In fairness there is very little you can do these days with an irritating little t0$$pot like Batemen that wouldn't end up in some sort of card and/or a ban. He's a tough kid though and has some talent, perhaps someone we should have looked at (maybe we did?). Certainly more promise than the long list of nobodies we have invested in over the last few years to try and fill the non existant forward pipeline from our academy.

Our forward production has been a bit underwhelming of late, but I'm not convinced by anything I've seen from him that Bateman offers anything better than we have. He plays in a better pack, but that doesn't make him a better player.

When Bateman first emerged at Bradford, he looked like he was going to be a new Gareth Hock. A wide-running back rower who hit the line hard, broke tackles and hurt teams.

That seems to have dropped out of his game, so what you're left with is a niggly little sod of limited talent. Ironically, not unlike the current version of Gareth Hock.

If Bateman's so great why does Wane leave him on the bench for nearly an hour in most big games?

Perhaps going from a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a bigger pond. Also Wigan play a very structured attacking game that relies on the second man play creating the extra man out wide. So a the need for Bateman's qualities are diminished. If you look at Wigan's back three O'loughlin plays as a 3rd playmaker, Farrell is a tackling machine, Tomkins is a dummy runner

Even the guy from Leigh had a go at JP!!

It is though, if you bring in the right players.

Yeah that worked out well for him didn't it?

I don't see anyone saying he is a great player - bet he would have developed more at either Warrington or Saints

Who said he was "great"? I suggested he might have been a better bet than the likes of Jay Pitts.

I think you watched a different game to the rest of us.

JP thought better of it, and rightly so.

sparking a chav would have done nothing for his reputation.

"No cannonballs".....sorry must've forgot Jeff Lima on Clarkson or Sam Tomkins on JJB.......Wigan have tried to ruffle our feathers for a few years now, sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn't. Wane and Wigan showing "a level of respect and not taking the "......sorry but have you not watched Wigan before this season? Doesn't matter the opposition, in fact the bigger the better to dig into them. The more you try to push this 'Wane only discovered about Leeds in that Bateman incident' the more desperate you sound to push your 'Leeds are doomed' idea.

As I said time will tell - you have no more idea of how Leeds will go next year - even though your arrogance and myopia makes you believe you do. It is all opinions yours is no more valid than mine. Some facts Leeds didn't beat a top four side in SL after win against Wigan in May, they lost 9 games in the second half of the season including losses to Saints, Wigan, Warrington, Huddersfield. When they needed to put in a half decent performance against the Dragons they fail. My view is based on the tangible evidence listed above not some "I am going to ignore the evidence because winning the CC caused all this and it will all be different because they have now won the CC". The evidence post CC wouldn't suggest that winning the cup and getting the monkey off their back had a positive impact on their play.

On the Wigan thing - yours is an opinion you don't know what Wane thought - even though you actually believe you do!!! Something changed in their attitude between game 1 and game 2 why that was who knows - neither of us really know.