Some fair criticism there but it was always going to take some time to completely renew the squad wasn't it? Yes, there have been some less than inspirational signings along the way. However, Merrin was good (if now gone), Hurrell is box office, Leeming and Mellor are solid, Ava and Martin are very good and Prior will also be solid for us I think. We've also brought in McLelland, Walters, O'Connor, Hall to bolster the junior ranks who all have potential too.

Half back needed sorting and although the jury is somewhat out on Lui and Gale for different reasons, they are a hell of an upgrade on what we had before IMO.

We have commercial constraints and there is still some leftover cap by the looks of things - really good mid-season signings are possible/likely and we should wait until the right player in the right position becomes available.

The squad is now competitive I would say, and going in the right direction. We should still be patient though. Even if we signed the best 21 in the world, I don't believe our young lads are at their peak yet and therefore Leeds isn't going to be at full potential for another year or two.

I agree we are still short and it will take time but the fact we have been poor for 3/4 years should be motivation to work harder to get things like passports sorted out. There was lots of talk of Prior coming in alongside Merrin, that would still have been impossible had Merrin stayed.

For example, could this season we have signed Gale as part coach, part player or even Prior. Our coaching options look pretty thin to me as well as the squad. Could cuthbo have been part coach. If others are doing it why not us

I repeat, how easy is it for an Australian to get a PNG passport? Can anybody get one? I want one, where do i apply?

Now that Blake Austin and Jackson Hastings have played for GB can they get a British passport? As Australians can they get PNG passports?

Its all getting too confusing for me, must be Sir Kev's fault.

From what I know of the salary cap registering a player as a coach doesn’t get around the cap. Their wage for both playing and coaching would count on the cap. The only way you could work around it is to not play the “coach” for the first half of the season say and then play him for the 2nd half. As the salary of the “coach” would only count from the point at which they are registered as a player or play in a game but then counts for the rest of the season.

So if Leuluai doesn’t play for the first half or a decent proportion of the season to begin with then they may have saved some cap space. If he does then they haven’t saved anything.

Is Martin even eligible for a PNG passport? We have no idea on here if he is or if that’s even what the club is attempting.

The passport issue is no excuse for loaning in mediocre 2nd division players.
Yes it will take time but padding the squad out with has beens & never will bes caused part of the problems we witnessed fighting relegation.
Also whats happening with the Coaching set up? Carr was earmarked but he's long gone home??

The coaching situation is a far bigger issue than players for me, surely nobody can see our management of this as anything other than amateur?

Agar got the gig by default, still a lot of questions outstanding there, but we wait. However, how did we move from been told the coaching structure would be fully put in place this time last year, to still messing around without adequate assistants this year, and the guy who was to develop it now just the head coach? Either the structure was needed or it wasn’t, and our previous poor seasons here tell you it was. Surely we didn’t only have the one target for assistant? And please don’t anybody tell me Walker is it, the same guy who has been one of the assistants through the poor previous seasons.

Quote: Him "Is Martin even eligible for a PNG passport? We have no idea on here if he is or if that’s even what the club is attempting.'" Agar confirmed it a while back https://www.totalrl.com/rhinos-to-consi ... placement/

Quote: Him "Is Martin even eligible for a PNG passport? We have no idea on here if he is or if that’s even what the club is attempting.'" Agar confirmed it a while back https://www.totalrl.com/rhinos-to-consi ... placement/

I see on the day 3 footage from spain that James Webster is there.

I know he is part time helping too. This is why we are such amateurs with this.

Last year this time, we had a highly rated first team coach (ok did not work out, but when left said we were looking for the right replacement), an assistant coach, 3 assistants to this, a head of coaching development, an academy coach with assistants, and a scholarship head with assistants.

Now this time we have a head of coaching development who is also the head coach in a role he has previously not succeeded in, who is utilising an assistant part time from another club. One of the previous assistants now the academy coach and assistant despite the previous failings, and apparently lost 3 of the scholarship coaches. So much for the much needed structure.

And that is not just a whinge, those are the cold facts of where we are.

And with all that, we were .

We were, and yet we are in a worse position now than then, because we don't have Carr to pick it back up.

We can’t say if we’re in a worse position until we know how the team is going, it will be very interesting to see how we start the season, I’ll reserve judgement until then, we can have all the best coaching structure in the world but it means nowt if the team isn’t performing.

It still means there is unanswered questions regardless of how it is spun, and it goes against the statements they said they were doing previously.

It's worth pointing out that Featherstone have a pre-season friendly versus Valencia on Saturday at El Campo del Pantano, Villajoyosa. This is the same town, and I am fairly sure the same stadium, that Leeds are currently using for their warm-weather training camp, so he has probably just come out a day or two early before the Fev players leave to have a look at the potential DR players and/or help out. I'd say it's a good thing for both clubs in terms of consistency of coaching if Webster is involved with the likes of McLelland, A Sutcliffe etc (or whoever plays on DR), as was the case with Carr.

We don't know whether Carr did pick it up or was it Agar?