Has Rooks left? Can’t seem to find anything about him?

Retired due to injury

Which at least explains why he wasn’t included on the updated squad list on the website this week. Charlie Harris also missing.

I think it will depend on what injuries (and suspensions) they get in what positions. It's a fair point you make about Leeds' shortage of middles, they have Zane Tetevano as well but you'd expect a SL team to carry around eight middles. Seems a bit strange that they are letting Mustapha and O'Connor go in the circumstances but after the first two weeks these loans are effectively the same as DR so they'd be able to recall them quickly if needed.

Presumably though the fact that they're being advertised as long-term loans means they are seen as being more than just one or two injuries away from a Leeds first-team call-up, perhaps the plan would be to play someone like Bodene Thompson or James Donaldson as a middle if injuries strike.

All 3 are good players at this level, Johnson in particular is definitely an upgrade on Flanagan and the two middles are real 100% grafters.

The only reason it was updated was to take race off not add anyone on he will be added on when the pics are

Fair enough. Thank you.

This talk of 'middles' detracts from the specialist work of props. Yeah, Thompson, Smith, Donaldson, Tetavano are all technically middles but if they're in the 17 with Gannon, Walters and Mellor, they're getting beat, and more importantly beat up, every week despite all of them being good players.

I hope I'm wrong, the 3 lads are all good players who'd improve any championship side and would them selves become better players with 20 championship games.

Yes of course that's true, as it is at most SL clubs, there is a big shortage of genuine old-fashioned big "props" but the issue is which players getting injured will cause recalls of which DR/loan players, viz-a-viz your comments about no players being out on loan or DR by Easter (acknowledging that SL clubs often recall their DR players around Easter anyway, Leeds have 3 games in 8 days this year so that's a fairly safe bet).

I doubt Johnson will get recalled all season unless there's an injury to one or both of Leeming and Dwyer, for instance. I'm not so sure about someone like Mustapha because he's an out-and-out middle but being sent out on a long-term loan suggests Leeds would intend playing some of their back-row types as middles if Holroyd/Oledzki/Prior get injured.

So if he's say tenth in the pecking order he has more chance of being with the Bulls deep into the season than if he's, say sixth.

Same with other positions - if, for instance, a centre or two is being earmarked for Fev, their availability on DR will depend on whether injuries hit the likes of Newman, Sutcliffe, Tom Briscoe plus Handley and Fusitu'a.

I agree that if Leeds lose some of their bigger units in the middle to injury they will struggle in terms of results. Am not quite so sure I agree that that playing smaller players in the middle necessarily guarantees more injuries - I think all sorts of variables come into play there, including luck - but Leeds certainly have struggled with injuries in recent years, maybe the changes they have made on the conditioning side of the staff will help in that regard, maybe not.

I hadn't realised Leeds were so light on props. Signing Fusitu'a seems to me to be a bit of a luxury signing when they might have got a decent prop from the NRL instead. I imagine Mustapha will be back at Leeds for Easter. At least it won't be a repeat of 2017 when we lost all our loanees just when we were putting some results together and ended up going down.

To be fair from a Bradford perspective I think we are stronger in the forwards than last season

I agree. Whether it's a strong enough squad to nick 3rd position remains to be seen.

That I would agree with more clubs reaching our level now, my one hope is that having more forwards and let’s be honest more free scoring backs might make us a touch more ruthless in games

A lot is riding on us avoiding injury to either of our first choice halfbacks and our new fullback fitting in. Otherwise the attacking threat is decreased quite a bit. Obviously it's the same for all sides.

I think our season rests on the likes of Doyle, Scurr, Kibula, Hall, Gill, Myers. Players with enough games but still unexposed as to how good they could be. The rest of the first 25 squad, possibly with the exception of Anthony Walker is baked in. Additionally, we'd need a Jowett, a Ho to burst onto the scene with a big first season like Bentley did. Lots of ifs.

Also I think Patton could potentially have a massive bearing on the season could be a real coup being bigged up in the media