The same place his replacement will come from. The same place the eventual long term successor to Iestyn Harris came from, along with a large part of arguably the most successful Leeds side in its history.

Can't agree with that, Smith has been fantastic and done everything asked of him, has Smith every been accused of not giving 100% on these boards, how many MOM awards did he get between the lplay offs last year and before his injury this year

With Smith going and Ellis already departed and to a lesser extent Toopi not really replaced , That and the Eastwood non signing will this finally mean a quality centre for The Rhinos ? Jamie Lyon ?

Don't be silly. We most spend spend spend and look to the NRL.

After all, its' what the likes of Wigan do and we've been told they're an example to follow........

Ironic isn't it?

No sooner do the likes of Wigan and Saints cotton on to the fact that junior development is the way to go and produce the likes of Tompkins, Prescott, Wheeler, Lomax etc than Leeds fans start braying for the chequebook to come out at every opportunity.

Shall we review some of Leeds expensive big-name imports of recent years? Ben Walker? Matt Adamson? Brett Mullins? David Barnhill?

All great examples of what can be achieved by buying big from the NRL.

Lee Smith's replacement is/are aleardy here.

Ben Jones Bishop. I am not sure he has the utility value Smith has but he looked a classier full back than Smith did in his first stint at the number 1 jersey.

Jodie broughton. Much clamouring already on here this week for him to be back here and playing on our wing.

Kallum Watkins. It's common ground that pretty soon he will be a special centre. He's already doing some special things in the 1st team.

So there is full back, wing and centre - positions that Smith covered.

So your saying it's going to take 3 people to replace 1. My god that boy were good

Whilst I'd love to see all 3 of those come through and become first team regulars, I do feel that with Smith going it would be wise to replace him with an established centre, maybe from Australia. Whilst it's good to have youngsters coming through, even in recent times that has been suplemented by signing more experienced players, such as Webb, Ali, Furner and Ellis.

The only potential down side I suppose G1 is that means paying three players to cover three positions whereas previously you could do it with just one.

Given we're hardly likely to be banging our heads on the salary cap ceiling however, that's not an issue at the minute.

Spot on G-man.

Just saw Bluey's interview on SSN. When does the RU season start?

Around the same time as the football season.

Pre-season will start some time in July at a guess, although those players away with the Lions might get an extended break.

Who said the following"We are looking at all players, in the National Leagues just as we are the NRL. As we look towards our squad for next year, there's three different elements to that. The first is retaining the players we have already got, which is something we have been doing. The second is promoting players within our system and the third is recruiting new players. We have already spoken to a number of clubs on a confidential basis, across the board – here and abroad. It is all part of the process of identifying players who could be potential Leeds Rhinos. It is not certain there will be new faces for next year, but we have to be aware of who may be available."[/i

How does that differ from Wigan's approach?

I think if money is to be spent, it needs to be the pack. Without a solid pack it makes close to jack all difference who we have out wide.

Would love a signing of Lyon though

Well Bluey was speaking about how Lee finishes the season, which is good news for Leeds, I guess.

If he does go to Union it will be a massive shame, he's a good player and I believe we didn't see the very best of Lee Smith.