in a way friday's performance shows any past criticism Ive made (not on here) to be justified, if thats what he can do why hasnt he done it more often?

ill always criticise someone good who isnt fulfilling potential more then someone who is just a bad player - Ive always felt that Bailey could put more in than he does and Friday night goes some way to showing that

Kepp it going Mr Bailey

Imho he is consistent in that he does the hard graft and attracts penalties and attention from the opposition and whilst he stood out on friday his work often gets over-shadowed by the headlines the other team members make i.e another 60 minute stint by peacock,or brilliant tries from donald,webb,burrow or mcguire.
How much did people recognise jjb's efforts early on in his career??
There's loads of people who still think that sinfield is only a kicker.
Bailey does and always has contributed to the team maybe not always worthy of headlines or M.O.M awards and many times not as explosive as friday but he does a job for the team and i'd rather have him in the 17 than not.

He was in great form at the beginning of last season as well until he picked up the hip injury (I think it was hip). Form suffered a little after that, but not unusual for that to happen to a player.

I've always liked him for one reason in particular - opposing fans hate him. I can only assume then that they dislike seeing him in a Leeds shirt. Maybe opposing fans are subconciously more perceptive than the Leeds fans who constantly bag him?

Why didn't you highlight the rest of that quote? It would have saved you replying to it.

But to answer, what we saw on Friday is no fluke. It is what Bailey is capable of and what I am told he shows very often on the training pitch. So that said, if he hasn't put in the sort of performance on Friday in many other games (which he hasn't) then by definition he is not consistent.

That said I agree that his contribution to the team is far greater than he is given credit for, which is what I said on first page. But why settle for just that, when you are capable of more.

Unless game time in minutes is recorded it's still a bit Mystic Meg amongst the prop forwards, some of who will spend anywhere between 2 and 3 times the length of time on the park as others in a average appearance.

That was my first job when I got back here after lunch. Thanks for doing the job for me.

We agree on something.

I wondered when you'd pop up on this thread!!!

Sorry for stepping on your toes, I understand your vulnerability.

Joking aside, your 100% correct to mention game time, I thought of it but didn't want to undermine my own argument! But seeing as I don't have access to that info, mine will have to do for now. I still think it holds up, we have records of Baileys penalties in full seasons and I feel I can make assumptions on these. I'm hardly making wild generalisations. But I'll leave this end to you, I feel very uncomfortable making well structured debate.

It took me a while.

I was at a party Saturday night and got talking to a bloke I know in passing who is a Wakefield fan. I asked him if he'd been to Headingley the other week. He then went into a rant for 30 mins about how Bailey should've been sent off against Wakey, about how Atkins chinned him and about how happy he was to see bailey get knocked out Friday. I listened politely.

Anyway, once his rant was over he asked me if I was going to see the Salford game on Sunday. To which I pointed out, I was a Leeds fan, not a Wakefield fan and he's been talking e the last 30 mins.

No doubt about it, having Bailey in the team is worth it if only to get oppo. fekkwitts frothing at the mouth about him.[/i]

Bailey is rarely an eye-catching prop but he does do the unfashionable work (and alot of it) very well. I'd still like to see abit more out of him going forward (like friday night), but he's more than worth a place in the team.

Thing is though Gareth, although the oppossition fekkwitts hate him, he isn't actually playing the same sort of game that made them hate him in the first place.

He is not the cheap shot merchant he is made out to be. He actually contains his aggression very well and channells it in the right areas. Infact if some of these morons took the bias away they would see that Bailey actually receives many more cheap shots (in order to wind him up) than comes close to what fans say he does. On Friday he copped two head high tackles from Fozzard in the first 10 minutes which never got a penatly.

In my opinion Bailey is not protected enough from refs, but is very quickly penalised if anything is 50/50.

But of coure like you said, it adds to the excitement at the ridiculous rage it puts oppossition fans in.