Theres a lot of money in Sports ‘Science’. Degrees and clever people with fancy letters after their names…. I work with a few too…!

You’d still be a brilliant coach mate and actually what a young player would need to have some vision and make the game exciting and fun….!

Did this approach all come from the 'Moneyball' in baseball where they identified players on stats? Completely agree with Shabs that they need to spend more tike coaching the basics like accurate passing, dummy running and dominating tackles. There's a place for the science but it should be in the background, not the basis of everything else. The players these days are ripped, but can anyone say the skill levels over here are any higher? Hence why we can produce forwards to go to the NRL but struggle with backs where they need more rugby know how

The problem that exists with any technology, rugby or otherwise, is that every innovation is seen as a positive and moving forward but it really isn't as it goes too far and what it takes away from the human element is the unintended consequence. It inhibits any use the technology had in the first place (there's so many examples of this in society ie the impact on instant gratification).

It was my passion for many years and found a coaching philosophy that was successful not just in results but in people and player development, putting them at the centre of the process, not this painting by numbers coaching that's sterilising the game. I could bore anyone for hours on where I think It goes wrong and the anecdotal experiences that I've had. I could have gone on the coaching pathway but it continually pulled the opposite direction to my beliefs. Anyway, I get my joy from teaching in schools now, enabling young people of all ages to enjoy being active and achieving their own success.

Someone asked about Tetevano and walker, Newman and holroyd’ appearances, can’t remember who.

Zane played 14/27 in 2021 and after Hull KR will have played 7/12 in 2022. Think 6 at start of this season is most consecutive games he has played. Think has been suspended 4 or 5 times.

For our talented young guns who have suffered badly with injuries and of course all out at the moment.
In 2018 we played 33 games,Walker played 19 + 3 subs, Newman played 3, Holroyd 0+ 1 sub.
In 2019 we played 31 games, Walker played 22, Newman played 22 and Holroyd 0+3 subs.
In 2020 we played 21 games, Walker played 10, Newman played 12 and Holroyd 3+6 subs.
In 2021 we played 26 games, Walker played 0, Newman played 14 and Holroyd 4+12 subs.

A few things stood out for me. 1) the decision to go with Holroyd as prop 4 with no prop 5 looks even riskier given his bad luck.
2) the fact we have had seemingly endless injury issues since 2020 yet we only played 21 games in 2020 and 26 games in 2021. Of course now we are 11 games into 2022 and completely busted, having been able to play 1-17 in the pre-season game v Hull. In general we seem to have little durability.

I’d love to speak to you mate. Let’s meet up. We definitely need to go backwards to go forwards. Leeds have the best resourced club in the league, yet lowest skill levels and most injuries. Go figure….!

Completely agree with all that mate

wasn't that smith's thing in 2004 working on basics,

If you listen to the interview with Smith on this week's BBC RL podcast he touches on this, including speculating that the soccer mentality of this country means that our players aren't as constantly playing around with rugby balls as they are in Australia which means they both have a core skills deficit but also give a coach like Smith more chance to make an impact.

‘‘Twas me who asked. Great stats them, good work. How long can we show faith in players with these sorts of appearance stats ? Genuine question….

Holroyd stats are very worrying. I can’t believe Agar was happy to back him as our 4th prop

All this we need more props is OK if the suitable quality is available. We don't want another Dom Crosby?

Don’t think we’ll be able to move on props till the off season, unless the rumour of a further player out is true….

Absolutely right, it was known Leeds offered Vuniyayawa a new deal but he went to Salford for better terms, and we we’re looking for a new prop but there wasn’t any decent signings available, hence we’ve stuck with Thompson. There’d be no point just signing another Thompson. We’ll again be looking to upgrade Thompson with a better prop for 2023.