Honestly. By all accounts Leeds wanted to keep Walters. He is behind mature players and two other young guns as a prop, and has only really started his transition there over the last 6 months.

The lad is from the NW originally and to me seems a bit daft as a brush: he could be a very good player (or maybe not) but if the lad has no patience despite the club investing 3/4 years in him, he can’t be forced.

Maybe he just wants to get back closer to family at the end of the day who knows.

Let's be honest it's no loss is it, he's hardly played and when he has he's been pretty anonymous apart from the shoulder charge v Saints.

The one we should have kept was Dupree but Agar didn't rate him

Owen Trout anyone?

If Lisone returns with his partner which to me has to be likely, we will have to sign another recognised prop surely?

This is what annoys me about Walter’s decision, clearly if he works hard he would have opportunity it stake a 1st team squad spot next season if not this. Anyway like I said maybe it was about moving closer back home and/or at the end of the day Wigan were prepared to pay more money.

Not too fussed if Walters wants to leave. Good luck if wants to be nearer home and in a different system. We need to concentrate on players totally committed to Leeds.

Robinson went to Wigan as he wanted to play in the halfs snd saw his path blocked by the highly rated Francis Maloney and Gareth Stephens, we also Had a certain Garry Schofield and bobby Goulding, he went to Wigan as they had the aging Andy Gregory and shaun Edwards, its got nothing to do with Wigan saw something in him, he chose wigan as a clearer path, but he ended up a winger not a half.

It reminds me if when we got a then 19 year old Jay pitts from Wakey a highly rated junior, but he struggled at leeds for 3 years and people were complaining when he went to Hull and we had let a hot prospect go. Pitts ended up an average championship low end super league squad player,( still playing back at Wakey)

We have let plenty players go/ fail to retain over the years and excluding players who chanced their in NRL or Union the only one i really hated loosing and and haunted us for Years was Jimmy Lowes

I do think mcshane turned out to be a big mistake given how 9 has been such a problem area.

Added to that he was not trusted to play in the halves as he kept forgetting the moves and structure we wanted to play.

McShane need a kick up the backside. He had to drop down a level, before coming back strong. Don’t think it was a mistake as such….
Selling Matt Parcell was bizarre imho…

I thought it was a similar comparison Walters now and Robinson then both not wanted by Leeds and Wigan seeing potential?

Except the club has said they did want to keep Walters, unless we know the offers from both clubs we can’t really say wether we should have paid what Wigan are paying to keep him.

Jason Robinson was never ever a leeds player, Leeds offered to sign him and he choose Wigan instead, the idea that leeds rejected him and some how let him go is a perpetual myth. So its not remotely the same.

People making out in Walters we are letting a real talent go from under our noses is not true, he simply has not been good enough to get in the 17 when players the same age have and have excelled.

JR: My earliest memories are from school, when I didn’t know anything about the game. I suddenly grew a love for it and, even though I was tiny, I loved the physicality. I joined an amateur club and remember Garry Schofield doing a presentation, which was very exciting. At 16, I knew I had some talent and wanted to play for Leeds.

RR: Why didn’t they come for you?
JR: They chose someone else. Wigan had a scout in Leeds and thankfully he saw some potential. I was disappointed because I was a ball boy at Leeds. Even throwing a ball back to your heroes was exciting! I had an offer from Hunslet, but that wasn’t what I wanted. But Leeds ignoring me was a blessing, because they didn’t win anything back then.
Maybe this is where the perpetual myth comes from?

Sam Walters is a very talented young kid without a doubt and he will only get better with age,More regular appearances and also more experience at first team level
Admittedly he is nowhere close to being a once in a generation talent.

But just how good he will eventually be is an unknown, clearly It is much harder for young forwards to establish themselves as regular starters in top SL sides whilst in their late teens and early twenties unless they are total freaks of nature like Mozza and Sam Burgess were (Stevie Ward and Morgan Gannon too whist at the Rhinos)

Jamie Peacock is probably the best example of a late developer that actually made it to the very top of our sport despite never making the representative sides as a junior.
Didn't the Bulls send him on loan to Featherstone and also to OZ to play for Wollongong before he played in their first team ?
Wasn't he 21 or 22 before he finally made his debut for the Bulls?
Would he have been released if he had been at the Rhinos as a junior?

In comparison to JP's pathway, Sam Walters was representing England Academy v the touring Australian schoolboys in 2018 as a 17 year old, so he was considered to be an elite player very early on.

If Walters' next club have offered far more than Leeds have, then clearly Sam has to take that option.

IMO i would a prefer a home grown Rhinos first team squad and with only 2 or 3 quality overseas players that will fill our key spine positions

The Marquee money spent recently on players like Trent Merrin and Zane Tetevano, and who are only at the club for the short term, would surely have been more wisely spent on retaining players like Sam Walters and Tyler Dupree would it not?