I personally think we delve into the Aussie coach pool. Saves us getting left behind in terms of overseas signings by teams like Huddersfield!!

I agree with this we missed out. Watched a lot of Austin at Canberra, fantastic player who is tailor made for SL. Warrington have got a real player there and imo he will have as big if not bigger impact than Barba has at Saints.

Is Austin an organiser? He seems and out and out runner to me. He's not in Barba's class, but he's a huge improvement on Tyrone Roberts.

Austin's not an organiser - he's a very powerful runner. That's why he gets dropped a fair amount (along with being at times a turnstyle in defence). I don't understand this idea of signing a 1/6 and then signing another and making him play centres. If you want a centre, sign one.


Just one aside, Galloway was never a proper replacement for Peacock or Leuluai - he was the dictionary definition of a plodder, who had become the butt of commentators jokes with regards to just how slow he was before he left the NRL.

As an outsider looking in he should have gone a season earlier. Last years GF win massively papered over the cracks of a poor season on the back of the previous years visit to the Middle 8s. Much as I would love Fax to win a GF you at Leeds have more money and higher expectations, his succession playing is now coming home to roost.

I've said for some time that 2017 hasn't helped us. The hubris around the club which allowed us to excuse 2016 due to any number of issues (floods, injuries, junket vs NZ etc etc) was summarised by the complete lack of recruitment for the following year - the club clearly believed everything would be right without any major changes.

That attitude was reinforced by the win last year, in a competition with only one decent team who imploded in the GF (an utterly low quality game).

As a result the club has overrated a number of players enormously. We still have a lot of the GF team at the club, but the reality is they're being exposed for having stayed on too long (our older forwards) or in some cases just not being as good as thought (quite a few are worryingly in that category).

I wouldn't trade the GF win last year, but GH, BM and co seriously took their eye off the ball following 2015, and last year has cost us a year or so more in terms of refereshing things.