True, but Leeds tried their best to keep up with us

Both Lilley and Rowan posed significant danger to Leeds today.

the lad did ok, I think I would of rubbed it in on the interview to hetherington

Massive performance from Jordan that showed exactly what Leeds were missing. His spirit and leadership was awesome and he was one of stand out players today. Compare the way Lilley led our team to the way Kallum Watkins led Leeds. That's what the Rhinos are missing. Watkins was anonymous when Leeds weren't going to get their own way. Jordan stood up and rallied our players when we were on the back foot. The MOTM award was the icing on the cake.

I have to admit that I felt a sense of satisfaction at this. It's like it was written in the stars or something. Pleased for the kid - he gets a lot of attention and criticism and he clearly is handling it well.

It just shows how mis-managed the Rhinos are at the moment. Telling a player he's not got a future with the club in the week leading up to him playing against that club? You don't think he's going to up his game for that match? And he certainly did

I thought that at the time, but RFL rules are that all players with an option on their contract had to be told by last week

Exactly correct. On the face it sounds crazy, but apparently it's nothing to do with Leeds' timing, it's to do with RFL deadlines. Same as the anti-tampering rule is supposed to stop clubs talking to contracted players until May of the year they expire, contract extensions have to be told to the player around the same time.

Otherwise Leeds could just not tell Lilley his contract isn't being extended, and then it stops him being able to talk to anyone else until he gets released in November. Or they let him talk to people now, he agrees to join someone else, then Leeds invoke their extra year option and scupper it.

Why leave it until the last possible week though? The decision not to retain him was likely made many moons ago and anyone with even the slightest bit of foresight would have broken the news to Jordan as soon as the two clubs were drawn together in the cup just to get it out of the way.

If I was in that position, I wouldn't make it formal until the last possible moment. Let's say they tell him in February and then he hits a massive run of amazing form. They may then want to change their mind and retain him for next year. You leave your options open until you absolutely can't anymore, especially when it doesn't affect this season one way or the other.

To me the key point is that he found out from his agent . He had been recruited as a youngster, been through all the age groups and was part of the first team squad. When he started playing in that first team you could tell how proud he was to represent his hometown club .
Not to have the class / basic human decency to tell a loyal player face to face perhaps says something about the current culture at Leeds.

Yeah that is something that doesn't sit well. I saw someone say it's like getting dumped via a text message. If it's true about the agent thing, that is pretty classless by Leeds and I can't think it will have gone down all that well with any friends he has at the club either.

To be fair, the likely reason he's been told via his agent is that his agent was likely the first to know simply by doing their job and speaking to the Leeds club about a new contract as his current deal was expiring.

Perhaps but a courtesy call in person to the player would've been a classier way to operate. It would've only taken about 5-10 mins.

As it is it doesn't seem that Jordan bears any grudges, his interviews before and after were very professional. He did the talking on the pitch where it really matters.

To be fair to Leeds, they've been going through a crisis period over last season and into this one with the coaches roundabout they've been through, along with the fact that the head coach is usually instrumental in recruitment and retention decisions then it's not totally surprising that they've let things slide somewhat.