Does he still have hair to cut?

Do we need another hooker? -

"The son of Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur has been granted permission to speak to other clubs after a request to leave Parramatta Eels: the club Arthur himself coached until earlier this year.

Matt Arthur has played a handful of NRL games since making his debut, and is widely seen as a fine prospect within the game. However, the hooker requested to be let go from the final season of his contract with the Eels – and the club have now granted that release."

The 9 position is already messy at the club, I'm not sure bringing in the son of the coach is going to help, even if it increases the likelihood of Arthur staying (which it may not).

Ackers seemed to start well but he's not looked good for a while. I don't think spelling him from the bench worked at all, but for whatever reason he doesn't look to be the dominant hooker we were hoping to lead the way with.

O'Connor is great for effort, but I think as a team we're not as fluid with him on instead of Ackers. Corey Johnson has shown glimpses in attack but he's also made some awful defensive contributions in the limited time he's played this season (e.g. letting players run through him at marker). I think we need to bite the bullet and let Johnson go.

Hooker is well down the list of positions we need to strengthen. Ackers will be fine if we can actually get the pack around him sorted out.

Yeah Ackers will come good, he's had a very stop start time and off for a while with injury, he's no pack to get on the front foot with. I think even Cam Smith (the NRL great) wouldn't have looked his best playing alongside that shower of a pack.

100% Leeds biggest issue is our props Oledski who some people are bagging because hes made a few mistakes probably because hes trying too hard is carrying our go forward on his own. We need 2 new props and the stats don't lie this season or previously.

Oledski

Games 16
Carries per game 14
Average metres 118
Average gain 8.5
Tackles 28

Lisone

Games 14
Carries 9
Metres 72
Av gain 8.04
Tackles 15

Sangare

15 Games
Carries 7
Metres 55
Av gain 7.42
Tackles 18

Holroyd

5 Games
5 Carries
32 Metres
6.4 av gain
18 Tackles

So apart from Oledski our other props workrate is poor dont carry the ball enough their impact making yardage is
negligible in Holroyd and Sangare case and they don't tackle enough. Fix that and ackers and Frawley look different players. If lose Mik for any length of time we are really in trouble.

Add in the averages for Eseh please, over/under bet 20 metres per game

Think the stat I heard was 88 metres in 4 games for Eseh. Desperately need another 2 senior props.

Damning numbers. No doubt metered from the back row aren’t great either. Cam smith tops the tackle count which probably doesn’t help with his decision making in attack.

Be interesting to see if any of that work rate changes under Arthur where we might see the backs carry less.

I actually think Wallace would have been a good signing for us. Good business from Catalan imho.

I'm hoping Holroyd will do well under Arthur - there is a really good prop in there if we can extract it somehow.

There will be some movement with a couple of players which is out of our hands; Martin might go somewhere else if the offer is good enough and I saw something about O'Connor earlier in the year. Who knows.

I just hope we keep Arthur for at least next season, he just exudes confidence and class to me. That older mentor-type figure is perfect for a young and developing side, I just think he's a great fit for Leeds right now.

I'm much more confident in us identifying and fixing gaps in the squad now we have him and Blease working on it.

Newcastle knights giving option of assistant coach to Arthur for next year

I thought so as well but he needs to hit the ground running in 2025 as at the moment his contract reflects that he should be one of our 4 prop rotations but based on the last 3 years doesn't justify the cap space. A good spell for a few games in 2023 but other than that well below the club investment in him as a player. He has played 8 games less than Fusitua over the last 3 years! I am not saying we should try to move him on but he needs a big year next year if he is too earn a new contract with leeds and he may start next year as 5th choice prop if we are able to bring a couple of new signings in.

@Loiner at Large, can't reply to your post but that makes staggering reading and confirms our thoughts. Shocking. You can bet your bottom dollar Arthur wants that pack totally revamping.

Richard Hunwicks to leave with immediate effect.

Says he's been serving a lengthy notice period, I wonder when he decided to pack it in?

If BA is going to stay, and with Blease being new in role, they may want a change of approach in S&C anyway.