Karl Kirkpatrick possibly

I dont get whats happened with the referees dept last few years.

Now as much as you love to hate a ref, and every one has their favourite “this ref hates us” ref, the last few years have seem to have become really “half-hearted” for the want of a better phrase.

Back in the day you had likes of Cummings, R.Smith, I.Smith, Kirkpatrick, Presley, Ganson, Silverwood, Klein, Bentham and probably Thaler. All regular, well known from 90s through to 2000’s. You knew what you were getting. Ego, experience, consistent selection etc and it seemed, accountability.

Nowadays, i dont know if its because im older and the refs are getting younger, and younger than the players in some respects, it just seems like the selection process is erratic, the refs inexperienced, arrogant in their interactions, and extremely inconsistent. Constant rule changes dont help.

Thaler seems to be seen less and less, as does Hicks. Kendall and Moore seem to be the cream of the crop and the others, you dont seem to see them for months on end and then all of a sudden they get a gig. Grant, Jack Smith, Mikalauskas, Hewer and blokes youve never heard of.

What do others think?

Yeah it felt like there was a designated line up before, now it's all over the place. You also felt before like you knew how certain refs would take a game, they had their own style.

Let's not pretend like the refs 'back in the day' were brilliant. They've always been rubbish according to fans.
The refs needed to be full time, now they are, and we still complain. We needed more ex players to be refs, now we have Kendall in SL and Henry Perenara in the NRL, and they're probably the worst refs in their respective comps. We needed video refs, now we have them and they still make mistakes. As long as humans referee the game, they will make mistakes, and probably a lot less than a player will over their respective careers.

Saints by 12 is the line. I think it will be 18+ easy!

As for Tomkins quote in Wigan today,I feel sorry for him. Because he says "in the past, I've always put my HAND up". So not just a finger. Foot in mouth. He's probably done that as well.

We actually paid a fortune for Terry Newton basically stealing him from Warrington and losing the court battle. With a transfer fee and court costs it cost Leeds a pretty penny for a 16 year old kid. He was a brilliant player but Leeds never saw the best of him unfortunately his prime was at Wigan. Loved Terry, terrific kid.

Micky Mc never played for Leeds academy. How the hell we allowed him to go to Wigan is terrible. Leeds lad. The dross weve had at hooker the last 10 years too. Oh boy dont get me started....

Anyway Leeming has the potential to improve i think but we will see.

Jury is still out for me with Leeming but he is at least physical, and seems to have a good attitude.

Has some improvement in him.

What do you think of O’Connor as a potential hooker? Is Parsons still in our system?

Agree , i think it could be a blow out as Catalan are renowned for giving up

O'Connor is never a hooker IMO. He's offered nothing out of DH. I think he'll end up being an Adam Milner or Donaldson type player, which isn't a bad thing. He'll have a solid career.

I think Leeming has gotten better as the season has gone on, and has been superb in some games (like the semi final), but he needs to be consistent, and keep on improving.

When in a hole, its best to stop digging.

Very unpopular opinion but how good would a Segeyaro type 9 be now? its been all downhill since leaving us after his short spell but he would be great in this current side IMO.

From memory we started messing him around and playing him in the back row to accommodate Lee Jackson, similar to what we did with James (as he was more commonly known then) Lowes, but playing Mick Shaw at 9.

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion, he was real quality. I wonder if he wishes he'd have stayed, his career has gone downhill since