I think there are plenty of valid points & ?'s raised wrt the abject failure to adapt learn & respond early enough to what the Club faced but then there are those who think the Coach could swollow coal & sh#* a diamond it works both ways given the dross served up on a regular basis.
As for benefit of the doubt who decides the terms of that or how long that should be allowed?
We are less than 6wks away now so we'll soon see & as your keen to keep harping back to the past no matter how recent that past points to a Coaching set up not learning anything wrt Squad management ,selection & having enough nous to adapt to injuries as they occur.

there are also posters who simply choose to be contrary and can't be stupid enough to believe what they post.

this coming season will answer a lot of questions.

has Hetherington let the squad slide quality wise?
is BM a decent but lucky coach or is he top class?
have lessons of last year really been learnt?
will the older players have it in them to have one last great season or was it a mistake not replacing them?

intriguing season ahead for all sorts of reasons

Given the lack of changes to the squad, those questions are precisely the ones that will be answered. Maybe in respect to some of them that's what GH is looking for?

Because those weeks lost added to the later start to preseason, you don't get back. Too many seem to think training is training and don't know the difference between preseason training and in season training. You can't be doing the fitness work you do in preseason when you're in season. Why do you think whenever a young player bulks up its during the off season.

Excellent post.

Answers - yes - somewhere inbetween but his time has gone - no - no and yes.

I really hope to be proved wrong

I like to think I'm not a cynic, and I do think all the disruptions of last year in preseason will have had an affect on those 1 per needed to be a top side.

But the thing that worries me is our injury crises last year. Yes it was massive and unlucky, but we simply didn't have the players waiting in the wings to step up a do a job. And I feel this year our squad is even weaker than this time last year having now lost Zak as well and not replaced him.

As far as I can see over the last two years we've lost (key players):

Sinfield
Peacock
Leuleui
Ailton
Hardaker

And replaced with
Aston/Lilley/sutcliffe
Galloway
garbutt/ Ormondroyd
Parcel
Golding

Which for me is a significant drop. I also feel players like Walters at 21 should be starting to step up now as a competent squad player but for me he's still just making up numbers. Surely it's time for baldwinson to be given a chance as well.

But what I really worry about is our lack of quality in positions 1,6,7,9 and 14. I believe mags, burrow and parcel are still (or potentially) top quality. I also think sutcliffe could be a top SL player. But one injury and I think we're struggling. In important positions. You can carry a poor second row in the squad, but a full season with Golding at FB? Let's hope he steps up and massively improves on last year. Which I'm sure he is capable of doing.

This for me is why Leeds who are a team with heavy reliance on a good number of "superstars" but because of salary cap have a fairly small squad and rely on players too young to fill big positions will do worse in a season than a team like castleford or Wigan who are a lot more balanced and have strength in depth if an injury crisis comes along. Though if Leeds can keep injury free then it leads to spectacular viewing such as the 2015 season and style of play.

If 2016 showed us anything, strength in depth is now key to being a top side with the amount of games there are in super league.

For what it's worth I think Leeds will clinch 6th this season. Which for me is ok in a period of transition.

No, I think they really are that stupid.



Brilliant. I can't wait.

What you seem to be saying is the club actually planned for failure.

If the floods only disjointed matters for a week - which is what you have posted - and that was the week between Xmas and the New Year then that should have been recoverable. The real issue was the late start to pre-season which was planned between GH. and his Head Coach i.e. planned for failure.

Alternatively the flooding caused far greater disruption which if that is the case then the agility of the management team has to be seriously questioned?

There are loiners on here that are really that stupid

The conundrums of 2017 will make or break a few people's positions at the club - should be an interesting season

I think there is truth to both sides. That the club struggled far more than they expects early season because of the disruption, then chose to use the remaining time with player development as a higher priority. I know it doesn't match the 'club doesn't play yoingsters' myth some put forward but we gave a lot of youngsters a lot of playing time last year and I suspect there were a few injuries that in other seasons may not have ruled players out.

And as I pointed out yesterday, your opinion is completely the oppossite of what McDermott stated they actually did. Where he admitted the mistakes of last year, and stated deveopment of players was sacrificed for a desire to get wins on the board.

Which was of course which was stated by a few on here last season. Just throwing youngsters into an injury crisis is not development under any view.

God knows what you read but I'm not seeming to say that at all and god knows where you come up with that one from.



I don't know the exact length of time lost, i said it will have been in the weeks rather than the months someone else mentioned. One coach (Davidson I believe said they ended up losing 2 weeks worth of training between Boxing Day and the season start).



Hetherington will have planned the Kiwi game, that left McDermott little option but to start preseason later. He obviously isn't going to criticise the decision to play that game for obvious reasons. They will still hoped to have enough time to be ready. Maybe they could've handled the later preseason start without the floods......Maybe they could've handled the floods had they started preseason at their normal early November time......but later preseason start AND floods together proved too much.

I have no doubt he did say that. There is very little to be gained by coming out and saying we gave up and gave the youngsters a go.

It seems smart management to me to claim a massive injury crisis to blood the kids. It takes all the pressure of the youngsters and doesnt create a scapegoat of the experienced ones.