Will hold my hands up on this one. The first few games he played for us I thought he was cack - his defence was shocking and he looked scared of contact.

But last night he was outstanding and a deserved man of the match. Very happy to e proved wrong.

Disagree. I though he was very good for the full 80 minutes in both attack and defence and he looks to have the classs to make it to the top. The one whose defence was suspect was Handley.

The knock on Golding - even in the 19s - has been that he doesn't appear to relish the physical side of the game, particularly the one-on-one defence you need playing at full-back.

No sign of that last night. Couple of excellent efforts, the one on Nightingale was great technique, and there was one on the line in the second half that was Hardakeresque. He also looked a lot more confident about taking a hit bringing the ball back from kicks.

Think he's coming to the realisation that he can operate at this level and growing in confidence, both in his ability and his physicality.

The assumption is that he's seen as a FB long term, but I reckon the club see him as a halfback in the future, he played the last few games of the season there for the U19s.

After the first season of Super 8s etc. I think squad rotation will play more and more a part of the weekly rounds. We looked shattered in some of the later games this season, IMO McDermott will rotate Zak and Ashton so that they are both upto game speed and keep them fresher throughout the year. He showed up well last night along with Lilley.

Yep the comments from McDermott after the grand final and last night seem to suggest he will be rotating. I would expect that to happen in the first 23 rounds.

Lots of positives from last night, one big worry was Wards defence, he got bumped off with alarming ease and regularity.

Why is that a worry for us going forward. He's been released

Golding turned his back a couple of times when they broke through, his speed saved him but that's not a ploy I like. He also went missing when they kicked through near the line. But as I say he picked it up as the game went on.

Pleased for the lad ...maybe he can be cover for stand off as well as FB next season to keep him more happy. Can't see him usurping Hardaker at FB; maybe he has a better future as Leeds's future SO? (Unless Hardaker moves to the NRL of course - which of course I selfishly hope he doesn't)

So already you can see the new wave of youngsters trickling through

You have the already established likes of ward, sutcliffe, singleton and keinhorst looks to be heading that way

Then coming through handley, lilley, baldwinson golding.

#newbeginnings

The tackle on Sheck (I think) was like watching Zak. And there's a lot of NRL full backs been trampled by that lad last season (if it was him)

Worked for Darren Lockyer I suppose

Full back is not a position that generally gets rotated, particularly when you have someone of Hardaker's standard. I'd expect that like this year Golding would get games only in the event of injury.

Yep found it very strange that McDermott post match NZ made it sound like their'd be several games of rotation. If Hardaker stayed injury free how many games would you realistically rotate him out of? 2/3? One every 9/10 games if that? Usually young FB's might get a gig at wing when they first come through but Handley (and Keinhorst) are covering the three quarters.

Very difficult for Golding. Could end up being the first genuine talent we end up letting go from the academy in a while who makes it big elsewhere, but in our defence it's because we have a still very young MOS winner in his place.