Going by the timeline of his previous Achilles injury then Galloway could be ready by around week 1/2 of 2018

Very possible



It depends on him, if he works hard he will get his chances at Wakey so we will soon see how much he wants it.

His face never seemed to fit. Best of luck to him

I hope he has a decent career, but he's another one where the hype about him as a junior was sadly misplaced. According to some he was going to be the cornerstone of the Leeds pack for the next decade....

There was nothinge ever misplaced. He never really had the hype until he made the first team when younger, but regardless of that, the fact that Leeds over the last few years have constantly failed to develop top juniors would be a more fitting reality.

You only have to look at the pack to see the reality of that - we have 5 Aussie forwards in the squad - not one forward has come through the academy in the last 3 years.

And Stevie Ward is just the player anybody would have expected of him at a younger age anyway. His deveopment is purely natural, and was enhanced by getting in the first team early. Turning a blind eye to our poor development of juniors over last few years does not make it right. There was nothing better in the juniors of 2000-2003 than what there has been in the club from 2012-2017. We have just handled it differently.

Can't say I'm too bothered by this, he looked good playing against Championship opposition but seemed to struggle with the pace of Super League. Hopefully with a bit more game time he'll be able to make the step up and forge a decent career.

Good luck to JB for his future. He may well turn out to be a good prop as he matures but currently there are one or two young props ahead of him at Leeds on merit.

It is very difficult to predict how a young prop will turn out as few make it at a young age because of the physical demands. Many of the best props especially those with handling skills started as backrower or even backs

I think the development of quality youngsters has been a problem throughout our game and not just at Leeds. The very predictable style of structured play at SL level seems to have resulted in too many players lacking creative skills. The game has become too defense orientated and boring and there is an argument to reduce the number of players to 12 to create more space for attackers.

Really though you were never going to replicate the quality of kids that came through in the Sinfield/McGuire/Burrow/JJB/Bailey/Ablett/Diskin intake were you?

That kind of thing happens once a lifetime.

I think the best you can hope for is really one player a year coming through the system and making it as a first team regular. Think you've kind of done that with Watkins, Ward, Singleton, Sutcliffe, Keinhorst and Golding. That these players haven't hit the heights of their predecessors isn't that surprising - some of them are still young. I'd say it's recruitment from other clubs and overseas where things are lacking.

It happens when you do it as Leeds did it, plan for it, back it, have faith in it, and make it happen. It is just total cr@p to say it happens once in a lifetime, as it doesn't happen at all unless you do the first bit, but can happen more often if you follow the same. The reason it doesn't is out of choice, as you still have the last batch to have a career, which doesn't mean you can't still promote the best of the rest to challenge what is there.

The one's you listed are a myth. Watkins was years ago, before the period we are talking about. Keinhorst is not the standard we are talking about, christ there are many many kids who more than match his talent, and he didn't come in until late. Goulding or Stucliffe are not the standard of Juniors we used to have. Singleton is no better player now than he was at 16. Ward is the only one, and as said previously, a blind man not knowing about the game could have seen what he was going to be long before he got with the Leeds coaching.

Well I for one can only think of it happening once at Leeds in the entire time I've watched RL since 1980. At no other point in the last 37 years have Leeds brought through such a great set of young players in "one batch" and dominated the game. It may have happened slightly before my time in the years of Holmes, Smith, Atkinson, Shoebottom etc but that't it. Are those the only periods in the past 50 years when Leeds made it happen? It sort of backs up my point doesn't it? It happens very rarely.



The players I listed have done what I said - they've become regular 1st teamers. I made the point that they're not of the quality of their predecessors though it's too early to judge some of them (Goulding and Sutcliffe for instance).

I don't think you properly considered what I actually wrote Gotcha since we seem to be pretty much agreed. The kids coming through at Leeds over the past 10 or 11 years aren't as good as the "golden generation". However some are very decent and some are solid and some aren't SL quality. Twas ever thus.

My point is that it's not realistic when you put the club's history into perspective to expect that quality and number of young players to keep coming through. You might think it's possible (and it may be) but it's not going to happen. History tells us it won't.