With regards to how clubs handle players transfers, either when they come to re signing current players or choosing not to renew their contracts, as they have had a far higher offer from elsewhere I have just watched the James Graham bye round with the Penrith Panthers CEO which is a brilliant watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ychi2j4 ... 37E8JGicy9

With regards to how clubs handle players transfers, either when they come to re signing current players or choosing not to renew their contracts, as they have had a far higher offer from elsewhere I have just watched the James Graham bye round with the Penrith Panthers CEO which is a brilliant watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ychi2j4 ... 37E8JGicy9

I’m about 40 mins in on that at the moment, agree it’s fantastic. Just shows how far off we had slipped before IB arrived.

Will listen tonight

So, are Leeds done for new signings now with Sivo finally confirmed?

While none of the incoming players are likely to be cheap, it seems that we've had a lot more get cut from the squad. I guess the quota is full so we'll be confined to British and French players.

Looking at the squad, we're a bit thin at centre with only Connor and Newman in that position. I can still remember Handley at centre and full-back and would rather he just played on the wing, but maybe he's okay as back-up. I guess there's Simpson too...

We're looking better up front but second row is hardly thrilling with Martin gone, and there's a lot less depth than before. I'm not sure we can expect too much from Gannon until he's got a string of games under his belt again. Bentley and McDonnell aren't a top 4 pairing IMO.

Ned McCormack didn’t look out of place last year in the centre. I agree with other people who think that Handley would play there which makes sense given we have more depth on the wing. I assume Max Simpson might be somewhere near at some point too.

The back row does look light on depth and arguably quality, and I still think we’re a prop short.

I'd forgotten McCormack. He did look promising.

Much better to have a pathway for promising youngsters than having squadfillers that are never going to achieve the required standard like we have done the last few years. If the pack goes well its easier to blood young players in the backs. Agree if the money is there we need another big forward but happy to see the likes of Lumb McCormack Edgill and Simpson get game time in the backs!

Again to be fair to Smith we just didn't have many good young players around when he joined, which is why he started signing 'squad' players. We signed too many no doubt, and retained a bunch of players we shouldn't have, but our first 17 was/is a bigger problem. Not that he did a great job there, in the forwards at least....

That’s fair. Smith arguably had the same group of youngsters they just weren’t ready yet, so can understand some of the filler he signed. Those players are now 2 years further on.

I’d love to be able to send sinfield on a years loan but still unsure if there’s the depth for that.

They're a really professional outfit but it helps to have such a high level of participation in their patch. Thousands of juniors playing RL in the Penrith catchment alone - every week! A British RL club would never get that in their wildest dreams.

Most NRL clubs don't get that either.

True and they say as much in the interview. Participation is so important. Shows why Australia have been so dominant internationally since the 1970s when participation went through the roof. It's in contrast to over here. I bet there are more juniors playing RL in Penrith than there are in the whole of Yorkshire.

Get the right systems and pathway and with a hinterland like Penrith it's difficult not to see them in the top 2 or 3 for the foreseeable future.

You're probably right. Covid really hit the amateur game hard. Thankfully, it looks like participation numbers are starting to recover, but are still below pre-covid levels, but are still below 2017 levels.

Just reading "The Invincibles" by Mark Flanagan. It's the story of the 82 Kangaroo tour, but it starts out with the rebuild the Australian game underwent after GB had won the ashes in 1970. Interesting stuff. For anybody who is not as long in the tooth as me, I would recommend watching what you can of those tests on youtube. The game has changed of course, but that team were truly remarkable. Wayne Pearce still looks like a 2nd row from the future more than 40 years on.

Thanks for the recommend Arthur. A while ago I read "Reilly" the biography of Malcolm Reilly by Ian Heads. That has a bit where he remembers seeing an explosion in participation in Sydney in the early 70s with kids playing RL all over the place. That, along with the climate and the lack of competing winter sports meant that the game down under was always going to surpass that over here. Their interest in new coaching ideas helped too. I read in the biographies of Roy Francis and Jack Gibson how they used to swap notes. While Francis didn't stay long at Norths his approach to the game appealed to Gibson who then went to the USA and came back and revolutionised things. They've been ahead of us ever since. That bit in the podcast about who Penrith learn from and who learns from them was interesting.