Exactly. If it was me (obvs it isn’t), I’d have Martin, McDonnell, and one big horrible thing that can bend the line and whack in D. Goudemand and Bentley are good players but neither is massively better than Donaldson and all three offer very little going forward.



This is a criticism I do have of RS, he’s too keen on signing nice guy players and takes his eye off the best team composition sometimes.

I honestly don’t think their fans would be happy with any of our players to slot into their match day squad. They could actually realistically argue that too!

Fully agree. I think one of the issues we have is that we lack homegrown talent down the spine and in the back row which is where you have to spend big. Saints have some top homegrown talent there so they can spend big in the pack.

Their academy is very good so produces some real quality on a consistent basis.

We really took our eye off the ball for a few years academy wise hence the slow down of talent coming through and finding ourselves having to buy in talent rather than producing it.

I think another hard truth is that youth talent isn’t reliable, it comes in waves sometimes. Also the NW just seems to have a deeper pool to draw from than we do in Yorkshire. The hotter beds around Halifax / Dewsbury are contested and then we seem to draw a lot from Kippax region.

Yep

We go wherever the talent is Jim



Lock Lane had the biggest representation in our recent Academy intake, followed by West Bowling, they were the best 2 teams in the country, with West Bowling winning the national cup



Our 2nd year Scholarship are pretty evenly spread between Community clubs We've took from, with stanningley the biggest representation with 5, 3 from birstall Victoria, 3 from kings cross, 3 from Siddal etc, again, 3 of the 4 semifinalists in the National cup are Yorkshire teams....So the talent is certainly there in Yorkshire

Thanks Matts - let's hope it is coming through now. I do think there is a natural fall-off of players who look great as juniors but just don't kick on, and I don't think it's all down to coaching (although obviously coaching is massively important). Personally I think with all the facilities and expertise at Leeds, players themselves have plenty of opportunity to develop their game, and that's the kind of attitude you want for a first grade player.



It is a tough old business making Leeds first grade. People sometimes don't appreciate how good some of these lads are, to make it at Leeds it's probably a 1/1000 player. Even with the goldens I'm not sure we had more than 3/4 players graduate from one academy peer group at a time.



We seem to have a handful of decent prospects now - I know you feel the coaching after scholarship isn't up to it. Is Lewis Peacock still at Leeds mate?

We’ve been talking about great Junior talent for years. Some good players come through, others waiting. No great players for long while though and that’s held us back. Great players are not the product of coaches. Probably quite the opposite!

Looks like Warrington have got the jump on us with the Bradford Academy prop probably the Sam Burgess effect.

The short lived one anyway.



Any serious Souths interest and he'll be flying home within the month.

Yes he looks a really good prospect and thought we were nailed on to sign him.

Let`s hope he`s not another Walmsley.

Perhaps but I think he'll cut his teeth over here,but more in reference to the Player signing for Wire Sam has the credentials to develop him more than Smith per say.

If you were a young Prop, and were told by a club coached by one of the most iconic props of the last 20 years that they wanted you to join them and develop under his coaching, what would you do?

Especially if he says it is their year

Yes people have the right to say that but for mine I think there are people who call themselves Rl fans but are ready /happy to put the boot into a young English coach who gave his all for his country and is a proud Yorkshire man and his family have produced the best crop of players we've seen in years personally I hope he is as good a coach as he was player.

What actually happened with Walmsley?

I think Okoro has some work to do on his game, but this is now Walters gone, missed Eseh to Wigan, missed Okoro to Wire… and we still look light.



To be fair what we really need is a proven performer / more complete player rather than a project.



Looking more likely we’ll have to sign from Aus.

We still had Ian Kirke at that time so didn’t need him.

We already have our project, it's Kieran Hudson. We didn't really need to sing Eseh or Okoro, we need someone who can come into the main 4 rotation as the leader, not someone who can be prop 6 or 7 and play half a dozen games a year max. If that means we wait until next year so be it.

Someone like Burgess or JWH ? But we've been through that the more learned rugby people on here say the former is too old and later too rough and physical.

Yep agreed overall, although I do think either Eseh or Okoro could have been useful this year. Lisone might not be around for forever or Sangare, and maybe only one of Eseh, Okoro or Hudson might really make it….



I do think there could be a player in Hudson but he is a project for sure.



We have one or two academy prospects at prop but they all need a fair bit of physical development before first grade.

Agree with Batley.

We badly need an established first choice prop at priority #1 now

Heard you're one of the clubs interested in Jack Brown from Hull. Not sure hes what you need though, another small middle.

Wouldn't suprise me.

RS seems to love his small middles