I'd agree...but a theatening at the line half back wouldn't go amiss either.

The inability to score points is the salient fact; it's such a shame when considering the wonderful defence and especially the scrambling defence shown this season.

brierley would be a top signing but has hetherington got the balls to lose one of the half backs, has he got the nerve to spend the money and would BM play him anyway?

It's hardly been a disaster of a season.

CC win.

That would be a good if not great year in most teams books and winning them both when they are at the same end of the season has always been a tough challenge.

Look how Cas have dropped off in form.

I said when Leeds knocked us out, that it would be tough for them to finish near the top and that it would help us when we played you again.

I did not foresee us losing all our play makers, but that aside, the point was, whoever got to the CC final was going to struggle for league and playoff form.

At Saints most fans are happy given our players with the LLS and anything else is a bonus.

Wigan are probably now firm favourites for the GF and lets face it anyone can knock on and drop a ball. I always dispair how the last mistake is seen as the crucial mistake.

Hall dropped it off a kick, giving 80 meters away, is that not just as crucial?

....you're right (that was awful) but human nature being what it is it is poor old Briscoe's faux pas that will be remembered for a very long time. Hall's will be forgotten. Briscoe has been many a supporter's scapegoat for 2014, which doesn't help.

I don't think the coach is the major factor by any means.
We're playing with only 2 props and have no impact off the bench.
I've often defended Bailey and Kirke in the past but they haven't stepped up to the mark to take over some of the workload (both quantity and quality) from Peacock and Leuluai.

I firmly believe our problems stem from the forwards. We aren't getting beaten in the backs, it's slow ptb's and fast ptb's for the opposition that's beating us. We need some size and quality in the forwards to change that around. Made even more important with the impending retirement of our 2 props.

Personally, unless Bailey really steps up next season, I think we need at least another 2 props, in addition to Cuthbertson, to be signed from outside over the next 2 seasons. And I'd release Bailey & Kirke.

At hooker, I think Aiton will be a perfectly good hooker with more game time. Which he'll get when one of McGuire, Burrow, Sinfield retires.

The only other issue is the halves. I think the McGuire, Burrow, Sinfield combination still works. I think the forwards are the main reason for our poor attack.
But we've still got the halves to replace in a relatively short time frame. A bit less straightforward, it depends a lot on Sutcliffe's development. IF he develops into a good half then we still need 1 other. I think Moon is capable of playing 6 but that obviously leaves a gap at centre. So we may need at least 1 signing at halfback or centre.

Some quality signings needed over the next 2-3 years. However I know it's not as easy as that, the right players have to be available.

There's no attacking threat in the halves. Ever noticed how we never really create overlaps? Yet wigan create them nearly every set when they attack. Defence can set up as if the halves will pass the ball, because they don't have a running threat anymore. How many times is there gaps and half gaps but mcguire and sinfield always never quite get through. Green and smith are through them.

We don't have the forward's in motion and structure as much either but the main issue is the halves.

But we've had a younger, quicker guy in Sutcliffe play in the halves quite a bit and he hasn't shone. Warrington had some very strong years recently with that speed merchant Briers at 6 so I never buy this "halves need speed" thing. Granted it's a more than usual attribute to have but if there isn't enough happening off the ball to put doubt in a defenders mind then it doesn't matter how much speed they have.

The problem we have in the forwards in the opposition 20m.....apart from Ablett do any of them poise a threat? Not really. Peacock as warrior like as he is taking carry after carry gets his hands on the ball in the opposition 10m far too much for my liking as he kills momentum usually when he does.

Note some of the scores Sinfield created last year for England in the World Cup. The one for Burgess against NZ, the one for Westwood vs Fiji, both came due to good support and good lines run by forwards on the end.

On the left we have Ablett - Moon - Hall, all very promising but too often it's 3 vs 3 as not enough has happened to suck defenders in. One thing I'd like to see is Hardaker get involved more on the left side of attack, seems to pop up there very rarely whereas he's always on the right side.

The main issue for me is structure. Wigan play to a rigid structure and utilise dummy runners. All of there players know what they should be doing and when. In contrast, we play an off-the-cuff type of play with a hooker who half the time doesn't know what he's doing let alone the rest of the team. Wigan create overlaps with structure.

Overlaps are generally created by support runs from forwards, we don't have that. In my view, that's because our forwards on the pitch are having to play with only 2 props and in defence are desperately making last ditch tackles instead of getting 2/3 men in quickly and dominating the tackle. So our forwards are knackered when we have the ball.

Of course our halves have slowed down, but I still don't think they're a major issue. I think, in the games where our forwards dominate, our halves prove their worth. Either way they'll only be around another couple of seasons and will need replacing either way.

Wigan's tactic works because they only have 1 tactic. Run hard, tackle hard, do out the back play followed by out the back play until a try is scored.
Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
I also find it very boring and nowhere near as good as our play was early in the season.

Get some forwards in to dominate the tackles, our backs and halves, slow as they might be (though Burrow's not slow), will do fine.

But we had a chunk of possession early doors, also did vs Wire in the Cup semi and didn't come away with the points our field position warranted. So it's not a fatigue issue.

Halves don't necessarily need pace, but they do need fast accurate possession to be effective. Leeds' PTB is pedestrian and has been for years especially from JP, Kylie and Delaney. I'd also add that too often our halves are standing still when they receive the ball making them more predictable. One thing I like about Blake Green is that even though he isn't lighting quick, he always receives the ball at pace which creates doubt in the opposition defence because they don't know if he will run or pass.

So even though our halves aren't fantastic they're still very good. If our forwards were able to punch more holes we'd see instant improvement from them. One player whom think would really strengthen Leeds is Elliot Whithead.

the decision not to retain kyle amor looks better by the week.......................

Briscoe thinks hes world class and asked fc for silly wages luckily we didn't buckle to his demands and by all accounts he has been average and a weak link for you guys so glad he has gone. He looked better for us as we had a very average back line where at leeds they got a quality backline and he hasn't shone at all

It's not the only issue. Very few of our forwards dent the line when they take it in. There's Peacock and occasionally Leuluai. The rest of the time they're dealt with quite easily. Compare this to Wigan, Warrington or Saints forwards.

But we make the yards forwards, the stats prove this.

Metres made 2014

Leeds - 38,008
Wire - 37,618
Wigan - 36,754
Cas - 35,846
Saints - 35,829
Hudds - 34,258

2013 was a pretty identical list

I know it's not all down to forwards and our back three play a big part but if you're making more metres than any other team in the league then you shouldn't be the lowest scoring team out of the top 6. Regardless of the method (heavily reliant on Peacock, the back 3) we DO get field position enough to score more points than we do.....but we don't.

And whilst our back three give us good metres so do the backs of Wigan, Saints and Wire so the forwards must do a good enough job and aren't the liability some think......however they do offer next to nothing 10m from the line. That's where an added figure to the coaching staff is needed.

For all the talk of players leaving, players coming in, players stepping up from academy......it's getting an Assistant coach that is the key factor for next year.