If Ward ever gets an injury free run then Cuthbo would be coming on from the bench IMO and doing high quality stuff with ball in hand rather than having to do do the tough stuff that he can't really do when he's a starter IMO

So Cuthbertson's either not a prop at all or a pretty rubbish one then, given that the 'tough stuff' is priority #1 for anyone supposed to be in that role?

Pretty much. I'm not 100% clear how he's managed to sidestep the opprobrium that the likes of JJB, Delaney and Ablett attract.

Because his contract is done and dusted not much to say - sadly another very average squad player for an club with elite aspirations. no wonder Sinfield is so scathing of the quality

Sinfield was just justifiably hugely upset with that performance. Hopefully some cards have been marked with respect to how some players have responded to his requests for improved performances.

WRT announcing recruitment not being announced immediately, might some of it have to do with Furner reserving the right to be involved in any discussions about the squad? I know I would if I was in his position, and he only finished up with Souths a week ago. Given that Souths were competing right to the end of the season he probably didn't have a huge amount of time to look at the Leeds squad in detail, and then assuming he had a break of some kind lined up, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't want to be rushed. After all, moving forward he'll be the one having to explain performances whilst Sinfield moves out of the limelight.

In any event hopefully the watchword is quality not quantity. We made a great song and dance about having a squad of 30 rather than 25 this year - sadly all that showed is that if you've got too many average to rubbish players you can have a squad of 50 and still fail miserably.

There should be some cap space to play with, even if we were (incredibly) spending it all last year. Gone are Hall and Moon who will have been two of the highest earners, and also Keinhorst who will have been a mid range earner. Coming in we have Lolohea who will be a high earner and McLelland who will be a mid to low range earner. That leave one high range wage and perhaps some spare from Keinhorst.

Additionally we lost Galloway early in the year (high earner) and replaced him eventually with Crosby and Thompson (two mid to low range earners), so Galloway's high range money should be free too.

I don't think so many will have taken a step up as this is based on rep appearances / squad listing and we've not been troubling the selectors for a year or two. Perhaps some small (<£10k) increases of a few of the younger players, but nothing huge.

Then you've got the 3 back rowers who everyone is thinking we should be letting go. They will all have to take a cut or leave, maybe this balances the increase of the kids (Smith & Oledski) wages?

All in all, there should be room for at least two top players (replacements for Galloway and Hall/Moon), the question is where will they come from, not can we afford them under the cap.

The simple thing is ; The transition from our Golden Generation to now has been handled badly. Also recruitment hasn’t been good enough. !

I'm not sure - a few weeks ago Cuthbertson was on the receiving end of criticism on this board for seemingly shirking the tough stuff, which led to another discussion about him playing injured and needing a rest (etc). In fairness to the fans, it can be difficult to make a judgement on these issues without having the benefit of not knowing what is going on behind the scenes. We can only really see what goes on on the field.

I have no idea why players like Cuthbertson, Parcell and Moon have variously looked like shadows of themselves compared to performances from last season. Perhaps it is telling that Moon has opted to retire instead of continuing his career. Otherwise, Cuthbertson and Parcell ought to have ripped up the Middle 8s, so one can only assume there are other issues (compare Dwyer, IMO a player with less natural ability than Parcell). The most likely one seems to be the impact of injuries sustained earlier in the year - at least I'd hope this is the reason, over factors like desire or not wanting to play for the club.

We still need another two good players if we are going to stay above the middle 8s next year.

When was the last time we didn't have any players on international duty? (top tier nations) that kind of sums up where our squad is at the moment.

Well if we continue to go for players such as Jordan Thompson instead of biting the bullet and paying the likes of Joe Greenwood what he wanted we will be lucky to have anyone represent us for a long time to come with the exception of Watkins that is and the lack of too many quality centres running around.

It is quite damming. That said, we all know Ward would be in the squad were he to ever stay fit and there is potential for Oledzki and Walker to be in there in the not too distant future. One thing is for sure, it's not a bad time to be a 16-18 year old in the Leeds juniors, if any of those lads have anything about them they don't have too much in front of them to shift right now to break through, hopefully a few can and will.

You mean the big, strong running 2nd rower Joe Greenwood who can braak tackles for fun and is exactly the type of forward we badly need???? Nah I'd rather of Thompson.......much cheaper. (sarcasm)

It won’t be Hastings as a big signing, he’s confirmed another year at Salford.

Well Marty. What u think of GHs email? He reckons he's making signings as opposed to promoting youth n keeping players so maybe he'll break the bank in order to sell season tickets.