Sadly this is so true!

LeedsDave, I know and accept that we put out a stronger team than Leeds, and no doubt that effected the result. But to suggest that we had a near full strength team is a bit of a stretch. We had a lot of youth in that team. Including 3 players under the the age of 21 that all played decent mins. Furthermore we missed some of our most important players the like of: huby, jowitt, fifita, MCB and some of our other, and in my opinion better, fringe played like annakin and Gibson.

I'm sure come the season the result will be closer, I hope it is as it will be more entertaining. It's a friendly and too much shouldn't be read into it. However a bit of acknowledgement to Wakefield instead of excuses about the team selection is deserved I feel

All of 2 players aged 21 or under in your starting 13, alongside 11 of your first 13 going by squad numbers. With one more youngster getting decent minutes of the bench.

Leeds had 4 players aged 21 or under just in their starting line-up, along with an extremely young and/or inexperienced bench.
Of our 1-13 squad numbers, we had only 4 in the starting line up.

Wakefield deserve credit for a decent performance, but lets not pretend Wakefield didnt have a stronger team out there.

If you read my last post you'll see that I openly acknowledged that Wakefield had a far more experienced team on the park than Leeds. However, I'm merely making the point that we didn't have a strong a team out as some people are making out. Judah Mazive, James batchelor, Jordan crowther and tom Johnstone are all 21 and under. So obviously we lack experience there despite how talented the youngsters are. Furthermore we had players e.g. Walker, who likely wouldn't even be first called up in times of injury. Someone touched on the squad numbers, I would suggest they mean very little as fifita (in my opinion our best forward) is in the high teens/ 20's
Leeds had the younger and more inexperienced team out. That's clear but Wakefield were no where near full strength.

Not really sure what else Chester could have done, he gave debuts to 5 new signings and played most of the youngsters in the squad. I suppose an argument could be made that playing Moules and Morris may have weakened Wakefield as they are not really tried at this level, but otherwise you are looking at Jowitt , Caton-Brown, Miller, Gibson, Huby and Fifita as the players to miss out, none of who would weaken the team in my opinion.

I like to get out on Boxing Day and supporting my team is fine. Can't remember last one we missed so always go as many have said not expecting a spectacle and win or lose is not important. As with the Lazenby Cup just a way of looking at what we coming through. What I do expect is effort and game management from someone, it seems we will be going in rudderless again and expecting DMg to turn things round. I have seen better co-ordinated school teams than we showed and no one gave their team prospects a boost. As for Brian macs outburst take it with a pinch of salt he will be worried because we do not really have anything different to show.

I have read all the feedback on here and agree with what most have said.
Golding and Singleton were probably the only reasonable performers out there.
Ormandroyd and Baldwinson had a couple of average attempts at busting the line and Aston for me seemed the only one trying to use his brain to get something out of the team.
As for Sutcliffe if he is our answer I really am not sure what the question is.
Maybe he suits the old style LF position but is inferior to Ward and we tend to use an extra prop there anyway.
Golding could be more suited to half back and Sutcliffe to FB where I thought he was starting to impress back end of last year.
Wakefield outplayed us in every position on the park and full credit to them.
At least they came with a plan.
We had 4 or 5 sets on their line and still had no idea how to get through.
Credit to Wakefierld`s defence or our inability to conjure anything up . I`m not sure.
Whilst we played a relatively under strength side you would have thought we would have some strucure to work on as the "reserves" should be playing the same structures as the first team do anyway or so I thought.
Yes it was a friendly and we should not read too much into the result.
But effort, skill sets and as mentioned previously structure should be there no matter when you play a game of sport. We had none of it whatsoever.
As for McDermotts comments well maybe 10,000 plus supporters should sign a petition asking for a refund.
The game was billed as a challenge match not a frigging training session.
Isn`t that a form of misrepresentation and as such breaches some sort of consumer code?
Maybe when only a handful of supporters turn up next BD the penny might drop.
We were not expecting a grand final type of game we were expecting a challenge between two teams but we all got to see Leeds in training mode or is that the first of our excuses.
My worry is if that is how we train with little idea and thought. We aint going to do very well next season.
Fingers crossed we get it sorted in time.

At least we may pull the trigger on McD early doors, when his secret contract clause kicks in.

I don't think most people have actually listened to his comments properly. He didn't say IT WAS a public training run or an OPPOSED training run like most have said on here. It said it's ALMOST like a public training run.....which it is and always has been. You go into that game, the first one back just working on your own stuff, you won't be concentrating in the build up on what the opposition is going to do and it's all about trying stuff rather than what the score is.

I went to the Boxing Day Match with my Dad. It was the first Leeds RLFC match I actually couldn't wait to be over. I was embarrassed at the level of effort and basic skill level on show! The Halves didn't have a clue! The Centres were completely outplayed. We never once played wide to the wingers. And when we did, it was p!ss poor kicks. The effort in defence was disappointing. Golding was out of position more than 10 times. He looks like he isn't a good defensive organiser. The Pack did a job up the middle, but were extremely average.

If it wasn't for the Ref, Wakefield would have scored 2 more tries!

I acknowledge it was a "Meaningless Friendly", but paying £18 for that showing is a p!ss take.

Just genuinely poor Leeds. I'm dreading 2017 with those Halves.

Wakefield showed some enterprising set plays and looked fresh, with lots of ideas. I can see them doing well in 2017.

I didn't go to the game but comments from people who did seem to say that there was no evidence of any stuff being worked on or even being tried.

I did go and you are absolutely right. What was produced was very poor and that is why despite what he said McD will be very concerned or at least should be. As others have said it was as uninspiring/boring a display as you could imagine.

In 25 yrs of watching Leeds it was the first time I have ever left a game home or away 10 mins early! Left the ground feeling very fearful for the new season and saw nothing on display that would give me any optimism for the future,very very depressing!! Have seen more structure and cohesion at amatuer and school level in a word CRAP

i'm not sure who people defending the team think we can bring in to improve us?? yes Watkins,hall and moon are class but they need direction from half backs and that sure isn't going to happen.
parcell? we can but hope.
everyone else is either past it, a plodder or both.
going to be a long hard season