Marty Grrrrrrrrrr! wrote:
All good points well made.
Lets take Saints out of the equation tho, our development as a team isnt at Saints' level at this stage. We have been down the bottom of the league for a few years recently. Leeds' 1st aim was to steady, then grow and be more consistent and produce young talent. We are doing that i think. We arent at Saints' level yet and its wrong to compare us with that tho they are clearly the benchmark
Next year we have a top 4, maybe top 2, squad. Weve a lot of highly talented kids developing, far better than any other club in this country, far better. Think about this, in 5 years time Gannon will be only 22, Mikolaj, Cam, Harry, Tommy will be just starting to reach their prime and theres many others Broadbent, Corey etc so Leeds are in a very strong position. The likes of Wigan, Warrington dont have our talent pool and the junior talent pool is drying up.
Our aim next year shouldnt be to beat Saints it should be to target a top 3 finish. We are doing ok. But if we are full strength we wouldnt win at Saints very often but we are capable of beating the rest now and we are still developing as a group.
Totally agree with this, except that finishing top-3 is possibly too precise in a competition where every other team is going forwards or backwards, but never standing still. You could argue our true squad position for 2021 is 3rd/4th already. We've hardly had our first choice side out all season.
The bottom-line is for us to control what we can control, and that's incremental gains and improving as a team. If we do that the league table looks after itself.
IF (it's a big IF) we can identify the right quality prop and possibly outside back, AND our young lads can make 5% gains across the board in pre-season, we are going to be different gravy next year honestly. Our execution goes to a different level with the new half-back combination.
Please Leeds, stop messing about with hybrid "middles" and sign another real prop to support Mik and Tom. The "six again" rule is over-hyped; yes your big men need to be fit but that has been the case for a long time. Prop is a specialist position for the hardest men on the field IMO. It's heavy artillery and there is no cheating the mechanics.
Walker, Tindall, Newman, Broadbent, Edwards, Holroyd, Johnson, Oledski, Gannon, Walters, Smith, O'Connor, Mustapha (?) and one or two fringe youngsters all have plenty of improvement in them. That's a heck of a roster IMO. Just about all of these are England Academy internationals.
Absolutely true that not all the young lads will make the grade, but all the players mentioned above (I could add Sinfield, Gatus, Simpson) are 22 or under.
For me I want to see us come out of the gates next year with the intention to create an impact on the competition. No excuses with a fit, first choice side. We should be dishing out some hidings to lower sides and mixing it with the big boys in 2022.
