he will have to become a totally different person for this to happen. cant see him anywhere near leeds even if he was playing for free

Signed for Bradford afaik.

Please dont post such barmy statements again please.





We have a Damo for such matters.

It's fair enough, but that was why I said preseason rather than the actual season. It would then be up to him to prove himself again.



Just to clarify though, I don't like the guy and under different circumstances I would say stay well clear. But Leeds are obviously seeking a short term option and one preferably cheap enough. At the end of the day he's certainly proved himself a match winner before, so can he satisfy that option.

In terms of temperament, he's not the type of player we'd touch with a barge pole these days IMO.

GH is a very clever man!



Just look at it this way, we won the league 3 years in a row without breaking the Salary Cap. We rely on our Rugby knowledge to sign good quality players. Not just signing the "Big Name" at the time we happen to be in the market.



It hasn't done us any harm at all signing what are considered to be "Underwhelming" "No Name" players. We're a squad, so we've signed a squad player. If we were a team built around a star, we'd have signed a star.



As mentioned elsewhere, he's not a "Bums on Seats" singing, but I think he's a great pick-up, and hopefully will be good value for money. I'm willing to put my whole trust and faith in GH & Co. as up to now, they've done nothing at all to suggest I should be doubting their ability to run our club.

Believe in the sleeve!!!

Phelps has left. As for producing backs Sam Tomkins and Goulding both featured for England and we have Stefan Marsh and Josh Charnley pushing for the first team but at the minute young and still much to prove but will get game time this season. Ainscough another we produced but deemed surpless to requirements and with the lack of interest in his signing seems was the right decision. Bradford hardly had to fight anyone for his signiture apart from Widnes.

McDermott's first signing is an average back-rower.



I'm shocked.

Sky Sports Website has Hauraki as only missing the Opening game of the season last year.



That's a good sign.



That also means that playing against Leeds he has a 100%, played 1, won 1 record. (Eat your heart out TVOC!)

That was my point! RG was been mischievous on here having a go about leeds overseas signings and our academy. If you check my earlier post i mentioned marsh and charnely so why keep carmont? Of course Tomkins is a belter, I don't rate goulding but can see he had a good season. rouges was hinting at Leeds academy not producing. Wigan have a great academy but still have 5 overseas backs and have resigned deacon Who will be 32 at the start of the season. your starting halfbacks finch/deacon will have a combined age of 62? Not great for a team boasting the best academy around is it? My point is rogues was having a troll, it was pretty weak as his own club can be picked at quite easy. you can spin the academy/overseas thing many ways.

Brett Finch is 29, and has played S.O.O.

Deacon played about 50% of the games last season, and will more than likely do the same again next year.



Wigan team was younger than Leeds last season, and will be again in 2011

Carmonts extra year was automatically triggered by the number of games he played in 2010.



Wigan have seven players in the England U18 academy squad to face Australia in a couple of weeks time, how many are there from Leeds?

Yeah. You were best Supported Club, League Leaders, Floodlit 9's Champs, Man of Steel, Young Player, Under 20's winners, Club of the Year, Coach of the Year, Most Points Scored, Least Points Conceded, Leading Try Scorer. The lot!



By far the superior team last year.



The thing is though mate, as of right now, all that counts for nothing, and come February 12th, 14 teams will line up to start all over again, and for that brief moment before kick off... all will be equal.



14 Teams level on points

14 Teams level on tries scored

14 Clubs with potential Men of Steel

14 Club of the Year Candidates

14 Coach of the Year Candidates

14 Grand Final Contenders...

... and 1 Pink Shirt.

Lets hope they perform better than their all conquering 1st team counter-parts on the international stage.

We have 1 in u18 squad and would of had 2 but for injury of course you knew that though and are once again giving it large about the pie acadamy that has been long overshadowed in terms of producing quality 1st team players by our very own.

This year we have..

Mcguire.

Bishop.

Jjb.

Ablett.

Burrow.

Hall.

Mcshane.

Burgess.

Clarkson.

Smith.

Hood.

Singleton.

Stewart.

Casey.

Sinfield.

Watkins.

All of which are acadamy produced and as you know many have proved their quality so although we are carrying a few more over-seas players than usual we still have enough of our "Own" within the squad and there's still more to come.

welcome weller

RG is correct IMV in bemoaning the fact that currently we don't appear to have players coming through the academy to prevent the need for us to recruit from outside.

Only having 1 representative in the international academy squad isn't good enough for a club our size.

Something that many on here have also bemoaned.

His point would have much more weight if his own club had built on the success of their academy by only promoting from within.

Sadly that shows up the gulf between the academy & SL.

Brett finch is 30 in august. Brett finch was not the answer to the nsw half back problem he was never good enough to make the shirt his own. Many other good halfbacks failed to do that too. As I said he is a good ham n eggs nrl half. He's no world beater but will do a job. without deacon who will be 32 Come season start you looked Vulnerable. so for all those great academy kids playing for England you have 30 year old Aussie and a 32 year old deacon arguably as your preferred starting halves? And 5 imports in your back line? an import kicking your goals? If your honest mate that's not great is it? you can have great kids but still not produce the ones to do the job. Leeds despite having some issues with it's academy keeps offering up good players we just brought through another batch this season and signed the likes of hardaker. Leeds have enough good kids coming through. There is no need to hit the panic button.



I think Leeds have 1 player in the 18's squad. At 18's Paul rideout was regarded as the best footballer in the world. True story.

You missed of Bailey mate

He's got his own thread!

























































Knew we had 17 aswell should of counted!

i can see BJB as our starting FB and webb covering till mcguire is fit as for signing hauraki dont think this is a bad thing good strong running forward that isnt on the wrong side of the hill

The thing about the Academy is you can either use it to produce players who will make a first team in SL or you can simply stockpile the best kids in the country. The two things are not the same.



Leeds choose to prepare players for first team duty, and over the years they have been very successful at this. We could, if we chose, keep players down in the academy to win things there, but we like to send them out on loan to gain first team experience. Of course a consequence of this is that sometimes they like the first team action and choose not to return.



By its very nature, there are times when an academy can go a year or two without producing the right level of player, and this is to be expected. Given the age of some of the kids we have just promoted from the academy to the first team squad, we could very well be on the verge of another great clutch of kids on which we can continue to build our dynasty.

Purely from a keeping Leeds competitive viewpoint Hauraki (from what I saw of him last season) will make a good addition to the squad.



I'd expect him to make Leeds' first choice 18 even when everyone is available.



As others have commented while he isn't a ticket selling/crowd pleasing signing he's a solid player very much in the Willie Manu mould (who lets face it) was Hull's most threatening player last season.

Our bench looks very good with this signing, lets hope we can get at least one game with everyone fit to chose it

Not followed his carrer closely but when he played at Headingley he was by far the best player on the field that day.I doubt he's taking a huge amount of cap space so could well turn out to be quite a coup.