Fully agree with the above comment. From my experiences many of the problems, as Seth has alluded to, go right back to the junior game where short sighted coaches put short term gain over long term developement.

I have seen around many children become dissillusioned with the game due to their experiences and not just stop playing but turn their back on supporting the game which is having a negative impact on SL clubs both now and for generations to come!

Typical examples generally relate around playing the biggest players at a young age to barge over the opposition and ignore skills (if your born at the end of the school year, unless you are a physical freak you get dumped on the wing and dont see the ball - or more often sub). Whilst standing in as touch line manager once, it was interesting to note that 90% of starting players and 70% of all players were born between September and Christmas!

Once match day squads were limited in number to 17 (out of a squad of 30 - i think), smaller (read born later in school year) players would typically play 1 week out of 5 but still have to travel every week to the matches to find out if you would get selected - a complete waste of time for both parents and players to have to travel, typically 2 hours, to find out they were not playing.

Seth has also alluded to poor quality coaching - one of the clubs I was involved in, the parents ousted the qualified coach because he split each session equally between fitness (many of the fat, overweight, forwards who bashed it up the middle couldnt cope), ball skills (a waste of time according to players and parents who just wanted it passed to the fat lad to run over the opposition) and tackling!. The club continued to coach and play matches without a qualified coach present which went completely against rules but blind eyes were constantly being turned everywhere you looked! This was at U12 or 13 age group!!! Lets not even go into the drinking culture that the (parent)coaches instill into the kids even at this age - again, completely against rules but yet more blind eyes.

The contrast with the philosophy and coaching at Union is really amazing! The coaching (and coaching support from the RFU) is miles ahead and really does focus on skills (albeit a different set of skills), until junior move into the colts side (16) leagues are not played in (there are still cup competitions) - this allows skills to be focussed on more without the same negative impact of losing (this was a concious decision by the RFU), all players are valued and get a good amount of game time each week. The overall result is players are happier, fitter, and more skillful (as has already been stated a different set of skills).

In order for the game to produce players at a higher calibre at the top level, a complete overhaul needs to take place at junior level - in order for this to happen the junior governing body needs to be bought in house at the RFL and made fit for purpose and not constantly turn blind eyes.

It was Leeds' 7th WCC Final, Leeds recorded their lowest ever score (equal lowest try count, lowest goal count) while conceding their highest ever total (most tries against), goes without saying their biggest ever defeat in this fixture and by some considerable distance. Previous reversals were by 4, 8 and 8 - on Sunday by 34.

Over the course of eight days 16 - 94 (-7icon_cool.gif, you have to go back to the dark days of 1996 to find a bigger brace (-38 & -54 - home to Bradford then away at Wigan)

Rather factual post TVOC which will be deemed negative and against the spirit of being a true Leeds fan. You'll have torquemada81 denouncing you if you're not careful.

the tries are not their fault in so far as sutty can't help having one leg and lilley can't help their size ,
last year zak looked looked dangerous and sutty was good when fit and kev then played better than b4 his axing.

we've got away with 2 small hb and letting kev off tackling

to be proven if falloon and jjb can add anything (jjb only less likely than achurch to get injured)

last year we had a new angle of cuthbo but no organised moves.

in a speech jjb said last year was the coming together of what mcd had been putting in place previous years

so did they rely on jp and did they factor in garbutt arriving 14 games earlier than planned

was discussing on way to widnes how have been planless and idealess for years

even the 80s had the wall move William

We wernt very good in attack but you have to remeber some of these NRL defences are incredibly well drilled, there was a semi-final a few years back that finished 4-0 and that included Foran Pearce DCE and Maloney, so its hard to be too critical of our attack based on this game

The kick dint go where he wanted, the fullback was just working harder than everyone else just in case.
They may not be much fitter, but at the 50 min mark we had used one sub and I think NQL had used all of theres? Next year they definitely will be anyway as their subs are dropping from 10 to 8