Did RS coach him at Norths Devils?

Yes

Not sorry to see Sutcliffe go. I remember him whining about leaving years ago. Maybe 2016 or 2017. No point in having players who don't commit to the club.

Apparently McDonald and Smith are good mates so there'd be no question of the guys commitment at least.

Mcdonald just been banned for 3 games. He'll fit right in.

Macdonald is an excellent player.

He played at Norths Devils for a short while too in 2021....

They also shared a house together.

After he burst on to the scene at the back end of the golden generation and managed to displace Kevin Sinfield for a few games (who would have thought it now!), it has been incredibly frustrating watching Sutcliffe's development (or lack thereof). This decision is at least 3 years too late for me. We've seen glimpses of a good player over the years but he's never lived up to his initial potential. Hopefully moving to another club will be the best thing for him as a player and Leeds; at least he will be able to leave us on the back of some relatively good form with his head held high.

Sutcliffe has been a valuable squad member for a while now. I felt he was ok as a player to fill in in an emergency measure, but certainly not holding down a regular place in any position. Reliable but extremely underwhelming.
Should never have been one of our starting centres. Let's bring in someone of Newman's calibre.

Oh! Right. Guess he knows him pretty well then! Do you reckon a move to us is on the cards then?

Another retention mistake corrected. This really does feel like the start of a new era, and it seems that Smith has quickly identified and moved to fix the individual issues that fans have been talking about for years.

I'm not sure we'll sign a centre if Hardaker stays. Maybe depends on whether Edwards is seen as the long-term future as well?

A with 7 outgoings you'd think we would have at least 2 more coming in.

Think we have had 5 coming in and still Zak to sort iirc

Looks a bit of a unit.

Surely the next move is 1 front line prop, 1 rotation prop and then a centre..

I would say so.
Thought we might be getting a barnstorming prop form RS`s connections.
But might have to hope Prior goes as well for that.