Looking like another nice cash windfall heading our way then.

12 minutes to see all the sights of Bradford...

You'd have thought he could have found a desperately ill relative he needed to be near rather than admitting the truth.

OK, its still not a direct quote from Orford. Once again, its someone speaking seemingly for him. So once again there have to be caveats, although if either orford or that scumbag Mimmis do not agree with the report then they would surely come out and refute it immediately?

Assuming for now the treport is true, he's not necessarily a big wuss. Until you have been there and done that - I have - you are not really in a position to say someone is a big wuss because he struggled to settle in another country. It happens - I hated my first few months in NZ. However, I stuck it out and give it a fair go, and after a few months I loved the place. And as someone said above - and I think someone who too has been there done that? - you have to give it time and not chicken out early. Maybe without his injury he might have too, since he would have had to stay here a few more months at least? Maybe? Or maybe he indeed IS a screaming great wuss? And a lot of other things to boot?

But, again if the report was true, what it seems he WOULD be - again taking the report at face value - is an underhand sneak and a screaming great coward. If it really has taken him till now to say he'd better get round to asking the Bulls for a release, when he could have dealt with the issue months ago as soon as the press speculation (clearly now was rather more than that) started. And when he would knowm full well the implications for Bradford if he strung them out then at the last minute failed to show. The club might probably consider him a liar too, depending on what he actually said to them and when. If such were the case, you would hope and expect the club to screw him and/or his new employers for ever dollar and cent they can.

And if it is true, then I imagine a long list of people will not wish him well, at all. If its true.

And as for Mimmis...whether its true or not, may he rot in the darkest pits of hell. At least he'll be in good company, with most of the other players' agents.

ps. if it transpires he never did intend to come back, and we have been paying him all this time...

Just hope we get a replacement sorted asap. Meanwhile it looks like the banner needs tweaking a bit, unless we substitute a chicken for the picture of Matt Orford.

I know Bradford isn't exactly Bali (and AFAIK he was living in Leeds) but the homesickness excuse is pathetic. I have a number of friends who've lived for some time in places as different as Iran, Mozambique, The West Bank, Uganda and North Vietnam. Some of them may have confessed to those places being a bit different but none decided to cut their contract short and scurry home tail between the legs.

Very poor showing. Someone get Orford a can of "man up".

I suppose living in Leeds does give him a marginal excuse?

And yes, got any chook images to hand, Varky?

At least we should know one way or t'other at the beginning of November.

just get rid of him... he doesnt want to be here and we need to focus on a replacement in time for pre season. orford can hang his head in shame.

The Orford saga continues.

I've stopped worrying about this situation now. With the playing/coaching appointments made so far coupled with the success of the pledge scheme I'm pretty confident that things will work out for the club. We'll probably end up with a far better half back situation than the last couple of years.

TBH I have no doubt that the club, Orford and his agent know at least what will happen and that once an amicable solution is reached that an announcement will be made.

Here we go...

rlhttp://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/former-manly-captain-matt-orford-desperate-to-leave-bradford-bulls-and-return-to-nrl/story-e6frexnr-1225937358717rl

again

Looks like Duckett is earning his spurs. All the right moves and all the right quotes.

Anyone else thinking we may be on the receiving end of a little Karma?

We had all the hoo-ha around Chris Walker (is he, or is he not coming) [iand if[/i we did shaft Walker (to get Orford) you have to wonder if we're getting a little payback.

I don't think anyone really wants Orford to leave, however, if we can get something for the remainder of his contract (which would be hoped so, given the amount of interest for the guy in the NRL), and obtain a suitable replacement/s then it might not be that bad.

If however he leaves us in the lurch and we don't get replacements it's going to cost us a lot. 8th place will become the target rather than a top 4 one. Any failure on the first target with Orford and we would hopefully still be in the play-offs. If we aim 8th without him and fail, well, the season tickets for the following year would need to be cheaper still!!!!

If Potter knew that Orford was leaving, you'd have hoped we may have signed some higher calibre players than we have (not to say the guys signed won't do well), but you do have to wonder if we'd have managed to obtain some better players by being able to spread Orford's reported "higher level" salary around.

It's all still hearsay, but lets hope that it's sorted soon. Ok, there's plenty of time to go till the start of the new season but at this rate we're bedding two new halfbacks in (again) rather than just one.

I can't imagine what you're basing that on to be honest. If Orford leaves (and it still is IF, of course) then we are back to what we had for the second half of last season at halfback. I can't seriously imagine that anyone on here, let alone at the club, would regard that as satisfactory. I don't know what the club actually [iknows
[/i about Matt's current status, only what they let on, which isn't much, but I would hope some contingency plan is in play, and to be fair I can't seriously imagine there isn't. We'll certainly be very fortunate to pick up a class scrum half at this stage though.