The Bulls remain confident the deal taking George Burgess to South Sydney will not hit any snags despite the Australian club’s ongoing salary-cap problems.
Although the 18-year-old prop officially left Odsal last Wednesday, his new club are yet to publicly confirm the move, raising concerns it may fall victim to financial wrangling.
Souths are currently involved in a desperate scramble to shed salary after the NRL blocked their move for Aussie Test superstar Greg Inglis.
League officials have insisted a number of third-party agreements included in the deal to sign Melbourne centre Inglis must be included in cap calculations, taking the Rabbitohs above the permitted $4.2million threshold.
As a result, several players are thought to have been put on the trading block, including Kiwi Test prop Roy Asotasi, one-time Hull FC target Michael Crocker, Beau Champion and John Sutton.
City Origin stand-off Sutton in particular could be of interest to the Bulls, who are still seeking reinforcements in the halves, although they would first need to free space on the overseas quota.
But the Burgess transfer is not thought to be an obstacle in attempts to squeeze Inglis into the squad and he is still planning to fly to Sydney on December 28.
Although he will train alongside brother Sam in Souths’ full-time squad next season, the Bulls academy product is not initially expected to feature in the NRL side.
Instead, Burgess will start out in the Toyota Cup under-20s competition, which is governed by separate salary-cap rules.
NRL clubs are granted an allowance of $250,000 for a 20-man Toyota Cup squad, as long as players fall outside of the designated 25-man senior squad.
Bradford are also hoping they will soon be able to finalise the release of another NRL-bound player, scrum half Matt Orford.
Chairman Peter Hood admits talks are at a ‘delicate’ stage, with the club keen to negotiate a compensation fee in exchange for terminating the final two years of the player’s contract.
Orford has been on compassionate leave in Australia since November 1, the date he was due to return to pre-season training, and is thought to have agreed terms on a potential move to Canberra Raiders.
But it is believed the Bulls still owe Orford around £100,000 in salary and, in the absence of a transfer fee, are hoping to agree on some kind of settlement.
Hood said: “Discussions are ongoing, lawyers are involved and the talks are at a delicate stage.
“One thing I can say is we have had no contact from any Australian club. No club has been involved in discussions – they have been between me and the player’s manager.”
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