High praise indeed....what positions do these lads play? A lot seems to be expected from Cam Smith especially ......

Whitley is a hooker, short, but has plenty of size for his age, similar to Issac Luke, or Mitch Reign at the Dragons.
Walker, is a running half back, with great speed, and good hands - similar in style to Sam Tomkins.
Cam Smith is one of those Scully P, Andy Farrell type back rowers who could play anywhere.

There's some videos on the Leeds site of them all

Whitely is actually a scrum half playing for his community club. Me personally, prefer him at hooker, and it is Leeds who have played him there.

Jack was and again is, for his community club a fullback and a very good one. But his footwork and speed are so apt for a scrumhalf running at the line. He is stronger than he looks too, and always seems to get the ball out in the collision.

Cameron is very much like Andy Farrell, in that he is big for his age and yet can play just about anywhere. I believe Leeds are looking at playing him at half for the first part of his fulltime development, to work on his speed and kicking. The long term though is in the forwards, where with his handling skills, if they work on kicking, he will be a very skilful forward.

Tom Hall is a fast backrower, who also has the frame to play prop. Peacocks stature.

Sounds good and from what I have heard everywhere else very pleased this lad has signed on and excited to see his development.

When people talk of Marquee signings and salary cap, something interesting here. The only way of Leeds fitting the contract in for Cameron was to make him a first team squad member for next year, hence the four year contract. What this actually means however is that his salary will be part of our cap next year.

Just on forwards I disagree Gotcha. Nobody thought Peacock would amount to much until he was in his early 20s. There are also plenty of lads who have a growth spurt past 16 which could change them fundamentally, and there are plenty of kids who look big and strong physically at youth rugby who simply find the step up to open age too much - quite possibly because their whole game is based on being bigger and stronger than their opponents.

Not saying you can't spot some early, but there are many exceptions.

Just to give a couple of examples you've cited in the past - Daniel Smith and Baldwinson. Nobody seems to think that much of Smith, yet even in juniors in Aus people thought he looked the business. The jury's out on Baldwinson, but that's kind of the point.

To be fair, they've both had very good seasons at their current clubs. Baldwinson, especially has been receiving very good reviews.

Regarding the 'late developer' argument. Apart from Peacock, and JJB, can anyone think of any recent examples of young players who were older than 21/22 before they were established SL players?

Indeed! This seems to be one of those 'urban myths' continuously perpetuated. Granted prop forwards might take a little longer to manifest themselves as worthy, but IMO any player of calibre will have revealed himself by late teens early twenties at the very latest.

Alex Walmsley and Chris Hill?

Maybe not in SL but at what age did they reveal themselves of 'calibre' to convince Warrington and Saints to sign them?

ah, i see, change the question
wasnt Hill 23 and playing in the Championship? And Walmsley wasnt even attached to a professional club until 22?
Add Amor to the list too, wasnt he 22 or 23 before we signed him from Whitehaven?

if they were always going to make it why werent they already at a bigger club?

Chris Hill was a regular at Leigh at 17. He made his debut for Leigh in SL IIRC, and didn't Amor have a decent career away from RL prior to signing for Leeds, which meant he was initially reluctant to turn pro?

No idea on Amor's outside career, but if you'd asked me based on his handful of appearances at Leeds whether he was going to make a SL prop forward I would have been very sceptical.

There are a number of players kicking around in the Championship who were let go by SL clubs at a young age but could now probably step back up and play SL without looking out of place. They've developed their game at the lower level and matured into better players than they gave an indication of being at 17-18.

Amor came through at qigan . Dropped down and then came back up again.

For all the talk of where youngsters should be playing, no one has made an argument yet that has me convinced the place for young players not quite ready for SL is anywhere but the lower leagues. As those players attest.

I can see why as a club that we would want to keep players until 20/21/22. But more will likely be ruined by playing reserve grade until that age as go on to breakthrough. As a game the lower leagues are exactly the right place for them.