part of the problem was our forwards either by accident or design are bunched close together. So it's easy for the defenders to pick out the ball receiver. This was also the case in the second half at the wigan game.
Aiton seemed to burn himself out. We desperately need another hooker, warrington have Clark and Dwyer both quick and smart players. I would have taken a chance on Lunt, whilst he apparently is not performing well, we know what he can do.
When we get the full squad back on the field things should improve . On balance the squad is getting weaker year by year.
If we win nowt this year then it will be time for changes. The thought of burrow playing next season does not fill me full of confidence.

Traditional thinking? He can't think. Get him walking, I can't spake!

he reminds me of brian noble. when plan A works its great but if I doesn't then he hasn't a clue. he is also totally incapable of changing things during a game. he is tactically clueless.
I praised him a while back but since then he has returned to type.
for me we are desperate for a change of coach. Hetherington shouldn't escape criticism either. his recruitment has been awful.

It's all a cunning plan.....Leeds want to give the impression they're punch drunk right up until the home game against Hull. Here again they will be lacklustre and probably lose, but against the same team the following week they will win in style.

All joking aside it would not surprise me that this indeed will happen; vindicating Printer's opinion that the club is fixated on winning another CC. Why should it surprise us....the team has plenty of GF victories but getting a winning taste of the CC must be sweet to all of them? And a fitting swansong for (the protected from playing too much in the 'meaningless' league games) Kevin Sinfield.

The financial renumeration must be making GH smack his lips too.

They will do enough to qualify for the play offs with this again (for this year) being of secondary importance only. Don't forget but for Briscoe's late faux pas against Catalans then Leeds would have been through and would have probably have found sufficient juice in the tank to have had a good crack at the double.

It could be that the club have a CC win as the key target for this year. It is possible that in this transition period, sights have been set a bit lower. But if that's the case I'd like to see the recruitment follow to move us on and through the transition period. I am willing to accept that Rome wasn't built in a day and all that, but they did have a plan and lots of labour to push it through.

This isn't a transistion year, sick of hearing that phrase, and why people use it I don't know, it should have been a transistion year, next year will be a transisttion year, but this current one is the same as norm but with the same players held on too long.

And I don't for one minute believe we are targeting the Mickey Mouse cup at the expense of the league. That is just a scrapping the barrels excuse for those that have their heads buried regarding the poor coach, who has an history of poor league form.

I didn't say it was a transition year I said a transition period. IMO it is, we are in a process of bring younger members of the wider squad through to begin to replace those long term members of the squad who have left and those who are leaving at the end of the season. The 2016 team will look very different to the 2014 team.

As for the CC. I think it both possible and plausible that when the targets were being set for this year the CC was seen as a more realistic goal than winning the GF. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't prefer to win GF, I would, but GH and McD MAY see the CC as more realistic. BTW pure idle speculation on my part and I'm sure that even if I'm right, both GH and McD would like to win both and would prefer to win the GF.

I don't think we're viewing the Cup as our best shot and targetting it over the league. I think the players will want to win both. But we were never going to keep winning for 18 rounds on the trot and even if we did they'd then probably be concerns that we've pushed too hard too early and would our bad run of games come seasons end?

The league structure might've change and we might have "every minute matters"......but that doesn't mean you can peak all year long. The Top 8 era was always linked with peaking your squad to perform at key times and the new structure doesn't mean that's changed, just means you can't afford to go off the boil for too long as you might miss the top 4.

CURRENTLY, we are still ok because we unexpectedly found ourselves with a large cushion and have had the 'luxury' of not having to keep up the intensity or performance for a couple of months and still have top spot in our own hands. No other team has had that oppotunity to take their foot off the gas mid-season.

taking your foot off the gas yet flogging your props until they can't walk?

if, and it's a big if, the players have been eased off then they wouldn't be playing the minutes they are and would be rested here and there

i dont think Leeds have taken their foot off the gas i just think other teams have upped their game and Leeds are struggling to cope. The injuries are not helping and the lack of depth of quality in the squad and its ageing profile is beginning to yield some cracks in planning and coaching ability

I think that is a concise summation of the situation if a little on the harsh side. But I do have this feeling you maybe don't rate the coach?

not sure many of us do really and I have to say, he brings a lot of it on himself.

I don't think the other teams have upped really apart from Castleford. The others have had similar form throughout the year 2/3 good showings followed by 1/2 poor showings and repeat over. Their's still a lot of inconsistency in the other top 8 teams.

Foot off the gas perhaps wasn't the correct term but you should be able to understand the jist.

Teams can't expect to keep a certain level all year long and teams have clearly targeted certain parts of their seasons to peak in recent. It's been discussed on here in years past of preparing your team to peak come playoff time or peaking early to try win a WCC so teams clearly don't push exactly the same all year through.