Isn't optimism and hope the main reason why we all support our teams? That's what sport's all about.
(for most of us)

Well said.

Fancy folk having the audacity to interpret your post in any other way than in a joking manner



They'll be making stuff up next.

Oh look, his mate's turned up now. What a shock



Ok, just one more time....



Note the addition of the word "apparently"

Not even you and Sal are stupid enough to believe that was a serious point and one I believe, are you? You can't be. You really can't. No one's that stupid.

So when the Cas guy called you a D1ck head about who was going to win more trophies you didn't say I was only joking? - you are losing the gloss!!

There is no evidence the club is wanting to make changes - the CEO has said wanted to give the old guard a chance to put the wrongs of 2016 right. There is no evidence that Widdop is even coming to the UK - that will only happen if he can't get a gig in the NRL.

Widdop will go to the club that offers him the best opportunity of success - a team that will provide him the opportunity that will make him look good - the money is important but all the top clubs will be offering similar monies for him if he is indeed coming to SL.

The parallel with 95-97 isn't as clear cut as you make out IMO.

The opportunity to secure signings of the Harris, Glanville, Godden, Masella quality no longer exists like it did back then for numerous reasons which involve salary cap considerations and the value of sterling compared to the Aussie dollar.

Leeds back then were also in a position to take advantage of signing players who became free agents at the end of the SL war due to the demise of several clubs down under. Some of those available players salaries were also partly financed by SL Australia (News Corp) so they came cheap.

Leeds were also able to take advantage of being supplied with a free coach (Murray - a casualty of the demise of the Hunter Mariners) whose salary was bankrolled by SL Australia (News Corp).

Leeds were also able to take advantage of asset-stripping a club located in BD21 who were denied entry to SL and then tail-spinned into bankruptcy as a result in spite of securing promotion and healthy attendances. Leeds snapped up Powell, Farrell, Fleary, etc for a paltry £25k.

Add to that the poor quality coming through an absurd academy system which decides upon players futures at the age of 19.

On that basis, Leeds climb back to the top may take a lot longer than it did from 97 onwards.

'Its not dark yet , but its getting there'

You mean this reply to a (rightly) cocky Cas fan who was slating the Rhinos?



It's called banter mate, it's been going on between rival sports fans for years.

Hope that helps.

Im not convinced the re-build has begun to the degree it needs to be tbh there's huge holes that still need filling & wrt youngsters out on dual reg id hoped the likes of Lilley Sutty Baldwinson would all be regulars in their favoured positions.
Of course the Sutcliffe situation & how it's been handled is a different debate aswell.
When we started the transition in 2001/02 the youngsters had a much more solid team to come into littered with strong leaders & with more mongrel about em.
Yes the Widdop links will be good if we pull it off but i think we've left it very late to start both on/off the which which imo wastes another year.

It's where to start?
We're desperately short on individuals both old and young. To some extent that's down to McDermott's team ethic but his point has been hammered home over the years by his two recently-retired on-field generals. The way the current youngsters have taken it on board seems total and it could take years to address this issue, unless of course the current squad suddenly finds cohesion and belief. It'll be a bolt from the blue if this happens, mind.

Makes it all the less likely that Hetherington will sack McDermott then.

Am I missing something here? Our coach (talking about the letter than came out from GH) seems to think that the demise in performance has only just begun and that all this fuss and palava is due to just one game...

"[iI think what the club are saying is that we aren't going to change after just one game, we're not going to do it because we've had a really ugly day at the office. Those days at Cas are never down to one thing.[/i"

Might we do it if we'd had a really poor season, and a general decline in skills, ability and attitude across the team, maybe?

He goes on to suggest that it wasn't so much us who were bad, instead it was Cas who were very good.

"[iThey are usually a combination of a few things and the biggest factor was that Cas were white hot, although we shouldn't be conceding 66 points.[/i"

Perhaps, but GH needs to recognise that McDermott's record is of rendering a club a lot weaker than the promising setup it was when he started.

He took over at London when they'd previously finished 6th (play-offs) and 7th, coached them to 9th, 9th again, followed by 11th and finished off coaching them to 13th... a position they couldn't recover from.

It is to be hoped he doesn't lead Leeds to a similar fate if he's allowed to stick around.