I think a big key for our season is down to how Watkins comes back from such a bad injury and can Stevie Ward stay fit. If both those are positive we can go well.

Wigan have lost some top players but always seem to fill gaps well. Saints have lost Barba but have recruited better than anyone in my opinion and are the team to beat. Cas and Wire will be challenging but we won't be far off.

Just hope we play a better brand of rugby. I want to leave The Emerald on match days having enjoyed it which is something I can't say I have for a long time.

The Emerald. Arrrrgggghhh boulderdash.
FWIW I think we’re one decent prop away from being contenders this year. Contenders for silverware that it

Think we'v had the best recruitment of anyone, wouldnt of thought in a million years we'd be signing Merrin, Hurrell and Lolohea in one offseason and McCllellends one of the best youngsters in the whole british game. Saints have done well but think our signings are of better quality.

I was a big critic of Mcdermott and of Lowes/Sinfield taking on the first team after him, so with a coach who i think will get much better performances from the existing players and some quality recruitment, im hoping and expecting to see some good, well structured attacking rugby and a 3rd to 5th place finish

The best signings we have made is the coach, and changing the conditioner. That will have a big effect, a big imorovement.

In terms of recruitment, we needed a big change. But to look at reality, it really only boils down to changes rather than individuals. By that I mean, we now have a proper stand off, and a quality one. We now have gone back to two quality centres. And we are back to a leader in the pack.

However, is Hurrell really a big imorovement on Moon at centre? Not so sure, but will be glad to see it. I think people are tainted on Moon because of his final year. Briscoe is a massive downgrade on Hall. We have lost Garbutt, replaced with a quality individual in Merrin, an improvement. But an injury to Merrin and back to where we were, as currently stands.

McClelland I agree on, massive potential, but that is potential, and won’t come out if we keep persevering with Sutcliffe instead, as is the norm.

Not been negative on it, I am just been realistic, that there is still a lot of if’s.

To be Frank I really don't care where we finish this year, all I want is to see entertaining games and come away from Headingly with a smile on my face. I think silverware may be a little too ambitious but to be challanging will be a "right result"

Yup, lots of ifs. Re Moon, to me it seemed his powers were on the wane (see what I did there?) so Hurrell's probably an improvement. As it stands, the biggest loss from Hall is the metres he made running the ball out. IF we sign more grunt up front the effects of his loss will diminish. But it's pretty unrealistic to suppose we'd sign his equal and in any case wing is lower priority than some of the issues that have been addressed. Injuries can scupper any side though with the front row we seem stuck with, we may be in a parallel version of that scenario already. Also, no-one seems to have mentioned our kicking game. Stank last year, albeit our field positions were poor. Do we have the right mix of talents to address this?

That's fair enough assessment and pretty much how i would see it. Next year is about true transition at last though, the changes made so far are encouraging and i expect more big changes to be made during the next summer when Furner will know who he wants and doesn't and has chance to identify what he needs.

Yeah i mentioned the change of coach getting more out of the existing players

With regards the signings, i dont think anyone can complain, we'r signing as good a level a player as we can realisticly expect, in merrins case maybe a higher level of player any of us would expect to be coming over here. Injuries happen, clubs can only put together as good a squad as they can and hope for the best on that score, Merrin might play every game and so might ward and watkins , then we'd be instantly a better team than last year. Hurrels a better than moon but in reality moon played very few games at and certainly not paired with watkins, Hurrell and Watkins is lightyears ahead of any combination we put out last year. Loloheas a much better six than either one of moon or suttcliffe and merrin will be, on paper, our best forward and a much needed leader, i dont expect him to be garbutts replacement, think that players still to come in. Agree briscoe or handley are massive drop offs from hall.

With the squad we'v got and the improvment i think furner will bring, i dont think making the playoffs is an unrealistic expectation.

For sure, especially as it's now top 5.

I get what people mean with the style of play, but I don’t think it’s possible to play beautiful rugby whilst getting beaten most weeks. In order to play, we still need a platform set by the forwards and momentum established, and to be winning basically.
It may well take another season to complete the transition but we should be competitive even next year.

We haven’t played good rugby in a number of years, even when winning. I think that is more what is spoken of.

I too would have liked us to have signed two big props. However the new recruits are quality and under Furner we could adapt our attack to major on the backs and be less reliant on the big middle men which we really have not had since JP and Kylie left.

I remember the days of coach Roy Francis and what many consider to be the the most entertaining rugby Leeds have ever played. We went for speed, handling skills and great back up and destroyed opposition with this approach. With the current game mired down with congested defense and one up rugby the game it is crying out for a change.

Perhaps some deeper attacking lines, especially from scrums, and longer missed passes will release the backs into space and we can then run opposition big men breathless.

I remain an optimist.