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.

Saw little of him last season but was impressed with what i did see. Looked capable of making an impact and offering something a bit different like Ali. That was missing for long spells last season.

I am happy with this signing. Thought he impacted well at HQ earlier this year and perhaps is what we have been missing for sometime now. Along with Ali and Senior, he can have his own song.



I know the tune and the first three words but it requires a songsmith to finish it off please.



To the tune of "Summer Nights - J Travolta, O Newton-John"



"Weller, Weller Weller Huh ......."

Weller, Weller Weller Huh with the ball with the ball he's a threatening sight, with the ball with the ball makes defenders look sh...ocking

I thought about going the other way and using his last name to the tune of

Too-Rye-Ay by dexys midnight runners



Hoo Ra Hoo Ra Hoo Ra Ki



Hoo Ra Hoo Ra Hoo Ra Hoo Ra Kieee

that is going to take some beating....

A thank you! I'm here all week!

Didn't want him tbh but to be fair I'd not seen enough of him. however, I'll support him and wish him all the best.



He could turn out to be a surprise package.

it looks a better balanced squad than last year and an extra forward on the bench, rather than the two hooker system, will make us stronger imo.

i think brian mac will get the players fitter and stronger too.

hopefully we can stay fairly injury free and have a good go at winning the league.

the fact only one player went to the four nations could prove to be a big bonus too

I'm praying we play the one hooker system.

me too. burrow and sinfield can spell buderus there.

we even played one game, wigan?, with no hooker and played really well

How did the Quins play under mac? 1 or 2 hookers? I seem to remember randel playing 80 mins

i think he was spelled but played most of the game

Agree ref Burrow and Sinfield. I hope you're right

.