It just seems to be our luck that players who we let go because they are old or injury prone then go on to play brilliantly and injury-free for the the next two seasons

So why sign Sibbit and Elima then.

so we have some experienced players to call on while likes of whitehead,olbison donaldson etc develop? And I'd guess Elima and Sibbits combined wage is still a significant saving over what we were paying menzies allowing us to strengthen over areas of team with the surplus. Fact we didnt spend up to cap isnt really an issue as we had transfer targets that didnt come off.

Keep believing that if you want but I don't believe it.

I'd have loved to keep Menzies at the club to sooner or later go into our coaching setup as well.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?
The guy is immense, I'd even go so far as to say he's a modern day RL legend. It's a loss to lose a player like that, but we must keep moving forward. Hopefully, Olbison, Whitehead and Donaldson will have kept an ear open to anything Beaver had to say and that some of his magic will rub off on those lads and they crack on.

Should we have ever let Menzies go? Hmmmm duh, absolutely not - with a back 3 all around 20 how useful would he have been to those kids



Watching one of the best to have ever played the game would have been pretty handy!

In hindsight we could have done with him in a few cases this year but the point is that we haven't got him anymore so lets just work with who we have. We might not have signed Elima if Menzies stayed and we can be here all night saying who we should have kept. Pointless discussion!

Its not as if none of those three were here or never played first team or trained with the first team squad last year though. when Beaver was here?

For better or for worse, Beaver has moved on, the club has moved on, and so I suggest should those agonising over what might have been?

Actually all the young players you mention were also a very good reason for keeping Beaver; how much quicker would they improve with quality like that around to help them? Role models like that are hard to come by.

I'd have loved to keep Hape, Big Les, Fielden etc etc but you have to make decisions sometimes whats best for the future if he had stayed I doubt we would have seen Olbison this year and may have meant we lost him to another super league side because he wasn't breaking through! Also we wouldn't have been able to afford the 11 players we brought in had we had him in our cap because at a guess I would say he had a fair bit of money on him! As much as I loved beaver I think it was the right decision to let him go.

I think the board have to play what's in front of them and I'm sure that what they did as regards Beaver was correct when they did it. Hape, Vainikolo and Stu Fielden left at an earlier time when we needed to save some money and Beaver left, I guess largely due to Orford mucking us about, though as it turns out we still have a spare overseas spot AND the money for another player, so it would seem that, in reality, Beaver could have stayed.

As I say though, the board have to do what they feel is necessary in the circumstances at that time, and you can't knock them for that. Rather like Glenn Morrison, who was looking very injury prone when he was off loaded. If only we'd known he would come through that period as strong as ever I'm sure he would have stayed at Odsal, but it can't be denied that it was the correct decision at the time, especially in the light of the back rowers we have coming through. It's always disappointing to see players of that standard leave though.

But it can be denied, i loudly denied it and any such claim doesn't hold water. We all know what is meant by "injury prone" and Morrison never was. He had a couple of serious injuries, which is something 100% completely different. "Injury prone" is like some guy whose hamstring is suspect, or keeps suffering knee ligament problems, or has a dodgy shoulder which keeps going. That was never Morrison. Suffering a serious injury or two cannot sensibly be said to make you "prone" to it happening again.

Morrison has never in his career been injury prone, he's just a rock hard diamond, and there was never any reason to get rid on such a ground. IF we got rid cos he was "injury prone" (and I don't think anyone said as much?) then it was a colossal and stupid mistake by someone.

In terms of role models and bringing youngsters on, I can't think how we would not have been better off if we still had Morrison and the peerless Menzies. Instead we got Sibbitt.

Aye, cos Sibbit will be on the same wage as Morrison and Menzies were.

You make an excellent point.

Whatever we pay Sibbitt, it's too much

I do think that is with the benefit of hindsight, to be honest.

I think it's fair to say that most players, in any sport, as they get older, tend to get more injuries and also take longer to get over them, even players who had previously had few problems (I certainly did!), and in his last season with us Morro had as much time on the sidelines as he did on the pitch, so I can understand why the club, thought he was quite likely to continue in this vein and declined to give him another contract. I think you also have to remember that we'd had a lot of other injuries as well as Glenn, so someone (coach or board, I dunno) made an understandable decision, it was a wrong decision as it turned out, [ibut at the time it was made[/i it was understandable.

FWIW, I would have loved him to stay as player or coach, and to be honest, I'm delighted for him that he's got over the injuries. I guess we'll have to give the coach time with Sibbitt and see if he really can do magic.....I don't want to be over critical at this early stage but he's not been particularly impressive as yet.

So Sibbit may not be pulling up any trees yet, however on the flip side we gave them Godwin. Which more than makes up for it.

Nope, I said just that, and more, when the deal was announced.


But did they though? I am not so sure. It was never announced that "We are getting rid of Morro as we think he's injury prone". And again, I can't understand at all how anyone could logically believe his future likelihood of injuries was anything to do with the injuries he'd had. You couldn't make any such connection. Plus, he's a very "young" older player, and runs around like a spring chicken. He never looked remotely end-of-life to me.

Nope, much more likely to be a plain bad decision, simples.

i miss nick zisti

The club have made two major mistakes in the last decade:-
1. Signing Iestyn Harris
2. Not keeping Menzies.

3. Appointing Steve McNamara
4. Not sacking Steve McNamara.

1 - without a doubt.
2 - I suspect releasing Morro was, with hindsight, the more serious loss.

I don't think signing Iestyn Harris was a mistake. He was a good player for us IMO.

The circumstances around the Harris signing and the way the old chairman handled the situation was very poor. If we conducted ourselves a bit better and made sure Leeds had first refusal on Harris coming back to play RL then we could probably have signed him without the silly legal wranglings and a spolied relationship between the two clubs.

The Menzies non signing is only a mistake with the benefit of hindsight. Perhaps the board could employ a psychic to prevent things like this happening again?

If Orford stayed and didn't get "homesick", I'm fairly certain he would be classed as a success and worth Menzies not signing. That's the risk with quota players, I'd hope that the club don't have regrets about Menzies.

I don't see the big fuss over Menzies - he played most of last season for you didn't he? No point having him if the rest of the team aren't firing.

Agree with ME on the appointment of McNamara being up there with the signing of Harris (of course it was a mistake - the implications of the latter were far more severe than the legal wranglings - why do you think JP wanted out?). Think Leeds may have made a similar error with McDermott and Lowes (as predicted by many on this board). If Leeds don't put in a good performance against Hudds this week it will be a very disappointing first 10 games for coach McDermott.