He wants to see your GB caps.

Here's my thoughts. These guys must have been offered to Hunslet first and as they are not there then I assume Hunslet didn't want them. That's probably because they have a squad of 30 and can call upon Rhinos players 18 - 25 who are not picked.

Do I think they will strengthen Featherstone, I doubt it very much as they are still young. There is allot of talent in the Championship and many could play SL so these guys are not necessarily guaranteed a place either.

Overall I think Featherstone are a weaker team than previous years and will struggle to be in the top 4 this term. I also think London have an underwhelming team and won't meet the expectations set out.

I also expect Tonks to be loaned out From Fev to a C1 club and Minns probably move to Bradford. Foster and Baldwinson might just, just survive.

The futures bright but it's not blue and Amber.

Thanks. Considering the amount of complete and utter knobs that play amateur RL in Yorkshire I'll take that as a compliment.


You didn't actually think we were real rhinos did you?

Why "must" they have been offered to Hunslet? Leeds' arrangement is a DR one, not a loan one, isn't it? There are at least three possible reasons why Leeds might find loaning their youngsters out to Fev more attractive than offering them to Hunslet - it might be a better financial deal for Leeds, they might perceive Fev (rightly or wrongly) as more likely to be playing in the Super 8s at the business end of the season and therefore more able to offer players the big-match experience in games of a relatively good-quality standard, and they might feel that Fev's facilities (which are extremely good) offer more to develop young players than Hunslet's (I don't know anything about Hunslet's facilities, but I'm just speculating here).

They aren't technically on loan. They've signed 1 year deals with Fev, but have signed contracts with Leeds for 2016.

Very much like the lads down in London last year.

Richard gunn was a victim of doug laughtons motivation talks. Gunn asked him why he had been dropped after a hand full of solid showings. Dougie said " because your f##king crap"

Leeds before Rhinos just used to be called Leeds RLFC you know

I think that's what it says on the front of my 100% viscose 1983/4 season shirt, that I "grew" out of about 25 years ago.

I was joking by the way. If you stopped by this board a bit more often oevr the last 10 years you would realise how touchy a few people are over Gary H's squad development strategy. Since the McD era began mild discomfort has been replaced by borderline hysteria at the apparent innability of the club to develop and/or retain quality young players from the academy - particularly our obsession with props which goes back to before we signed (then 2nd row forward) Jamie Peacock and Kylie.

I know you asked a serious question, but it's the off season so what did you expect?

Baldwinson certainly didn't look like SL standard for us last season.

He may come good but it's hard for young props to make a mark at top level without going past the 19 years cut off point.

A bit like halves really. There are the very rare exceptions but in general props need some time to really develop strength. It's a gamble that the cap, competition structure and squad limitations make very difficult to take. Baldwinson looks like he has the frame to fill out, I still don't think Singleton has and I'm not convined he will get any better.

Singleton looks like he's one of those players who can only play prop but hasn't got the basic size and strength required to be a great one. He could become a reasonable workhorse if he gets fit, but I suspect part of the reason for looking a tad overweight is to try to make up for basic lack of bulk. Wikipedia has him down at about 15 st 8 - if right that's really small for a prop nowadays.

I agree. I thibk that he will always like the size to be truly effective in the modern game nor does he have a frame that can be developed sufficently to carry more weight.
Hence why on the surface Mulhern looks the much better long term prospect provided that he has the bottle for the fight.

Surprised foster was not kept.