Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 6:17 am  

I think you have to write that match off as the whole team not putting in. Which given that our season was effectively on the line suggests - yet again - that we are desperately lacking leadership on the field. We still have too many players looking to others to take the lead and who follow whatever the vibe of the team is on the day.

I will though comment on a couple of players (aside from the generally useless like Sangare and Lisone). I sincerely hope Newman is carrying an injury, because he was woefully exposed for speed by Lee Kershaw (!) for one of the tries. Looked like he was running in treacle. And gawd help us if the plan is to use Cam Smith as a prop. He looks and runs like a second division prop from the mid 80s.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 7:23 am  

Exeter Rhino wrote:

Batley, in all seriousness, why should Gannon be treated in the same boat as the players considered failing this season? The guy is a lot younger than most of the players you mention needing to step up, and it is hardly his fault that he's been unlucky with concussions. Not in the same category as Newman at all, even if Newman is carrying an injury.

And why is Bentley suddenly in the keep list, is it because he has a longer contract? He's also struggled with concussion and missed most of the season, like Gannon. He plays a handful of decent games after being part liability and part ineffectual because he lacks size for most of his Leeds career, and now he's a first choice player for you. You don't mention McDonnell at all who has been light years ahead of Bentley for two seasons and earned an England call-up.

I could go on... Frawley has arguably improved much more than Bentley, Ackers is also very hit and miss but gets a free pass from you.

Sunday was IMO the worst game I've seen Leeds play all season, but dissecting individual performances seems pretty pointless to me - welcome to the world of knee jerkery. Leeds have perennially tended to be brought down to the level of the weaker teams in SL, even the Goldens did it with surprising regularity (esp. under McDermott).

Look at the last few games under Arthur, we know they are much better than this, and they will be again before the season is out.

‘Knee jerkers’ after 9 shocking seasons…..lol…..

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 8:19 am  

leeds owl wrote:

We only had 5 British players in that starting line up yesterday, the other 8 were overseas players. You would have to say the overall standard of the overseas players we have is pretty poor. I still can’t work out how we ended up with a long haired foreign exchange student playing centre for us. Is the real Momorovski locked up in a shed in Wollongong or somewhere ? One things for sure, if I was Brad Arthur I’d be escorting him to the front door of a Turkish barber to get that stupid hair cut sorted. He spends more time f**##g about with his hair than catching a ball right in front of his face.

We have so many overseas players because our youth development is so poor - my core point is the quality of SL is a directly influenced by the lack of quality of the home grown talent we produce. When did Leeds last produce a half back of quality or a hooker of real quality. These are key positions in RL that you would think would be a focus for an elite professional club.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 8:34 am  

The half back issue has been a longstanding problem - going back decades. I'd say O'Connor and Johnson are pretty good hookers, particularly O'Connor. And before you say he didn't start that way, neither did a few others before him like James Lowes.

In terms of halfbacks we had McGuire, Burrow and Sinfield and then Luke Gale, who in any other era would have been a mainstay of the side but left because there was no space for him at Leeds. Agree entirely that we haven't produced anyone of note since him. To be slightly fair, I suspect there would have been little interest in looking at junior halfbacks seriously while the others were still running round as anyone we developed would have left, like Gale. We definitely dropped the ball in having nobody come through to replace them though, although there was hope that Sutcliffe would be our long term stand off.

I don't know what any of that or lack of British players generally has to do with 5 "NRL" backs looking like a pub team though. If anything they should be tearing other sides apart every week.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 9:01 am  

Carrying on with a degree of success our status of a mid table side with delusions of grandeur.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 9:03 am  

Once were Loiners wrote:

The half back issue has been a longstanding problem - going back decades. I'd say O'Connor and Johnson are pretty good hookers, particularly O'Connor. And before you say he didn't start that way, neither did a few others before him like James Lowes.

In terms of halfbacks we had McGuire, Burrow and Sinfield and then Luke Gale, who in any other era would have been a mainstay of the side but left because there was no space for him at Leeds. Agree entirely that we haven't produced anyone of note since him. To be slightly fair, I suspect there would have been little interest in looking at junior halfbacks seriously while the others were still running round as anyone we developed would have left, like Gale. We definitely dropped the ball in having nobody come through to replace them though, although there was hope that Sutcliffe would be our long term stand off.


I don't know what any of that or lack of British players generally has to do with 5 "NRL" backs looking like a pub team though. If anything they should be tearing other sides apart every week.

If we were producing players of the correct quality we wouldn't be needing to engage all these poor Aussie players. Sinfield made his debut in 1996, Burrow and McGuire in 2001. Luke Gale made his SL debut in 2009 - we are now in 2024 so we haven't been able to produce a half back of SL quality in 15 years? Liam Sutcliffe in 2012 so be generous to the club 12 years!!

This is not just Leeds alone - this is SL in general - quality of British players coming through the system is at an all time low during the SL era - a major contributory factor in the reducing standard of the competition.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 9:29 am  

Exeter Rhino wrote:

Batley, in all seriousness, why should Gannon be treated in the same boat as the players considered failing this season? The guy is a lot younger than most of the players you mention needing to step up, and it is hardly his fault that he's been unlucky with concussions. Not in the same category as Newman at all, even if Newman is carrying an injury.

And why is Bentley suddenly in the keep list, is it because he has a longer contract? He's also struggled with concussion and missed most of the season, like Gannon. He plays a handful of decent games after being part liability and part ineffectual because he lacks size for most of his Leeds career, and now he's a first choice player for you. You don't mention McDonnell at all who has been light years ahead of Bentley for two seasons and earned an England call-up.

I could go on... Frawley has arguably improved much more than Bentley, Ackers is also very hit and miss but gets a free pass from you.

Sunday was IMO the worst game I've seen Leeds play all season, but dissecting individual performances seems pretty pointless to me - welcome to the world of knee jerkery. Leeds have perennially tended to be brought down to the level of the weaker teams in SL, even the Goldens did it with surprising regularity (esp. under McDermott).

Look at the last few games under Arthur, we know they are much better than this, and they will be again before the season is out.

Let's take the points one at a time. Gannon, he's clearly a talented young player, but can't seem to get on the field. If he continues in this vein for another year especially if it's concussions, I'm saying we cannot rely on him to change that run and therefore we need to look elsewhere. He may go on to have a great year next year and become a first choice back rower. Who knows? All I know is that unless we are ruthless we will not transform the squad and playing ambitions.

Bentley is the one player in a smaller pack that can have impact. He's been much better under BA than before, like he now knows his role and is capable of it. We couldn't have a small pack, but Bentley plays above his weight and if he can continue to control his aggression and attitude he can be an asset.

Regarding McDonnell, I'm not sure I see an England regular there, but you're right he should be in consideration I simply missed him.

Frawley has improved, it would have been hard for him to get worse wouldn't it. He's not at the level we should be seeing from an import, if he can't pick up then he should be replaced by someone better. Back to being ruthless again.

Ackers, like every hooker will have trouble if his front row doesn't hit the line hard and generate quick ptb. We don't do this, practically ever, so Ackers doesn't shine. He's definitely a better player than he is showing and I think if we get the props right we will see a better player in him.

We agree that Sunday was a shocker, the biggest problem was attitude, which BA described as smelly in his immediate post match I/V. I feel certain that this is at least in part down to the mental capability of many of the players, their just not ruthless (there's that word again) enough to be winners. The lack of leadership also needs addressing, we don't look to have a competent captain among the current group, and the collective playing leadership is also sadly missing. These are also reasons why I would be looking to make so many changes.

Perhaps we have different opinions of the way forwards, perhaps we have different views on what success is? I would be willing to be ruthless to create a winning culture that permeates every part of the club. This is primarily sport, and secondly business, so what you might see as Knee Jerkery I see as cutting out the weakness and building strength. Alternatively maybe it's because I've finally started to watch Game of Thrones...

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 9:37 am  

Agree with most of that, apart from Gannon - just no need to bring him into this thread. Maybe as you say if he misses all next season for concussion, but are there any suggestions he will? That's surely one for another day.

Also agree that the forward pack needs the most surgery.

My point is that in a stinker of a team performance like that, there's no point highlighting the need to get rid of individuals because barring about three players all would be sacked on that performance. Yet we know most of them can play consistently better, as recent games against Wigan (etc) demonstrate. Surely the coach has some responsibility to affect the collective mentality too? He seems to have done so in the games before this one.

By the way, on a positive note, I thought Miller was actually one of the few who was consistently making good effort and executing well.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Tue Sep 03, 2024 10:43 am  

batleyrhino wrote:

Let's take the points one at a time. Gannon, he's clearly a talented young player, but can't seem to get on the field. If he continues in this vein for another year especially if it's concussions, I'm saying we cannot rely on him to change that run and therefore we need to look elsewhere. He may go on to have a great year next year and become a first choice back rower. Who knows? All I know is that unless we are ruthless we will not transform the squad and playing ambitions.

Bentley is the one player in a smaller pack that can have impact. He's been much better under BA than before, like he now knows his role and is capable of it. We couldn't have a small pack, but Bentley plays above his weight and if he can continue to control his aggression and attitude he can be an asset.

Regarding McDonnell, I'm not sure I see an England regular there, but you're right he should be in consideration I simply missed him.

Frawley has improved, it would have been hard for him to get worse wouldn't it. He's not at the level we should be seeing from an import, if he can't pick up then he should be replaced by someone better. Back to being ruthless again.

Ackers, like every hooker will have trouble if his front row doesn't hit the line hard and generate quick ptb. We don't do this, practically ever, so Ackers doesn't shine. He's definitely a better player than he is showing and I think if we get the props right we will see a better player in him.

We agree that Sunday was a shocker, the biggest problem was attitude, which BA described as smelly in his immediate post match I/V. I feel certain that this is at least in part down to the mental capability of many of the players, their just not ruthless (there's that word again) enough to be winners. The lack of leadership also needs addressing, we don't look to have a competent captain among the current group, and the collective playing leadership is also sadly missing. These are also reasons why I would be looking to make so many changes.

Perhaps we have different opinions of the way forwards, perhaps we have different views on what success is? I would be willing to be ruthless to create a winning culture that permeates every part of the club. This is primarily sport, and secondly business, so what you might see as Knee Jerkery I see as cutting out the weakness and building strength. Alternatively maybe it's because I've finally started to watch Game of Thrones...

Of all the new spine players I'd have say Ackers has been the most dissapointing. At least the others can say they have won or turned ganes. I can't think of a single game where the same could be said of Ackers. I think he gets an easy ride on here because at the time of his signing everybody thought it was a great addition. Unlike Frawley for instance. That's not to say I advocate getting rid of him.

Re: RD 24 | London Broncos A : Wed Sep 04, 2024 6:49 am  

I think as Leeds fans we have become conditioned to accepting mediocrity as a step in the right direction. If you analyse the performances under Arthur we are far from a massively improved team. Beating a Wigan team that had played 3 games in a week was a standout, we’ve had a decent half here and there and people are knee jerking over the possibilities. The reality is people seem to quickly forget the poor games and halves under Arthur and even seek to promote an 18 point defeat to Warrington as an improvement even though we never looked like scoring until a second rower who is leaving put in our only decent kick of the game for a try. This team set the bar so low people have become blinded to how inept we still are and will be in the near future with this group of players.