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.

I also hope that these new signings don't sustain long term injury's early on and "out for 12 weeks "etc and turns into season ending. Hope we have better luck with injury's in general basically

Lots of valid points in this thread and also a lot of things I agree with. In terms of hopes I think the following for me, appreciating a lot are interlinked:

1. We play a better brand of rugby. What I mean by this is rugby that is entertaining to watch and makes me look forward to going to a game or watching it on TV. Some part of this involves an attacking structure of some degree which I think Furner will bring.

2. We have far less injuries and look a much fitter team. Accept that injuries happen but would hope we generally have better luck with injuries, we look much fitter generally and we don’t have half injured players turning out.

3. We get some spirit and toughness back. This is mainly forward based but I can’t stand watching us getting completely battered in the forwards and generally looking like we are soft. This could have been number one but I would rather watch good rugby, thinking if we play good rugby some level of toughness would need to be involved. I think Merrin could play a huge part in this.

4. We play players in the proper position. Not sure if Merrin is a 13 or 10 in SL. We shall see, but generally players playing in the correct position and using the skills they have. Thinking Ward, Cam Smith and how we use them moving forward.

5. We see more of the exciting youngsters, maybe they get a bit of game time. In and around the first team, pushing up competition and giving us some youthful enthusiasm.

Guys this year will be 100% better, maybe winning the GF in 2017 turned out to be our enigma, it gave us a false sense of security for last season and even with RB and DM moving on McDermott believed we had sufficient talent for last year The biggest changes from last year is in the back room, from the start we simply was not fit enough yet we were losing games by one point or winning games. When the injuries came it all went downhill, replacements coming into the team was not good enough, How many of the fringe players were given pay rises on the back of the last GF win, the worse problem was attitude and the rumours that was going around the place regarding fitness and players unable to play. Whatever happened behind the closed doors the good thing to come out of it was the sacking of McDermott. We now have a back room team who are all pulling in the same direction, quality from the very top with Sinfield and Furner, qualities players now getting back to full fitness and will be ready for the start of the season, some fantastic signings and one more signing to come in should we get rid of some players on the wage roll, Mulalley, Walters, Omondroyde etc. Last year we had a lot of players playing out of position square pegs in round holes this year it will be different, we may not get to the GF or win the CC, but expect a good season. Guys don't expect too much out of our first three games if we win one then great, but if we lose all three lets be patient before we start shouting for Furner to be sacked, it will take time for the team to gel, remember its not how we start its how we finish next season.

I reckon for Mullally, Ormondroyd or Walters to move on, someone's going to have to offer 2 years minimum or a decent pay rise for this year. Is either that likely?

On the “wanting to see good rugby” wish that a few people have. It’s a lot easier to do that if your players are fit, the forwards are on top and the halfbacks are providing a lead. On the first point I’d expect players to be fitter than in recent years. On the second I believe you’re two decent props away from top 5, if you’re not dominating the collision and getting a quick play the ball you simply cannot chuck the ball around and “play good rugby”. The days of Roy Francis are long gone, the space just isn’t there on the field anymore for that brand of rugby unless you’re bossing things up front. On the third it depends how players gel. Lolohea is a bit off the cuff and Myler isn’t really a playmaker. It’ll be interesting to see how they go. I believe they’ll be an improvement on what you had last year.
On whether you can offload Mulally, Ormondroyd or Walters you have to ask who’d take them now? I think you’re stuck with them until someone has an injury crisis come Easter.