All good points well made.

Lets take Saints out of the equation tho, our development as a team isnt at Saints' level at this stage. We have been down the bottom of the league for a few years recently. Leeds' 1st aim was to steady, then grow and be more consistent and produce young talent. We are doing that i think. We arent at Saints' level yet and its wrong to compare us with that tho they are clearly the benchmark

Next year we have a top 4, maybe top 2, squad. Weve a lot of highly talented kids developing, far better than any other club in this country, far better. Think about this, in 5 years time Gannon will be only 22, Mikolaj, Cam, Harry, Tommy will be just starting to reach their prime and theres many others Broadbent, Corey etc so Leeds are in a very strong position. The likes of Wigan, Warrington dont have our talent pool and the junior talent pool is drying up.

Our aim next year shouldnt be to beat Saints it should be to target a top 3 finish. We are doing ok. But if we are full strength we wouldnt win at Saints very often but we are capable of beating the rest now and we are still developing as a group.

Still a lot of unknowns in terms of how the youngsters develop imo. There are never any guarantees.

Agreed but the likes of Mikolaj, Newman, Cam, Gannon, Holroyd, Broadbent are all playing in SL to a high standard and are all very young. We are a top 4 squad next year i think. Saints are a level above the rest but we can match the rest I feel.

We are on the right path.

Totally agree with this, except that finishing top-3 is possibly too precise in a competition where every other team is going forwards or backwards, but never standing still. You could argue our true squad position for 2021 is 3rd/4th already. We've hardly had our first choice side out all season.

The bottom-line is for us to control what we can control, and that's incremental gains and improving as a team. If we do that the league table looks after itself.

IF (it's a big IF) we can identify the right quality prop and possibly outside back, AND our young lads can make 5% gains across the board in pre-season, we are going to be different gravy next year honestly. Our execution goes to a different level with the new half-back combination.

Please Leeds, stop messing about with hybrid "middles" and sign another real prop to support Mik and Tom. The "six again" rule is over-hyped; yes your big men need to be fit but that has been the case for a long time. Prop is a specialist position for the hardest men on the field IMO. It's heavy artillery and there is no cheating the mechanics.

Walker, Tindall, Newman, Broadbent, Edwards, Holroyd, Johnson, Oledski, Gannon, Walters, Smith, O'Connor, Mustapha (?) and one or two fringe youngsters all have plenty of improvement in them. That's a heck of a roster IMO. Just about all of these are England Academy internationals.

Absolutely true that not all the young lads will make the grade, but all the players mentioned above (I could add Sinfield, Gatus, Simpson) are 22 or under.

For me I want to see us come out of the gates next year with the intention to create an impact on the competition. No excuses with a fit, first choice side. We should be dishing out some hidings to lower sides and mixing it with the big boys in 2022.

Are dual reg and reserve team back next year?

Reserves are back...not sure about dual reg

Nobody ever mentions McKenzie Turner when talking about youngsters. Fastest player at the club. 6 footer, catches high ball way above his head. Hes a far better prospect than Tindall and possibly Gatus, as a winger, for me.

There are a couple of lads under the radar at the moment you're right.

I know you don't rate Tindall - I'm not sure he'll make the cut either but I'd like to think we have a winger in the junior ranks somewhere who will come through in the next couple of years.

Doesn't Max Simpson have some gas as well? We're going to have too many centres to fit in pretty soon.

Actually thought Gale looked ok playing for Fev.
Although I understand some Fev fans don`t see him as a SL player just yet.

Agree but he'd have to offer something significantly better than an up-and-coming youngster at the club, and I'm not sure if that's the case.

For me, we either sign a close-to-NRL player or Championship players at 20/21 who are late developers and we've missed them through Academy years.

Sticking plasters and projects (no disrespect to Gale) are not what we need right now; the side is crying out for quality to mix in with the young talent.

Agree with a lot of the above - you under estimate Wigan's youth development - they now have three top coaches with extensive experience and a knowledge of how important youth development is.

Absolutely but their talent pool is extremely poor at the moment. Our 17s arent great and they still rattled 40 past Wigans. They have some young players in 1st team but they dont have much behind them. Were much stronger in junior development at the moment.

Financially too i believe we are stronger.

We are massively stronger - when you look at the state of them off the field we are in a different league to Wigan who seem to be spectacularly badly run in almost every aspect.

However the money in the background at Wigan is bigger (a lot bigger) even than Caddick or Coleman at Saints, if they decided to spend it on the RL club.

Coleman is actually the richest man in SL and by a long margin. He just doesnt like the limelight and is happy for McManus to be the man

Coleman's wealth is rather opaque but it's probably he is richer than Caddick. Not likely to be in Mike Danson's league though (although Danson only has a minority stake at the moment).