Quote: vastman "Think your wrong IMO - many Leeds youngsters have not made the grade - nor do good young players always make the step up as shown by our all conquering Academy team of a few years back. I personally don't blame just the coaching staff for that. People moan about Wildie and Wallshaw not getting a fair crack of the whip but they have in fact played far more SL games than some of Leeds more fancied youngsters.
However that's not the point.
The point is not that the 2nd string is a great team - its to point out that even at the bare bones we could compete against most other SL teams who are also down to the bare bones - including Leeds - all things are relative.
This means as far as my RL logic takes me that during the AVERAGE ups and downs of a season we now hopefully have enough quality to plug the gaps as and when they appear - which may be the difference between safety or relegation to 8th or 9th spot.
The last time we had a similar amount of cover was 2008/2009 when we manage a CCup semi and a top 8.'"
Who's come through the Leeds academy? You've got Minns, Duckworth, Briscoe, Sutcliffe all playing their trade at other super league clubs. You've got Watkins, Hardaker and Ben Jones-Bishop who are arguably world class. Who have we produced in the last 5 seasons anywhere near being akin to that? I can't think of any. Our back-up is alright but it's not because of the youngsters we produce. The fact we have young players that have played more Super League games, in my opinion, shows how short we have been previously because they wouldn't get many gigs anywhere else in the league.
