You're right the balance of the squad isn't quite right & the lack of quality is getting exposed especially in the pack.
I expected better at the start of the season but an ageing injury prone BR , a poor signing in Ferres no genuine 6 & the inconsistency of the likes of Mullally show a pretty big rebuilding job needs doing.

SL has never attracted Origin certainties. At best we've signed a few possibles and has beens. SL is though clearly missing out on the next tier of NRL players - particularly good players in their late 20s/early 30s. That sort of player used to see SL as a nice top up in earnings, and the biggest impact isn't the cap but the tightening in tax laws which meant overseas players like Buderus could effectively treat their earnings from SL tax free. Now they'd be far better off hanging around in the NRL a few years longer.

On us this year, we seem to have a real mindset problem. RL is a momentum game, and we just seem to stop playing once we get a lead. The Raiders have the same problem in the NRL this year - get a lead then stop playing and basically let the opposition right back into the game.

I think the clubs simply don't have the money and most would be unable to invest in a Marquee player. Leeds generate as much revenue as any side yet they struggle either mentally/physically to shell out the monies required to attract very best NRL players available.

Youth development should be applauded/encouraged but it shouldn't be the be all and end all of squad building/filling.

Look at the Leeds squad and there isn't a real quality overseas player in it. Most are pretty average players that struggled to get a game in the NRL - Cuthbertson, Garbutt, Parcell even Moon couldn't get a gig in the NRL.

Correct, not one of our overseas players would automatically get into an NRL team. If as is rumoured Moon returns to the NRL, it won't be as a 6, he'll have to try his hand back in the centres. In the NRL he'll be coming up against bigger and stronger opponents every week, which will neutralise what is his strength in SL. He might well get a gig, but he won't be a star, just as he wasn't when he left for Salford when he should have been at his prime.

If Corey Thompson can go well in NRL I'm pretty sure Joel Moon can.

Completely different beasts. Thompson was generally a winger before he left for SL - its taken Cleary at the Tigers to decide the risk attached to his lack of size is outweighed by his running ability at full back. Moon was an average centre in the NRL, and would be again if he returned. If anything the centres across the NRL have got bigger since he left - there are very few with much of a football brain, but 90% of them are very big guys.

Agreed. See also Ken Sio at KR/The Knights.

For all Moons inability to cement Stand off, he isn't an average centre in a derogatory way, he is above that. Average, yes, in the same terms as other centres, and the majority of NRL centres, but not average as in not good enough to cement a centre place. He is much better than a lof of the centres in the NRL, but accepted not close to the best ones.

My head hurts just reading that.

The NRL is a far more structured environment especially in respect of attacking plays - Moon's space grabbing style simply wouldn't work in the current NRL. Add to that years in SL and he would really struggle with the relentless intensity of that competition. I would be amazed if he could hold down a regular centre spot in the NRL

Moon will go fine in the NRL as many others have. It's easy to make the NRL to be mission impossible for Super League players but players like Mike Cooper, Josh Hodgson, Corey Thompson and many more have done perfectly fine. I see no reason why a player of Joel Moon's calibre wouldn't if that is the road he chooses to go down.

Personally I think Moon is a super player but I have doubts he is 100% fit at the moment.

Stock answer when a player isn't delivering on the field - must be carrying an injury

Followed by the stock answer from a cynic

You can't compare forwards and outside backs. The record of SL forwards in the NRL is generally very good, the record of backs very poor. I just don't see any current team where Moon would be anything other than battling to get a game.