re: replacing the Holy Trinity, we've got a fair bit sorted I reckon.

Sinfield : Ward. Straight swap.

Burrow: McShane/Hood/Lunt (re-signed).

It's McGuire at Scrum Half that's potentially tricky. Robbie looks fairly fit though, so I'd expect him to be here till he's 33, which isn't until the end of the 2015 season. So we could easily get another four years out of him.

The biggest chance is replacing Sir Kev at standoff, which Ward will need to do in the next season or two, I'd have thought.

Gotcha, are you saying that juniors now don't get the same opportunities in the 1st team that Mcguire, Sinfield et al did or are you saying current juniors get more opportunities now?

Because I thought you were saying the current cop get fewer opportunities. I thought I had demonstrated that wasn't the case, comparing, say, Kevin Sinfield with Stevie Ward. Ward came into a champion team and made 11 1st team appearances in that team. Kevin came into a poor, poor team and got 2 appearances in his debut year.

If I've mnis-construed your point and you agree juniors are given more chances now, I apologise. If you're knitting fog then normal service is resumed.

When looking at the two players mentioned and using their age as a comparison - rather than debut seasons - then Sinfield's equivalent to Ward's 2012 would be 1999.

Both were very close to the same age - 18 and four months - within a matter of a few days apart. Both made an identicle 21 appearances in the 1st grade in those respective seasons.

That would suggest the fomula remains fairly consistent although the sample size may need expanding further.

The simple answer to this debate can be found by trying to name a list of Juniors that have left the club in recent years that in hindsight we should have kept. I can think of no real 'clangers' the club has made.
Luke Burgess could be argued at a push, but in reality, I think he'd have gone regardless of how Leeds looked after him. People sometimes mention Broughton or Scruton (and his leaving was more about money than lack of opportunities), but both of these are a matter of opinion and not cut and dried 'mistakes' and neither have ripped up trees since leaving.
The truth is, the club handle bringing in the juniors exceptionally well, better than any other club arguably in the world - I just can't see why people have any grounds whatsoever to moan about this.

Re the pre-season games, it should also be remembered that we have the WCC coming up very soon. As with last year the aim would have been to hit the ground running at the start of the season for that reason (I'm not overfussed myself but the club and players clearly think its important). Even a team as reasonably unchanging as Leeds over the last few years would need to play together to blow away the cobwebs.

McDermott seems to be growing into the role, but I don't think anyone should believe that the regular seasons under his charge to date have been planned. GH was clearly not happy at times in both 2011 and 2012. The comments made by players suggest that they are at least paying lip service to the need for better showings mid-season. It will certainly be interesting to see if they play consistently better more often this year.

As Grand Final winners every opponent raises their game against us. Particularly those who aspire to emulate us - Wigan, Saints, Wolves for instance. Plus all our locla rivals - the Bulls, Cas, Wakey & the Giants.
So to my mind it's hardly surprising that we can't play at the top of our form for 27 weekly rounds, cup games and the play offs.
I doubt it's down to lack of effort on the players' part or that of the coaching staff.