If the plan is to start Newman, I'd stick with Hooley at full back and move Martin back to the second row and have either McDonnell or Bentley on the bench. Sinfield in the halves would be a bold move but I suspect he might go with Johnson.

Really not sure Sinfield rated that highly. To be picking Johnson there ( who offers nothing) is a bit of an insult….

He's only 18 though, Shabs. I think he is highly rated, but the worry would be that Wire would send a lot of traffic at him. For what it's worth, I would pick him.

But surely it’s time to see what can offer. Might not be fully ready, but not many are when thrown into deep end. Genuine half back at least, and not as if we are paying well in the halves….

Yep, we are in agreement.

Surely Newman will start on the bench like last time he came back from injury?

You can't say that on here Oldeski is a protected species.

I fail to see what playing Martin in the centres is adding - he is slow adds nothing to the attack another Smith missjudgement. Play Hooley at FB move MacDonald to centre and Hanley on the wing - his defense is terrible so being on the wing is the place he can cause least damage.

I agree Shabs.
Now is the perfect time to give him game time.
Nothing to play for as season is over (surely we can't go down...).
Let's give him a few games to get some experience and see what he can do.

Dodds was playing virtually every week at Saints as a 19 year old - these kids are either good enough or their not. How does never playing them because of their age help their long term development. By the time Leeds give them a go they have lost so much development time they aren't good enough as the players who have been given the exposure like Dodds are so much further on.

I see Smith wants to bring in another player he used to coach at Bradford in Milnes - another player deemed not good enough for his current club in the longer term but good enough for Leeds. No wonder we are where we are.

If we keep picking up players from clubs that are (or historically have been) below us in the table, where exactly do we expect to end up?

In terms of the rest of this season, we should definitely be blooding those kids who the club are expecting to play some games next season, if we don't do it now, what does that say about their current readiness and our faith in them to kick on?

Strange because he didnt say that at all at his press conference.

So we shouldnt have signed players like Senior, Ellis, Poching, Hardacker, Lunt, Moon, Aiton Briscoe etc...

All signed from teams that would be classed as below us in the table

Dodd made his debut in a dominant side when he was approaching 19. Sinfield made his debut at 17 and he's already got half a dozen under his belt and will likely be in double figures by the end of the year. Personally I don't think the "if he's good enough he's old enough" maxim holds true anymore. The game is so much more physical and we have probably paid a price (through injury) by exposing the likes of Ward, Walker and Newman at young ages.

When we signed those players, they were either international players or had already shown they were good enough to play for Leeds. It’s hardly the same when we are bin dredging in the way we have for years now.