They didn't seem to have many issues last season - remind me how many trophies did they win and how many did Leeds win?

I agree - hopefully they can get him fit - he looked well over weight last season.

Playing at Bradford over the past two season cannot have been easy - especially for a young emerging player.

That wasn't the argument in question though.

You pointed out how Leeds could do with Bateman after listing the injury issues with some of our backrowers but then forgot to mention that Wigan had their own issues there with O'Loughlin and implied that Bateman and Clubb were there to be backup to the starting trio of Hansen (who has now departed), Farrell and O'Loughlin (actually missed more games than JJB & Delaney).

Regarding the shifting of goalposts quote above though, they did have issues there last year when O'Loughlin was absent. Their form without him in the 2nd half of the season was for the most part pretty poor and Wane felt he had to make the gamble to play him in both finals even though he was a big injury risk instead of going for safer fitter options who played in his absence (something McDermott got stick for btw).

Sal-re our BR you have also over-looked the emergance of Minchella and the potential Josh walters has shown playing there.

Wane has stated that he made mistakes in 2012 when his team was goosed by the time the playoffs came. Perhaps they actually made a decision to rest up in the second half of the year. Or maybe they were just lucky that they came good when it real mattered i.e. when the trophies were being handed out.

On O'Loughlin Wane knew when he played him the chances of him playing a major part in the games were strong and so it proved. McDermott on the other hand played the likes of JJB - knowing they were seriously injured - who simply didn't make any tangible contribution.

The point here is you either think Bateman would be a good addition given the state of the Leeds squad - I do, you probably don't - that's the point of the board like this.

sal you are also far too quick to write certain selective players off that clearly suit your agenda against them are you not?

did you not also write jp off and say that he was finished in 2011 and that he shouldn't have been given a new contract?

whilst on the subject of injury prone players, your own personal favorite player at the club has probably missed more games in recent seasons through injury, but you don't seem to have any issues there have you?

imo his injuries are far more detrimental to both his and his teams performances due to their nature than any sustained recently by either jjb or delaney, he could also be restricting the pathway of sutcliffe if selected most weeks

i hope that both jjb and delaney prove you wrong this season as i believe that both are still good enough to warrant starting spots each week and especially when the big games come around

at present i am far more concerned about your favorite players fitness worries than any other player at the club

I completely agree with you - if McGuire doesn't improve on what he delivered in 2013 then he doesn't deserve his place in the side. The same goes for a number of the senior players and I include JJB, the captain, Kylie and Kirke in that. The question re. Sutcliffe is who is holding him back? Sutcliffe is a stand off not a scrum half who is playing stand off?

We seen in the cricket what happens when you rely on senior players too much, when the bar is raised they can no longer increase their performance levels to compensate.

Going into 2014 Leeds will have potentially 8 players the wrong side of thirty perhaps the club should be considering how to lessen the workload on these great servants of the club?

sinfield stands at 6 from scrums admittedly but he is not the player that will be stopping sutty from playing each week,we both know who will be though

What we both know is a number of younger players will not get the game time they should because older players will get selected on reputation before them regardless of how well they are playing - we both know which players we are talking about!!

Sutcliffe wants to the playmaker - who is the playmaker in the Leeds side? as you said we both know which player will be holding Sutcliffe back.

I agree that Sutcliffe should be given more responsibility over the coming season, however, to blame Sinfield for potentially holding him back is letting your obvious dislike of Sinfield cloud your view. Sutcliffe showed on Boxing Day he is not yet ready to be the main playmaker for Leeds. At the moment he needs to be playing as second fiddle to someone to allow him to get the necessary experience to take over this role sometime down the line. This means leaving Sinfield doing the job he has been doing successfully for so long and Sutcliffe taking playing time from McGuire and Burrow as the secondary playmaker.

He will never get the experience as it is - especially if all the key plays go through the same person? Perhaps changes are required and Sinfield needs to play second playmaker to a younger team mate. Add the experience but not dominate all the plays?

I think the main requirement for Sutcliffe is to get the experience of playing first team and experiencing the increased pace and intensity from junior age groups without having all the responsibility on him of having to be the main playmaker. I would have no problem with the reliance on Sinfield being dialled back but until someone proves themselves as being reliable enough to be trusted in these situations it's not going to change.