And IMO, that falls squarely on the players.

Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire have been around long enough to marshal the team with some authority and get people where they want them to be in attack. For whatever reason, there are times when they seem unwilling/incapable of doing it.

The very best players are able to play what's in front of them and adjust during games. We seemed unable to do that at times last year.

Leeds fail to make the hard yards down the middle and earn the right field position, instead electing to for the strike out wide to save them. It didn't.

Remember the classic scene from "Mike Bassett, England Manger"? Never ask the fans.

Perhaps McDermott should try the Christmas pudding formation? With Sinfield as the 6 pence

Actually field position isn't the issue, we get down to the opposition 20m plenty enough.....we just don't come away from there with the points that we should.

we are absolutely clueless in the oppositions 20,we are so predictable to defend against.

imo dobson and burns would have taken care of that deficiency had we dared to upset the loyalty to our golden generation of past it players and tried to bring them here

I find it very worrying that this 6 times Championship winning team no longer possess the skill set to compete at SL level.

Look at our 1 to 13

1 Zak Hardaker - Current England international
2 Tom Briscoe - Current England international
3 Kallum Watkins - Current England international
4 Joel Moon – Current Exile player
5 Ryan Hall - Current England international
6 Danny McGuire - Ex GB and England international
7 Rob Burrow - Ex GB and England international
8 Kylie Leuluai – Ex New Zealand Maori and Samoan International
9 Paul Aiton - Current PNG international
10 Jamie Peacock - Ex GB and England captain
11 Jamie Jones-Buchanan - Ex GB and England international
12 Carl Ablett - Current England international
13 Kevin Sinfield - Ex GB and England captain

This set of players, under the tutelage of Brian McDermott, have now somehow lost the skills that allows/ed them to represent their country.

Very worrying indeed.

Were they a particularly skillful group to start with, or one that relied on excellent athletic ability to cut teams open - the strength of the likes of Senior, Lauitiiti and latterly Hall and Watkins with the pace of Burrow, McGuire, Webb etc to capitalise on that?

I think Ali had a unique skill or was it just the size of his hands ?

We have never been great in the opponents 20 since the sawn of the golden generation - none of our half back has a quality short kicking game - never have had and never will have.

The idea that Travis Burns would be any better is laughable - Burns is only good for one thing!!

yet watching grand final gold we have scored a few trys with supurb short kicks! for me we have a decent kicking game, what we have never had is structure, which is fine when the key players were in their prime but not now when the legs are going

michael dobson would have taken care of that deficiency quite easily should we have considered his obvious talents,he is a proven sl half back of the highest quality and we're not even in the hunt?



so you don't think that a stand off that constantly takes on the defensive line with pace and one who very often breaks the defensive line would be of any use to us then?

i would have thought that kallum, moon, hall, briscoe and hardaker would have reveled in that extra freedom of running in open space rather than running into a brick wall defensive line each game?

funny how saints have snapped him up, just as they did with 2 other players that we had/could have had in amor and walmsley and they haven't done to badly

only time will tell sal regarding dobson and burns but as we stand presently they are a far better pair than our half backs

I agree regarding Dobson - he is an excellent player and would definitely enhance this Leeds side.

Burns I don't agree - Saints have got him because he used to play with the current playmaker at Penrith. If you want somebody to start a fight and get stuck in Burns is your man - as a creative half back I have seen anything to suggest he is better than what we have. He is a better defender than any of ours but surely that is not really what you buy a half back for? To suggest Burns has pace!! did you fast forward your sky box, lack of pace was one of the reasons he couldn't really hack it in the NRL.

Burns is much better than what we have. This may not have been the case a couple of years ago, but far better than what we have now.

You think everyone is better than we have now - Burns is no great shakes, I am no Sinfield fan but he significantly better than Burns.

Same goes for Huby - a very average player at this level but you think he is superior to every forward we have and virtually every forward in SL so I take your judgement with more than a pinch of salt.

Burns showed nothing at HKR to justify your adulation - or perhaps the downer you have on Leeds is clouding your judgement.