Former Featherstone Rovers man Caleb Aekins has spoken on the ‘strain’ suffered by himself and other players that led to him quitting the club and making a Super League switch.
It’s been confirmed this week that Featherstone have had an Administration Order granted with the club, RFL and administrators working together to try and ensure the West Yorkshire club can compete in 2026.
Administration is something that felt like it’s been coming for months with players unpaid for several months and former Rovers’ full-back has confirmed that he decided to quit the club at that point, gambling that he would land a deal elsewhere. That move did come with Bradford Bulls signing him in early November.
Speaking to BBC Radio Leeds about his move to Bradford Bulls, Aekins explained how his exit from the Flat Cappers came about with the New Zealander revealing that Bradford came knocking very quickly after his exit from Rovers.
He explained: “I did have another year with Featherstone on my contract but when everything went down, I asked for a release once I didn’t get paid and to be fair to them, they were quite good and let me go.
“Kurt gave me a call and told me he wanted me to come to the Bulls so it’s all worked out for me in a way. I went from a bad situation to an even better situation.”
Aekins “thankful” for Super League chance after financial woes at Featherstone
He’s one of over a dozen new signings at Odsal with the Bulls back in Super League for the first time in a decade and Aekins explained how thankful he was for the chance.
On joining Bradford, he said: “I was kind of waiting and after the point where we can become free agents, my manager started working for me and I had a call from Kurt not too long after that really.
“I’m thankful for this opportunity because I could have been in a really bad spot.”
Some players at Featherstone remain unpaid and head coach Paul Cooke has recently revealed that he doesn’t even know what is happening, with Aekins now conceding just how difficult the past few months have been.
He explained: “It has been quite a tough period so I’m lucky that my wife works as we’ve had to live off her wage and we also had some money back in New Zealand so we went back at the end of the year and kind of got by by using some of the money back there.
“It put a strain on everyone at the club, some more than others but we were quite fortunate to have a back up situation.”
As for his new club Bradford and the fact they have so many players to embed in, Aekins claims that the new Super League side have done so efficiently.
“We’ve all gelled pretty quickly and it’s been real seamless,” he explained, adding: “It’s a lot of new people in a club at once so it’s lucky that it’s been that way.”
He’ll now prepare for the first Super League season of his career having made the switch to England in 2022 with Leigh Centurions before joining Featherstone.
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