the years, and the balance of bad to good is probably in the wrong direction for the last few years. Kieren Moss and Dane Chisholm helped to tip it back a bit though and hopefully this Burr will too.

In his interview he classes himself as a lock. smith said a few months ago he was after a good loose forward from Queensland. This lad seems to fit the bill and replace Addey. Seems like another decent signing that the coach knows. I feel so much better with Smith in charge instead of Jimmy.

Do we actually need to replace Ferres when we have Smith and his dad and uncle as player advisers.

He's no replacement for Addy until he spends the better part of 5 seasons playing massively out of position for two thirds of each year.

Hopefully the work permit will be straight forward and we can get him over here asap to get a full [ish] pre-season.

Totally agree with that.

Much as it pains me to say anything good about the bloke I've nothing bad to say about his on field work or attitude. We were in the top four when he got crocked and then plummeted after he left. The fact we had no suitable back-up is down to us and his disgraceful conduct after he returned to Australia to recuperate will, of course, be to his eternal shame and down to him alone.

Interestingly on the Giants forum one poster seems to think Rick Stone has stopped the signings of Gaskell Clough and Ferguson. Seems to think Ferguson is off to Wakey now and he is trying to stop the recruitment of Gaskell and Clough.

That [iis[/i interesting, but no more than that, tbh. They're gone from Odsal, and whilst I'd certainly consider Ferguson, who is a pretty whole hearted sort of player, I wouldn't want either of the other two.

All I will add to this Matt Orford thing - his mental state after his shoulder crocked was far worse than ever publicised on either side of the world...

He went into a deep and dark place before he returned home and stayed there a while.

I hope he is OK now - I have seen people I know affected by these issues - its pretty scary...

As Fartown Giants weren't relegated, I don't think there's a legal way they can back out of signing them unless they are injured and can't play, so not sure how they can do this. They could be encouraging them to talk to other clubs, but if they can't get a good gig anywhere else, looks like they might be fringe players. If the rumour that Clough and Gaskell refused to play late last season, some teams might not be too keen to take them on. Gaskell especially has fallen a long way from the end of last season.

That's Gaskell released then. If not today, just wait a week or two and he'll be crocked again.

As far as Orford goes, by attitude I was very much referring to the attitude after he got injured and the crap it put us through. Not when he was actually on the pitch at the start of the season. I've heard numerous accounts of his mental state and such, but I've never heard one that didn't make me think he totally stitched us up.