Anybody know?

Might give us an idea of what type of players to expect at Wire and how the players he signed transformed Leeds.

If your on about foriegners then off the top of my head i would say the likes of:

Ali Lauitiiti
Clinton Toopi
Scott Donald
Brent Webb
Kylie Leuluai

I think it was Smith that signed Gareth Ellis ffrom Wakefield and Jamie Peacock from the Bulls.

Marcus Bai?

Just with Donald and Webb, if Smith can bring players in of that caliber then there's a lot to look forward to.

Take away the players Smith signed for Leeds and they wouldn't be the same team. I'm very optimistic for the future and what players he'll bring in.

Also if you compared the players Smith signed to Cullen there's a big difference. So to the people saying it's the board that is the problem, maybe it's just the quality players. It's like the saying 'a team of stars' or 'a star team'.

To be honest, with these new tax laws that have come into place which have closed certain offshore loopholes then i don`t expect to see the same amount of top NRL players playing in SL during their prime in the future, it could go back to the over 30`s club of old where foriegners come over here for one last decent pay cheque.

is that a bad thing though Rob?

if it means Wires get a Nat wood instead of a Matt King then thats fine by me.

who would Leeds fans rather have Andrew Dunneman or Danny Buderus Willie Poching or Brett Mullins ...best (only) examples I could think of...!!


I think thats half the trouble with the bigger names I'm convinced people like Monaghan see players like your Dunnemans and Chris mckennas winning finals and even Brad Drew and Jason Croker still going strong and they must think this league is a piece of piish...

and its not.....

so if it means only the Journeymen (i.e. those willing to work to earn a crust) make it over here then thats fine by me

as long as we dont throw ridiculous money at them like Michael Sullivan

Smith signings:

Huddersfield -

Steve McNamara
Andrew Frew
Brandon Costin
Graham Appo
Paul Rowley
David Atkins
Ben Kusto
Hefin O'Hare
Paul Langley
Troy Stone
Stanley Gene
Paul March
Graham Holroyd
Marcus St Hilaire
Alex Wilkinson
Anthony Colella
Julian Bailey
Jarrod O'Doherty
Jim Gannon
Jamie Bloem
Matt Calland
Darren Fleary
Ben Roarty

Leeds -

Ali Lauititi
Gareth Ellis
Scott Donald
Mark O'Neill
Jamie Thackray
Clinton Toopi
Brent Webb
Kylie Leuluai
Shane Millard
Ian Kirke

I'd be interested to see what young players came through at Huddersfield and Leeds whilst he was there, maybe not directly through, but could have been on the verge of the first team, featured a bit, and Smith turned them into first teamers. You get my point, like.

Didn't Smith sign Dunnemann

Si, i know where your coming from ........ When your bringing over so many NRL players to SL you are bound to get your flops that either don`t settle, arn`t suited by the type of game in SL or simply can`t be bothered lifting a finger for the massive wages they are picking up.

But to me our game will be a lot worse if it lost the Brent Webb`s of this world along with the likes of Matt Gidley, Jamie Lyon (the past version), Adam Mogg, Clint Greenshields, Shaun Berrigan, Scott Donald, Lesley Vainikolo, both the Paul`s in the past etc etc just to name a few.

Those above are just a few that have made SL great to watch in recent times, if we went back to just british players and the foriegners in the over 30 club that are just here for a last pay day then our game will become a lot worse spectacle, yeh you have to give british talent a chance but we will never get anywhere near to the standard of the Aussies simply because our youngsters don`t grow up in a naturally athletic enviroment where they are doing fitness things from a very early age.

A lot of the time of which you know yourself from experience a lot of people can`t be @ssed to turn up for training when it starts to rain or its snow and cold weather in December and Jan etc, in Australia from the things you read and pick up the kids out there can`t wait to go to the sporting acadmies and work out etc.

I just think the mentallity in this country with the likes of RL and football isn`t professional enough and it never will be in my lifetime, too many distractions come first wih our budding sportsmen.

Wasn't Kirke Rhino's academy.

York I think

No, think he came from York or somewhere like that, isn't he a lot older than you think, like 27/28.

We desperately need a catalyst, an inspirational player. It probably won't be an obvious choice either. Any ideas?

Dunemann was at Leeds the year before Smith arrived, and Marcus Bai had agreed a deal with Leeds for 2004 before they hired Smith as coach.

On the question about the young players who were brought through, these are guys who were given their debuts by Smith and went onto be first teamers:

Huddersfield:

Eorl Crabtree
Hefin O'Hare
Matt Whitaker
Jon Grayshon
Paul White

Leeds:

Carl Ablett
Ashley Gibson
Lee Smith
Ian Kirke
Jordan Tansey
Danny Williams
Ryan Hall
Scott Murrell debuted under Smith at Leeds, but went onto be a first team regular with Hull KR

as well as those there were a few players who had made a handful of appearances before he arrived, but became regulars under Smith - Ben Cooper and Chris Langley at Hudds, and Liam Botham and Nick Scruton at Leeds. Smith have Botham (London) and Scruton (Hull) a loan spell to get some first team games under their belt before they established themselves at Leeds.

Most of the young backline Leeds have now came through under Smith. When he arrived at Leeds, there were already a lot of forwards and halves in their early 20s who were quite experienced in SL, but the backline had a lot of senior players. One by one Smith moved out Connolly, McKenna, Bai and Cummins - then Calderwood and Chev Walker left for bigger deals elsewhere. He brought in Donald and Webb to give some experience but he filled the rest of the spaces with the guys named above.

The one who he missed was Peter Fox, who was at Leeds Academy when he was there, but Smith rated him behind Smith, Gibson, Tansey etc in the pecking order. He was a couple of years older than them and Smith let him move on to Wakey.

Luke Robinson.