Doesn’t a club revamp start with getting rid of players who don’t want to be here?



That takes longer than a year.

You keep mention Cheerleaders, Tad. You are clearly at the other end of the spectrum. When I see a chap wearing an "end of the world is nigh" sandwichboard outside the gates I'll know it's you.

I am not bothered who we sign or don’t sign, not interested in someone s highlight real or how they played for someone else, i am only interested in players who want to play for us are committed and are comping here to get stuck in and real go. We have signed plenty of good reputation and highlight real players recently who have been utter gash injured allot not interested until contract negotiation time or just don’t want to be here.



If we sign players who are just signing until they get a better offer or just because they want a wage then they can jog on.

Rather gave a lesser player giving 110%



If Frawley ticks the former then lets see how he goes.

Theres a balance to be had though between the quality of skills a player possesses, and the desire to give everything to the cause. Ie, no we wouldn't be a better team 'if only we had 17 James Donaldsons'.

Fair enough. I don't have the time to watch a lot of NRL these days, so I don't claim to be any sort of expert. On the evidence of one game he looked solid, but no more, to me. I'll also add that Stuart wouldn't have moved Wighton to the centres and Frawley to the halves if he thought the latter was a total duffer. We'll likely get a chance to see Miller and Frawley in opposition at the weekend and that will be worth tuning in to. I might have changed my mind by next Monday.

Was just about to say the same. We have signed a lot of ‘big name’ overseas players from both SL and NRL recently that haven’t panned out and ultimately have been expensive and in some cases difficult to move on from.



You also can’t judge players entirely off one season years ago at Huddersfield, Drew Hutchinson wasn’t exactly great at Leigh but he plays regularly for the Roosters.



Ultimately would I have liked to have aimed higher, yes, do I think it will be an absolute disaster if he signs, no, not if we get the rest of the OQ players right.

So the club apparently have had no word at all from MacDonald? I'm all for understanding circumstances but that's really poor and not expected from him.

I suppose it all depends on what has happened back home, until we know that I think it’s unfair to judge either the club or player.



Im sure we’ll find out at somepoint but it seems really out of character for Nene to do awol.

and quite possibly untrue. If true would Cam smith have said what be supposedly did?



we've no idea what has gone on with Leeming, Walters, Austin and Nene.



i dont believe the latest Austin line of widdop rang me up so i thought yes I'd love to play for Cas for 5 games, after demeaning Cas in the podcast.

I think Walters was simply offered a better deal, I don't see him having issues with the club otherwise he'd have gone before the transfer deadline.

Whilst I agree with your general point, one could point out that this ‘revamp’ of the squad has been happening since 2016 (or should have been) with little sign of it ending so how much longer is it going to take?



Given GH hasn’t been able to sort this out in that time so far, what gives us confidence that he will do in time for 2024 or 2025?



The same issues with our squad/recruitment/salary cap usage that people have been bringing up ever since the golden generation ended seem to be the same issues we still have now which I think is the source of much frustration amongst a proportion of the fan base….ie if GH/the club are aware of the issues, why are they still ongoing after all this time?



Yes, it takes more than a year, even more than 2-3 years but this has been ongoing (2017 aside) for 7 years and currently shows no signs of being sorted for next season unless the club have a number of significant and quality new recruits to announce that we don’t know about yet.



I can see why patience is wearing thin amongst some of the fan base. I know mine is and I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1980 so have seen plenty of e times

But what if we could transplant Donaldsons brain and heart into the body of Mitch Achurch?

I do get that, but when was the last time we had as big a clear out of players, early 2000? yes that should have happened before now but at least its happening now, we also have some decent young players coming through.



It's really frustrating for us all, but personally I do think the current clear out and patience with the younger players will pay in the end.



The biggest issue we have doing this now is that overseas recruitment is really important but also because of the Ads salary cap more difficult than its ever been. There's a lot of talk from Smith about players being a good fit for the club, hopefully that means players that want to be here to help the cause not ones that will jump ship at the back end of the season A la Austin

As massively underwhelming as signing Frawley might seem, we have to give him a chance at least.

Presume Wighton, who has played regularly at 6, is playing in the centre and Frawley at 6, so that says something.

As mentioned earlier Wighton is only playing centre as Croker is injured

How does a starting OQ player go to the club and tell them that he wants to leave and help another SL team while contracted to Leeds??

And Leeds just say, yes no problem.

Got to be way more to it than that.

Who knows, Im just saying what they have both said.



ATEOTD I don't want a player that would do that at the club, I said the same when Austin started spouting off in interviews about his contract, that never sat right with me and smacked of arrogance after having a few good games after a season and a half of inconsistent form.

I don't know about as a rugby player, but what a catch he would be!

Fair enough, but Stuart could have easily put someone else in the centre and played Wighton at 6.

But he hasn't.



Not gonna lie, I'm underwhelmed.

But if he signs, we've got an OQ 6 with NRL pedigree who is currently playing in the NRL, which is what we all wanted.

Got to give him a chance.

And he may link nicely with Miller.

On the face of it it is an underwhelming signing, but we can only really judge him on what he does when he's here, we can't judge him on what he did at the Giants 4 years ago.



There is also a shortage of half backs, I don't think there's any headline signings in that position been made by any other SL club from Australia has there?

Totally agree. Gets my backing unless he turns out to be poor but I will give him every chance and my full support. He may turn out to be a very decent player in SL.



I am fully expecting much more quality in addition to this though given the cap space. The Nene situation is also a worry… it really has been a very unhappy camp and that doesn’t reflect well on smith. Worrying times

Nene stuff looks just rumour and putting 2 and 2 together so far: having said that there is rarely smoke without fire and we can’t have elite players just not turning up for matches and not communicating.



I’m not going to panic yet but there is but pressure on getting this round it recruitment right with all the cap space Marquees and quotas available potentially.



We look like we’re going backwards in quality at the moment I think the fans need a couple of names to get excited about. Yes we have some good players coming through but they’re not going to make a big impact on 2024.

On the rugby side of the sporting business occupied at Headingley it has been in decline for at least 5 years the current setup is not producing the required standards to compete for trophies and the media /marketing is at face value arrogant and insulting to the fans who still keep putting their hands in their pockets on match days any kind of positive news would be appreciated.

Arguably it's signing names that has significantly contributed to the mess we're in.

Just in reference to Frawley still. He wasn’t good enough when he arrived at Huddersfield, he wasn’t good enough when he left, he hasn’t been good since, why are we aiming so low? You have to remember, he will be paired with Myler! That combination is down right awful and don’t even deserve a chance. I remember a certain signing of Beau Falloon went really well….