League: Cowboys favourites to sign Bird after quashed conviction

Greg Bird. Photo /Getty Images

SYDNEY - North Queensland have emerged as early favourites to secure controversial star Greg Bird, with chief executive Peter Parr declaring few rival NRL clubs could match a Cowboys offer.

Bird is likely to resume his NRL career in 2010 after a conviction against him for recklessly wounding his girlfriend was quashed on appeal yesterday.

The Cowboys and Gold Coast have been linked to Bird, with the former test and Cronulla five-eighth/lock reportedly not keen to return to playing with a Sydney club.

Bird played the last English Super League season with French club Catalan Dragons after being cut loose by Cronulla in January, but he is now off-contract.

Parr, who spoke with Bird's manager on Tuesday, said the Cowboys had yet to make a final decision on whether to make an offer for the 25-year-old.

But there is no doubt he would be a good fit with outside test halfback Johnathan Thurston after the club released five-eighth Travis Burns this month, freeing up significant funds under the NRL's salary cap.

Parr said he would talk to the coaching staff and board and check the NRL's view. "But at the end of the day we've just let a five-eighth go [and] we've freed up some money ... [not] as much money as an international player would demand, but I think it would be more money than a few other clubs would have."

The Gold Coast Titans plan to hold talks with Bird, but coach John Cartwright noted that he would have to join for opportunity and lifestyle rather than the size of his pay packet because of salary cap restrictions.

"It's been sort of out there that Greg wants to get out of Sydney, there's not many clubs that he would like to play his football at and I think ours was one of the clubs that he said he'd like to play at," Cartwright said. "There's nothing for an international player ... so it's more about opportunity and I suppose what he's prepared to play for."

Titans chief executive, Michael Searle, emphasised that the club had a good track record of working with players who had had previous off-field problems.

NRL boss David Gallop said a club wanting to sign Bird would need to demonstrate how they would manage him.

Bird's former club, Cronulla, ruled out any return and were not concerned about any possible legal action arising from his sacking.

Chief executive Richard Fisk said the club had made the right decision with the information that was put in front of it.

- AAP