Quote ="Exeter Rhino"It would have been nice to start the season well. I'm a fan of Smith, but I agree he totally misunderstood the value of the pre-season friendlies, and as a result we looked badly undercooked in game 1.
We should not have left a large empty slot in our squad after Leeming left. He didn't need to be replaced like-for-like, but we should have been alert to picking up quality players mid-season.
I hope I'm wrong on this, but there is a sense that Leeds tend to leave their recruitment too late in the season. If we don't have an adequate half-back pairing next season someone needs to take a fall for that given the club evidently didn't see Sezer and Austin as a combination beyond the end of next season.
Listening to the interviews with Smith at the start of his time at the club, I'd be hugely surprised if he doesn't treat this year as a huge learning curve - I doubt that it will be 'more of the same' but this comes with a massive caveat that there is a big task ahead with recruitment.'"
It blows my mind someone can misunderstand the value of pre-season friendlies. Maybe he knew the value, and we were just crap.
Leeds should be starting pre-season early next season. Players for next season should be told in no uncertain terms to be prepared to be pushed to the limit, that the sim will be top 4, but more important a drop in week to week standards will not be tolerated. That means knock Ons, penalties, missed tackles. It won’t be tolerated.
Standards. They need to be brought back. We’ve lost them.
