Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:58 am  

How about losing some of the off-field deadwood ?

They say a good coach turns an average player in to a decent player and a decent player in to a great one.

Just look at what we were up against on Saturday, which could be argued on paper was an equally 'Dads Army' side.

Morley - Given a new lease of life under Smith, when the rest of us thought he was off to Wire to a few fat cheques to top off his pension after a career down under

Briers - Back in the old days, you could smack him early and he'd go missing for the rest of the game. In the same way that Graham Murray rehabilitated Barrie Mac's career, everyone thought that Briers would be one of the first out under TS, but after getting him to knuckle down, it again could be argued that LB is playing the best football of his career

Carvell - Rejected by Leeds & Hull, yet better than most of our pack on Saturday

Hodgson - Another one who was thought to be off to Wire for a pension top-up and who's career would fizzle out. Man Of The Match and rolled back the years ... Compare that to the handling of our penalty machine Brent Webb and isn't he actually younger than Hodgson ?

Add to that some smart recruitment like the Monaghans, the development of Ben Harrison, Ratchford and Myler.

Can of us say this season that any of our players have looked better now under our current coaches that they did under any of the previous coaching teams ?

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:00 am  

lb9301 wrote:

Weller Hauraki - Sorry, not enough time to list his weaknesses, GOT TO GO!!

He wasn't Leeds class in the first place ... I suspect signed to bung some cash to Crusaders to keep them afloat.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:50 am  

Smith is a clever opportunist - he knew Warrington had the money to create a very good side, just like he did at Huddersfield and Leeds. Smith is a great coach but it helps if you can sign the likes of Atkins, Myler, Morley, Monaghan, Hodgson and Ratchford on a regular basis. Compare Warrington's recruitment with that of Leeds over the past 3 years?

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:52 am  

i don't rate BM but i don't think recruitment, or lack of it, has helped him

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:23 pm  

Admiral Hanson is spot on. Warrington are an older side than Leeds and in the long term context have the same issues in terms of having to replace players. It is going to be a problem. Saints went through it a couple of years ago and have dropped their level.

The differences between Leeds and Warrington are that some of Leeds' older players are past their best, whilst Warrington's Dads Army brigade are still top performers even if they are past their absolute peak, and also in terms of the age profile Leeds have a bigger gap between senior players and a lot of young lads (of mixed quality), Warrington have been bringing in early to mid twenties guys that have proved themselves in SL, like Myler, Atkins, Ratchford etc, so there is less of a gap in age and experience.

Now I know some Leeds fans may be automatically defensive because I'm a Warrington fan and say well why are we the champions then, but that was due to one fine performance last year that knocked us out of the playoffs, overall you can't deny that for three years we have been a better team so I'm not trying to score points by bashing Leeds.

Leeds have something that we don't which is a long proven youth academy and so external recruitment of young players from other clubs is probably less of a priority for GH than it is for us, although in recent years our youth set up has got better. We have been able to bring a handful of decent players like Riley, Harrison, Cooper, Evans, McCarthy into the first team but we haven't had the numbers historically of Leeds or Wigan or Saints.

In terms of recruitment of overseas players though it's been a while since Leeds have made really good signings of overseas players, back in the mid 2000s you were bringing in Lauititi, Donald, Furner real top class, but in recent years Leeds have signed a lot of average players where we've done well with overseas players, the Monaghans, Hodgson, Waterhouse have been class and before them King and Hicks too.

I still don't think Leeds are far off but you need a bit more up front in the pack. Bailey should have been released a while ago. I wonder why Leeds weren't in for Carvell when we signed him at a time we were crap and Jimmy Lowes was coach, but ever since we signed him our pack has been dominant and we've been winning trophies. Also Leeds never replaced Ellis, someone like Waterhouse would have been a great Leeds signing.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:31 pm  

Its easy to say we've just brought moore and griffin in this season and therefore should not get rid so soon but realistically, Leeds Rhinos should be aiming for a top 3 finish every season. Currently 5th, and have been as low as 8th, I believe 4th should be the minimum for a club of our stature. Therefor I believe that changes need to be made to the squad to be bale to secure a top 3/4 finish. We wont be coming from 5th and winning the GF every season.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:17 pm  

Bailey is OOC the end of this season, so those wanting him out may well get their wish.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:41 pm  

Tyke's/Rhinos No. 1 Fan wrote:

Bailey is OOC the end of this season, so those wanting him out may well get their wish.

Is that just your wishful thinking or do you think his contract wont be renewed this time? GH has previously said that some players still under contract might be released. The next few weeks could be very interesting with the aim of buliding up an improved squad so as to challenge for honours in 2013.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:56 pm  

You could say that Super League is full of dead wood. Look at Wigan for example, they're after Blake Green to replace Brett Finch. That would see them go from Finch and Leuluai to Green and Matty Smith. That's hardly what you'd expect from the side who've been the best in the comp for the past couple of years.

Same could be said of Saints with the likes of Clough, Dixon, Wheeler, Foster, Perry and Magennis in the Saints squad despite them all being nothing short of mediocre.

Its not just Leeds, its the whole of Super League.

Re: Dead wood out?! : Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:05 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

Also Leeds never replaced Ellis, someone like Waterhouse would have been a great Leeds signing.

Leeds did replace Ellis with Eastwood but he couldn't make it in 2009 because of a visa problem then when he did arrive he never settled and fekked off back to Oz - We've not managed to fill the gap that Eastwood left with the same standard of player.