Obviously sport is cyclical peaks and troughs and all that. It would be pretty boring if we won the grand final every year, however I would expect a club as big as Leeds to be in the top four every year. Sadly our downward spiral continues ,bargain basement signings like olpherts and Hooley are the barometer of smith’s ambitions. You missed my point regarding saints, which was they took approximately 18 months to assemble a decent side with a competent coach. What had happened previously to that situation didn’t alter the fact they turned the club around in a relatively short space of time.
I note you think it will be 2025 season before we are back in contention, I sincerely hope you are right and reluctantly I would accept that scenario.
Unfortunately unless we come up with some intelligent signings ,that prospect seems light years away.

That’s clearly nonsense isn’t it.

Still plenty of work to do on the squad for 2024 but we’re gonna need some luck too.

We could sign Nathan Cleary. OK we’re gonna win the title then. He breaks a leg in 2 places in a pre-season friendly. Now not going to win the title.

Or our competitors get injuries to key players which weakens them and strengthens our chances.

This whole sport thing is an inexact science of risks and probabilities, as much as some of you like to control. You can’t and neither can GH or RS.

I do think we are on the upward cycle now and we should be competing for trophies I think from 2024; big “if” is who else we sign, how some players recover from injury, how pre/season goes, how young players develop over the next 3-4 months, etc.

Your lack of rugby knowledge is becoming more apparent with each posting.

Deary me.

If we get Croft and Momirovski then we are right up there on paper. All up to Rohan then.
We can truly judge when he has a squad to his liking…..

Absolutely agree ,Croft is a tried and tested finished product, by and large you know what you are getting. Newman would blossom from Crofts playing style.

My thing with Newman is that he suffocates his winger and we have potentially the best winger in SL outside him.

I am wondering whether we should switch Harry to the left where he has a more natural pass (if he ever does pass), and he is more an attacking centre than defensive.

Big year coming up for Newman and Corey Johnson. Newman has to have a real good conditioning pre-season and get and stay fit. Johnson is at the point where he should be taking that 9 shirt and making it his own, or probably moving on.

Also interested how Gannon goes after a stuttering 2023 - there is a player in there for sure.

You having a laugh , our away support is diabolical same as the team performances

I never said we had a massive away following.

Out of the people that you see at every away game, a decent amount of them are under-25. Some of the better travelling fans are the younger ones.

Do you go to away games?

Cost of living crisis, money is tight massively Jekyll and Hyde team performances can see why the majority of more “Seasoned” fans now pick and choose their games as is their want.

Our club coach has struggled for numbers all season, some others more regarded than ours out there aren’t even running anymore. The current climate financially has had a drastic impact on people’s spending power and shouldn’t be dismissed, couple this with a team that was haphazardly inconsistent many of our members decided to not attend and I can totally understand. Now we’re not the oldest coach age wise but it’s hard to justify £50+ every other week when you’ve bills to pay, kids to feed and the team is gash.

It’s easier when your a bit younger and have more disposable to justify your attendance and I would say that yes some of the away games have been sp but hopefully with a bit more action on the field more of the floating attendees will return and atmosphere improve.

Agree with this and for me the whole M62 Friday night nightmare puts me off.

I understand every game is on Sky next year. If so I’ll be even less keen to spend on tickets, petrol etc particularly in dodgy weather.

I don’t think every game will be on sky, it’s just every game will be filmed to broadcast standard and have video refs.

Im fortunate that i can afford to go to the away games it helps I go on my own, I love away games its 3/4 hours or so that I can completely forget about everything, i don’t even mind the M62 journeys but appreciate it can be expensive and time consuming if theres more than yourself to think about.

There’s nothing better than a win away from home especially when it’s a bit of a shock, Wigan away last year in the playoffs was amazingly

Thanks for clarifying the sky part. That may see me going to more games if we can play with more spirit and quality which I think will happen if we get Croft and a good prop.