A long way off having that front row yet... plus they're all overseas players which I'm not comfortable with given recent Nrl recruits fiascos

Makes my p*ss boil this

My post from the squad thread


Merrin's missus is on a flight somewhere so maybe they've gone? (I'm not stalking her honest!)

Merrin was on one of the players instagram last night though so who knows?

Just to add reports on Twitter that its all a done deal, St George on a 2 year contract. I understand why he has done it but I think he's let himself and the club down big time with the way he's handled it, there was no need to come back and give it all the 'I'm totally committed' BS. It's a real shame as he was a quality player and seemed like a quality person to have around.

Just shows that the recent success we have had as a club was built totally around home grown players that were 100% committed to the club with a smattering of class from the NRL - we need to get back to that.

The club was desperate to make a marquee signing at the time and pushed a few things. Merrin never sounded convinced about moving to SL in the first place.

However, can’t fault his professionalism once here and playing - in an incredibly tough season.

I said all along I didn’t think he was the right player for us, even if he is a high quality player. What we’re crying out for is size in the pack and pace on the flanks, because we’ve been too one-dimensional and easy to defend.

A big body up front who’ll give us some rattle, and a scorchio on the wing would make us much more dynamic. Would be happy with either as a Merrin replacement: a prop would make the biggest difference even with Prior coming in, but we have more Academy talent coming through in the front row than at wing.

We could do with sorting this ASAP, I really felt the side needed a cohesive pre-season with Agar after last year.

You could tell in agars interview earlier this week that he was also very disappointed in how Trent has handled this situation, the more I think about it the more annoyed I get TBH.

I totally understood his reasons for wanting to get a deal back in Aus - so don't come back with all the talk of being committed, if he wanted to stay in Australia he should have stayed over there not us about when we are preparing for the upcoming season, he wasn't just a squad member he was the Marquee signing, captain and ambassador for the club.

I dunno - Trent is in a very difficult position there. Offered big bucks to come to England, and forced into it somewhat because of the lack of opportunities at the time in NRL. Family situation never really right for it and then he comes to a Leeds club in absolute turmoil, losing coach within a few months and regularly getting booed by own fans in a cold English winter/spring.

The only reason he came to Leeds was the money, nobody else is attached to Leeds like we are as fans or the Academy lads are who come through the system. It’s just a job for other players, unless they’ve been here long enough to really embed.

He probably didn’t feel as effective as he’d have liked either playing in a beaten pack most weeks - he is a glue player not a metre maker, he needs others around him.

I don’t have a problem with him going back, I just want us to make better strategic decisions on where we splash cash and for us to get the balance of the team right.

I don't have a problem with him going back, I have a problem with the way he's gone about it, he gave 100% every time he played last year in a difficult season for both him and the club, I just feel that he's not handled this well and doesn't come out of it looking good. I totally agree that it is a job and about money for the overseas players and it doesn't always work out over here, I guess I just feel a bit let down by how he's handled it as he always seemed pretty straight up genuine guy.

Will be interesting if he makes a statement about it at all.

The club can't even appoint an assistant coach FFS, despite having how many months to sort it. Yes, they planned for Carr, but that went wayward ages ago. They knew they needed one, and nothing, and yet we have the very very unproven risk of Agar on his own currently. Is anyone really surprised that a player of Merrin's stature wants to be thousands of miles away? I don't think he can be critisised in anyway.

I think people are being a bit harsh on Merrin. Yes the club gave him a window to do a deal, but the lateness of this is down to st George sorting themselves out taking time.

There are still a lot of players moving around here - including genuine stars like Holmes and Mitchell. That creates chaos as clubs make space on their cap and tends to lead to multiple movements.

We've been caught in the crossfire a bit with a player who clearly wanted to go home.

So as this is a rumour thread, who should we replace him with? Personally I’d be looking at a British player, but I’ve no idea who, because I can’t think of a single one who is worth Marquee money.

Luke Thompson might be in a year or two, but there’s no chance of Saints letting him come to us. We don’t need any back rowers so that’s Bateman and Whitehead out of the equation. I don’t see a back that would be worth signing, and we already have more halves than enough. We’ve just signed Leeming so no point going for Clarke.

It has to be an overseas player.

Don't get me wrong, I think I am being a bit harsh on Merrin, I'm probably more frustrated with the situation rather than him personally although I am a bit disappointed with how he's handled it but who knows it could have been the club who told him to make the statements he did.

Honestly I don't think we should rush into replacing him, especially with an overseas player - I'm talking about using the Marquee spot here.