A lot of the blame last season lay with Hetherington and his refusal to invest in the squad. Hes duplicating that with bells on this year an almost wilful plan to fail. You can bet of any sort of pressur begins to be exerted on hetherington Mcdermott will be the one to take the fall for him. For me both have had their time. Last year wasnt unforeseeable it was a direct consequence of a failure to recruit. This year will be worse.

Nope, he was a full time rugby league god... thought all Leeds fans would know that...

...and a pre-eminent porn star or so, er, a friend told me.

great post

Disagree entirely.

The squad was fine except for hooker.
The squad is fine now except for hooker.
If we get a decent hooker I reckon we'll be top 4.

there are no leaders anywhere and the spine 1,6,7, and 9 are pish poor

A hooker and a halfback away from challenging. Poorest fullback in the league also if we go with Golding.

Do people think our props are good enough? They never get mentioned as a weak position but i actually think its our weakest.

Galloway is solid but is out for 1st couple of months. Garbutt injury prone and is either spectacular or hopeless there is no inbetween. Cuthbertson and Singo in the main were both poor last yr. Mullalley isnt good enough for Leeds. Baldwinson and Odeljski are both young and arent ready yet for regular SL action. JJB will probably cover prop this year and will try his guts off but is ultimately too small for prop.

Who will be our starting props on the opening night against Walmsley and co?

The only issue I have with our props is they're all the same kind of player, kind of ploddy metre eaters. Cuthbertson aside they don't really add any dynamism, and they all lack a bit of lateral movement defensively (this is why IMO a good 9 is essential). So while they are good enough individually, I don't think we are as well balanced there as say Saints or Wire.

As for who will replace Galloway I would like to think it's an opportunity for Baldwinson or Mullaly to stake a claim. But more than likely Mac will go with JJB early doors.

The thought of using Jjb as a Prop especially after already doing 20mins+ in the backrow should be one of the Lessons the Coaches learn from last year in that A.It was ridiculous & B.He's too old to do long stints without a break.

nobody it seems, players or coaches, learnt a thing last year as the same mistakes were repeated week after week.
as for Jjb at prop, it's been tried time again and doesn't work.

so expect him to play prop

You cant fault JJB's heart, the guy would run through brick walls for the team.

Though flogging him to within an inch of his life in a position that takes some severe physical punishment on even the fittest of players is a bit much.

We need JJB on the pitch for his enthusiasm and leadership qualities, not sat on the bench, iced up to the nines.

Put it this way, if Leeds would have got rid of McDermott, GH would have been able to keep Hardaker like he wanted to.

So on one hand GH has to get rid of players he doesn't want to let go because McDermott says so....
Yet the other rumours have GH insisting that Burrow stay even though McDermott wants him to go.

Quite the flip flop on which person calls the shots.