I'm pretty sure that I saw similar half d efforts from Iro at most of his clubs over the years. The comparison is of course more about attacking prowess and effort rather than individual examples but the point still stands.

To be fair to Watkins Iro wasnt asked to make 30 tackles defending as a 2nd rower and didnt really cart ball up middle like Kallum is asked to do.

We are totally wasting a very talented player.

...and have been for a good few seasons now. Looking at how Hardaker has become the great all round FB now he can pass in the Cas team; can you imagine how the Leeds threequarters especially Watkins would go in the same team. Phew!

It makes me laugh a bit how people go up a notch in peoples opinions. Zak was a good player for Leeds and did a great job for Leeds in attack and defence. He won many trophies including a man of steel. Lets not pretend hes suddenly become a great player.

In my honest opinion Leeds made the right decision in moving Zak on for both Leeds and Zak. Enough was enough with Zak.

James Lowes was similar in that a month after leaving for Bulls he too became hooker but was a good player with Leeds.

I wish he'd been put that kind of effort in during his time at Leeds. Had the potential to win Man of Steel at one point, IMO.

Haha..always been a fan of Hardaker (as I'm sure you know)...but his achilles heel was always his apparent relative inability to pass (especially to the left) and chime into the line. In the Cas team he now looks the complete FB defensively and offensively.

Forget 2016. Before then he passed the ball plenty for Leeds.

I'm not buying any of this about him suddenly becoming a much better player after a few weeks at bloody Cas!
I'm sure he'll improve, just like he'd have improved at Leeds had he not had his off field problems last year.

Welcome back by the way!

Quite agree, now he is passing early and before contact far more.

Maybe going to Australia helped his passing game but I would credit playing with Luke gayle

To be fair, wrt Hardaker & comparisons with his time at Leeds, we should totally discount 2016 from our deliberations. He was a mess last year.

However, it is valid to compare him now to pre-2016. Whilst at Leeds he excelled in defence and broken field running. I have NEVER seen him CONSISTENTLY (three games in a row) look so effective as a link in the line with beautifully-timed passes to his winger/other. One can only conclude that he is: a) being coached to bring this skill to his game, or b) the style of play that Powell has Cas playing has encouraged this skill to manifest itself.

If the answer is a), then BMD is a numpty (5 or 6 years to coach the skill, compared to one off-season for Powell), if b), then BMD is a numpty (with our set of backs the past few years).

My guess is it is more b) than a). Why, for instance, do we persist in an incredibly flat attacking line (I understand why for runners near the ruck, but not out wide)? Why are we not coached to pass out wide early in the tackle count/in our own half every now & then? Anyone who has played/watched long enough know that this is when you are most likely to find gaps/space to run.

powell said he has done loads of work with hardaker, as they wanted him to try to replicate dorn.
as for our attack we have none. no dummy runners, nobody running through gaps, not that our halves can put people through gaps, and no shape.
I would conclude both your options are right

It IS like groundhog day. This IS "cut and paste" 2016 all over again.