Yep can agree with that....either way (lack of promoting youth or signing quality additions from outside the Leeds set up) there can be little doubt that there will some barren years ahead. IF the SL continues in its present structure of course.
Maybe GH knows or least suspects there will be an implosion of quite a few more clubs yet, whereby talent will become more readily available at discounted rates in the much slimmer near future competition.

Hopefully.....but on present form Leeds will probably offer Kylie another year or sign up another ageing Moore, Griffin or Kirke

Kirkes off to wakey by all accounts

So we won't be signing a FB, which I think is good news. Hopefully a top centre is on the shopping list although there's not many of those available off contract.

When GH mentioned about signings having to be good enough for the 17 I think he was referring to overseas players and not recruitment overall.

If we lose Hauraki (gone already) and Kirke, then we will need to add some depth in the second row. Haven't we just lost a number of kids who are forwards (Roch, Smith, any others?) that would have padded out the squad a bit? I'm also a bit concerned that in Delaney, JJB and Clarkson we actually have 3 identical players who are overall pretty easy to defend against...

There must be some more coming in...

I think Stevie Ward should be moulded into a backrower, he seems more of a back rower than a HB IMO and Achurch maybe Kirke's replacement.

I also think Aaron Brown looks a better prospect than Clarkson at this point.

I know the discussion has moved on but I'd still like to answer this as I (like others) also think it's relevant to the current situation and the worrying slippage in recruitment quality.

SL:
Senior - 23 (1999)
Ellis - 23 (2005)
Peacock - 28 (2006)

I can't think of another quality addition to the Leeds squad from within SL since Peacock's capture seven years ago. He's played a huge role over that time and I would question how many of the recent titles would have been won without him?

we both know the answer to your last point...

Is it unrealistic in the current economic climate to expect signings that involve significant transfer fees, or should we be looking to make signings at this point exactly because of the economic climate and other clubs need for financial security. The best time to buy, in terms of value for money, is usually when others don't have much cash...

In the current economic climate I'd have thought it may be essential to invest in some quality to give the Leeds season ticket holders renewed hope for next season.

This promise of 'jam tomorrow' is going to be looking pretty sick if Leeds start 2013 with the same battered bodies as they ended 2012.

Valid points. But the NRL is awash with money, the top SL clubs are probably on a par with ourselves and the clubs in direst need of cash have little in the way of quality players. And even if the esteemed Mr Hetherington is motivated to do so, the chances of signing an equivalent of a Senior, an Ali, a JP are very, very slim at present.

I don't like the direction superleague is going and contracts in general. Salary cap restricts the sucessful clubs with regards to salarys to give lower clubs a better chance. Clubs with rich benifators such as Wire can splash the cash on transfer fees to get hold of the better players from other clubs, Hull are now falling into this area. An example of this is Rangi Chase, he would be at Hull now if not for VISA problems and still has 3 years left on his Cas contract. Clarke at Cas also asked away while under contract, I would no be suprised to see him at Warrington in the near future. Heard yesterday that Scott Taylor is on the verge of a transfer to Wigan and they will pay a fee of £200k. Cant believe Wigan would be that silly so I doubt its true but he is still under contact at HullKR for another year and they are in the mire finacially as we all know. Clubs like Cas and Wakey will continue to live of the scraps of the top teams with the top teams unloading squad players. I dont know whats going on at Leeds but we have some great kids and our backline looking good. What we need is some quality in the pack and players like Scott Taylor should be a priority signing and used in deal that we can move squad player across in part exchange, eg Hurakhi. Unless we have paid massive contracts to our Kids which I doubt we have we must be a country mile under the salary cap.

An overseas centre or a Ryan Atkins should be a priority signing along with Scott Taylor. I would also move Danny Mags to stand off and bring in a quality Scrum half who can dictate play along the lines of Dureau and move Sinfield to hooker and use Burrow as an interchange sub. Get rid of Lunt who is average and send out Hood and McShane for another loan spell to include a call back when required clause.

Our coaching staff are blinkered in team selection and its a joke that we are flogging players like peacock every week. Griffin needs to start and get more gametime and if they feel moore is good enough then lets see more rotation. Stevie Ward straight to loose and keep him there to develope in his natural position. Future captain nailed on and Sinfields sucessor for the next 15 years !! Simples

I don't think there has been anything mentioned regarding lula and moon other than just plucking the names out of the air TBH.