Without trying to contradict my previous comments, the players filling in for Leeds last season were clearly not up to scratch and in all honesty having Jones-Bishop playing for Leeds would of been excellent but I do feel that he gained more experience week in week out at Harlequins. Last season was last season and is over and this season we are now reaping the benefits of that experience he gained. Having suffered from illness for the entirety of the 2010 Super League season I am excited by this season but feel that we should be enjoying watching BJB this season and not dwelling on the mistakes.

These are just my thoughts and since moving to London I don't have anyone to discuss rugby with so I'm not disrespecting your opinions I'm just offering my views.

I agree to an extent with what you are saying. In hindsight Buderus might turn out to be a excellent signing, or one we just didn't need. The next couple of years will show us that. It was clearly an awkward situation with Diskin being an integral member of the squad and I daresay a fairly popular one amongst his peers. I think both hookers would have operated better playing 60+ minutes and at times we did accommodate Diskin. Would dropping him have caused ructions in the dressing room? I guess we'll never know. A brave decision needed making and was made. We now have the better option available to use and hopefully he will deliver.




Age can be deceptive when it comes to RL players. Some, for example Sinfield and Walker, develop very early. Others make their mark in the game much later. He was clearly behind Donald, Hall and probably Watkins for a wing spot and is primarily a full back. He was never going to gain much first team action at Leeds in his prime position and so the club, obviously thinking a lot of him sent him on loan to develop, which he quite clearly has. WOuld he have gained more playing 15 games on the wing for Leeds - I personally don't think he would.




I confess to not having seen much of him before he left but the club obviously decided his value. He could get a bigger contract and the chance of first team rugby elsewhere and took it. Good luck to the kid but I'm buying that Leeds made a shocking decision on the back of one decent season for Salford. DOn't forget Leeds had seen him play for Hull in SL so had that to judge him on.




Yes there would. As neither of the above are close to being centres. WOuld you have been happy with another year of Ablett as centre, thus restricting his development as a back rower, or with Watkins being thrown in every week?




I agree whole heartedly on Delaney as a 2nd rower. He has all the attrributes for it. There weren't many games when Smith, Hall and Donald were all available until the end of the year. That move then could have caused more disruption. For Ablett see above.. and he was one of our better players at times last year. Leave him where he is!



Who of Cross, Bailey, Kylie, Burgess, Peacock and Kirke would you have AMbler in front of? Only Kirke at a guess, which means he is 6th choice prop forward when we only play we 3 or 4. He wouldn't have been involved much bar a lot of injuries. Hardaker would be behind BJB, Smith and Hall and possibly Watkins. Again, he wouldn't have seen much action.



He's got nowhere near the skill set required to play stand off - it'll never happen!!!

Sorry to hear about your illness. A ruthless management perhaps would have released Diskin sooner (after completing the signing of Buderus) rather than extending his existing contract still further during the 2010 season, although not to extend his deal as part of the mythical 'Magnificent Seven' announcement in the middle of his Testimonial season would have perhaps looked eh for want of a better word ..... ruthless.

No they are not infallable. I have had many many a discussion about the merits of one signing or another. However I think sometimes we have to accept that the people who make these decisions know a lot more than we do. To say the club has been mismanaged given our recent success and the current squad at our disposal is frankly, laughable.




We improved the squad. Yes, there were probably other areas of greater need at the time. Yet the squad was still good enough to win the title the following year. I questioned the need at the time but was still bloody excited about seeing Danny Buderus in a Leeds shirt. We are certainly in a stronger position now than we were at the end of 2008.




Idle speculation. There is nothing to suggest this is true. We had a fairly good record against Hull and Bradford I would expect with the two of them in the squad.




OK compare his one peformance (against Salford on Easter Monday??) with that of last week and they are leagues apart. Sending him to Harlequins was clearly the right decision at the time. Whether he should have been recalled is a matter for debate. I still think he gained more from being the main man in his prime position at Quins than he would have been playing all over the backline filling in for Leeds.




Donald was part of a period of unrivalled success for the club. His from was never that poor in 2009 and to suggest Broughton, after very little SL experience would have replaced him successfully would have been a gamble from the club. They had worked with him every day and obviously didn't think he was ready in 2010. he has since proved otherwise and good luck to him. I am happy enough with our wing options at present. For every Jodie Broughton there is a Leroy Rivett around the corner



I'm not sure Broughton has been replaced by hardaker at all. More, we have snapped up a kid with bags of potential looking towards the future. I would guess it has cost fairly little in comparison at present.

Thanks.

I completely agree, Ferguson got rid of Beckham, Stam, Keane etc ruthlessly and has been successful since. I really rate Diskin, was a fantastic player for the club but it was clear to see Leeds do not need a two hooker system that included Buderus and Diskin. I was excited by the signing of Buderus but at the time an unnecessary signing unless we were going to offload ruthlessly. Which I don't mind as long as we are progressing preferably with young English players.

I agree it would be if that is what was happening here. Posters are debating individual decisions taken, not seeking to throw the baby out with the bathwater.



So isn't it a pity that we haven't seen enough of Buderus when he's been available over the last two seasons and isn't it exciting now that we might get to this season?



I'm not speculating about Leeds' recent record against Hull And Bradford (that is available for all to see) I'm speculating that had Diskin still been at Leeds this season we would still be seeing the mandatory substitution policy employed for the last two seasons when both were available (although with a new coach, perhaps not) and that loss of direction could have cost Leeds in a tight game.



So there weren't wing performance=#FF0000s as such in 2009 to judge against afterall. Do the Harlequins have superior coaching resources, do they have a better track record at developing youngsters? What we see now was always there.

I agree Jones-Bishop needed SL exposure I just felt that opportunity could have come at Leeds in 2010 at the expense of Donald who was going through the motions.



Did Broughton not also represent that at the time?

Broughton was already on the books having progressed through the Headingley system, waiting for an opportunity at his hometown club. Hardaker has been recruited from outside the club from the Championship (a comparative unknown quantity - representing a bigger risk - I hope he makes it) and has cost the club a sizeable signing on fee.



No worries. We're all friendly here.

do you not think tvoc that having come through the system the coaches who had seen him for years were best place to judge if we kept him or not?

Of course.

Does that make their decision infallable? The same set-up have made other decisions some would take issue with.

To remind folk of my position at the time (that was during the 2009 season not looking back with the benefit of glorious hindsight from where we are today) was basically that it was time to say thank you and so long to the soon to be out of contract Scott Donald and for his place to be taken in the 1st grade squad by one of the Academy prospects Watkins/Broughton/Jones-Bishop.

All three had the potential, all three I would have liked to see integrated into the 1st grade squad occupying the future full-back, wing and centre positions.

Donald (a decidedly average antipodean) was effectively blocking their 1st grade opportunity in the short-term and to what end?

The departures of Donald and Diskin ripped the heart out of one particular poster on this forum, especially considering that the very same poster had been quite vitriolic towards Eastwood for reneging on his contract.

I for one hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

Leeds have enjoyed unparallelled success during an era in which many of our juniors have shown unswerving loyalty to the club. GH has, mainly, returned that loyalty. Has any club ever had a cluster of testimonials to match Leeds these last seven years?

The whole system is built around that reciprocal loyalty. It's the foundation to building a team rather than assembling a squad of the most talented individuals in every position. It's crucial and without it I doubt we'd have retained some of the stars we have. Re-read Kevin Sinfield's post Grand Final speech 2009 and have a think again about whether Leeds should "ruthlessly" discard players that have served them so well.

It has worked very, very well.

Donald was a decidedly average player in your opinion. That is the whole basis of your gripe with his retention and the feeling it cost us Broughton. The reason I think your view is flawed is two fold. Donald was an excellent winger, one of the best in the league. Broughton has still to show anything remotely reaching the levels Donald did and probably won't get the chance because he wasn't prepared to wait for it, unlike his contemporaries now enjoying the limelight at Leeds rather than the low-lights at Salford.