I thought there was a couple of positives for Leeds:
- Burgess - ran with heart, improved game. Filled Kylie's shoes. Just question his ability to do that week in week out. Thought Paul Wood was top draw, big carries - 3/4 quality offloads. He marired the concept of making the metres with a sensible, attacking, offload threat. Leeds please take note!
- Sinfield - made the hard yards when the forwards wouldn't. Lead by example. And he finally kicked a touch liner.
- Ablett - thought he looked strong, considering his early come back.
But there are plenty of negatives, most have been touched on. What springs to my mind:
- Lack of the basics. Awful handling, cut corners, no platform.
- Wellar and Ali starting? A tactic that didn't work. Clarkson is the type of player who should start and Ali/Wellar one of them should have come off the bench.
- Cross, sloppy and unimpressive. We should bear in mind that he's still a rookie!
- Kirke, ineffective and work shy. Shock! Ambler peforms in an earnest manner, it's time he got the chance.
- Wellar, poor. Thought he should have filled in at prop and he could have got his head round a straight up and down game a bit easier. His linking didn't work and threw out a God awful ball which cost us.
The trys either side of half time ended the contest. Leeds can't help but leak points, literally - left, right and centre. To play a brand you need the discipline of the basics to start from. Leeds need to look at themselves and be honest. Mac is feeling the pressure now, God help him Fat Feka's Top 8 Reds turn us over. In the last 2 games Mac didn't really change anything mid-game which looked like turning it round. Don't worry though he has the brain cells of James 'I stick fingers up at Leeds fans but I'm back now so it's all forgotten' Lowes to fall back on.
Before the season started I only asked Leeds to get off to a good start to give us a realistic chance of competing come the back end. It hasn't happened yet and it looks like a carbon copy of last year all over: mixed results/paper over cracks/getting out of jail/bombing etc - I just can't see where the progress will come from short term.
The inclusion of JP, McGuire, TMFMISL, Kylie and Delaney (as a second rower only) would make us significantly stronger and solid. But you can only play with the cards you've got and we've got a couple of Jokers in our deck.
