That’s fine but then you have to be prepared for oconner and johnson to have some poor games.

9 is a critical position and we are running with a player who has been playing that position for a year and one that has dome catching up to do because he quit the game for 2 years.

They must have been sat with me in there which is why I couldn't see it. You should have had Brad Dwyer still at Headingly so he could miss-kick a poxy, flapper like against Cas a few years back.

Maybe as fans we have to accept the team/squad aren't as good as many think it is. The squad is an 8th/9th quality squad and we are in that position on the table. The squad lacks quality - the projects from the Championship hasn't worked. It could be that Leeds are no longer seen as a quality side that quality players want to join - as fans we have to accept that when we bemoan the quality of the signings. On Friday two of the untouchables on here were poor Handley and Oldeski - Handley was responsible for two of the tries - he seems to me to from the Newman school of believing his own hype - Oldeski is a shadow of the player he was. It doesn't help that neither of these players are playing in a high performance environment that challenges them and they feel their position is a risk if they don't perform. O'Connor has done a good job but would he be starting in any of the top 6 sides?

We must accept this unevenness of performance given the quality put on to the field every week compared to other sides - still should have beaten Wakefield

This!

I wouldn't say the Championship players haven't worked - anyone who expected them all to even be starting players was kidding themselves. They were mostly brought in to add depth, except for Macdonald, who was clearly meant to be a starter (and is). McDonnell who has exceeded expectations. Hooley has only been given one shot, Roberts still looks very raw, Sangare has played most games, and really only Olpherts has been a huge letdown compared to what might have been expected. Most of these lads were bargain basement because we had no cap space.

In any event its not these signings who are playing badly far too often. Look no further than the same players who have far better pedigree but can't seem to string more than one good game together. Until we replace some of our current automatic picks in the key positions we'll continue to struggle.

Given cap space we had, just finding McDonnell was a good effort, for me he’s one of the first names I’d pick every week I think he’s great.

Sangare added the mass we were lacking even though he needs to tidy up his skill a bit. He’s a big thing and he saps the energy of the opposition even if not always showy.

I don’t think we’re as far off as some think, but I do think this extra 10-20% of performance is very hard to reach. We simply must develop the youth effectively over the next 8 months or so, and we just find the magic sauce in additional quality signings which is some luck as well as good judgement.