ainton has been in superb form this year and really speeds things up for us. Hope we can keep him, he is the best hooker in super league at the moment and pivotal to our play.He always looks dangerous with the ball and tackles all comers well. He really makes the opposition work hard.Staying with Rhinos gives him every chance to pick up silverware and i rate him up with Buderaus.

Why are people so extreme! To call him average is ridiculous-he's been very good this year. To compare him to Buderus is also ridiculous.

Ailton would be a loss but like others I think he probably is replaceable. I'd rather not have to replace him though. He gets us on the front front and we look a lot more dangerous in the opposition 20 with him at dummy half.

I don't think comparing Aiton's form THIS season to Buderus's in a Leeds shirt is unreasonable. Aiton's career in RL won't be talked about in years to come in the same way that Buderus's will be but taking this season so far, Aiton's had a huge influence.

Confirmed - will not be at Leeds next season, will be with another (as yet unnamed) Super League club.

From his own comments, he's moving for money. Fair enough, if he's more bothered about chasing a few quid and winning fewer trophies so be it.

Disappointing if he has gone for money. According to Peter Smith on Twitter, Leeds have been making contingency plans just in case so it will be interesting to see if anybody should come in.

Cameron Smith. World class hooker, organiser and kicker. Kill two birds with one stone. Jobs a good un.

No chance.

Come on that's a bit unfair. It is not his fault he joined a top club later in life. Like he said, it is only a short playing career, and he can hardly be blamed for trying to make up his pension at this time of his career.

Shame we are losing him, pretty gutted, but good luck to him.

I'd have to agree with that, He's 30 and may be about to sign his last pro rugby contract

[iGary Hetherington said, "It is not come as a surprise because Paul rejected a new 3-year contract from us and told us of interest from other clubs some time ago, but it is always disappointing when a player of Paul's standing decides to leave the club. He is a full overseas quote player, so that provides us with some flexibility for 2016 and the search for another good player is on and will take as long as it needs to."
[/i

Houghton or Lunt look probable domestically.

But with an overseas spot now vacant, wonder if Uncle Gary will continue in growing the ozzie beard pack?

No problem with him moving on, but that's the choice he's made. Let's not paint it as anything else. Given their appalling away form he's got naff all chance of winning anything at the Dragons, but he's happy to put up with that because he'll be financially well rewarded for a couple of years.

It's a choice that quite a few players at Leeds could have made over the course of their careers but chose not to, if we are to believe the skipper's (2011?) Grand Final speech. Different people are motivated by different things in their professional lives.

Big rumours on the replacement front are still Danny Houghton and Manly's Matt Ballin. Would be underwhelmed with the latter, not because he's necessarily a bad player - second best Queensland hooker behind Cameron Smith over the last few years - but because he'll be 32 come next January and doesn't offer much in the way of longer term continuity.