Mik's a genuinely lovely lad. Lives near me so bump into him a bit, and my brother-in-law was, according to Mik, one of his favourite teachers. And he has nothing but nice things to say about him. But that might have held him back a bit. Didn't McDermott say about him needing to realise that he's a prop and what that means? He seems to lack that aggression about his play. Not foul play, but the extra punch in his runs and tackles.

I think it could come down to a number of factors because he has all the physical attributes to dominate. But he came through at a time when our pack was getting weaker. And at a young age became our pack leader expected to do big minutes. Throwing yourself into collisions doesn't lend itself to doing big minutes.

It's also a really tight line to walk now disciplinary wise. Anything mistimed and you're looking at a ban. When he's carrying so much responsibility, I wonder how that affects his game.

And, as a club, we seem to have fallen so far off transitioning young players into the 1st team. It's hard to think back to the last academy player to come through and be top class. They all seem to plateau and never quite reach the heights we'd hoped they would.

Hopefully, with a better coaching team and more support up front, we'll see Mik kick on. He's still got age on his side. I think the reason he gets more of a free ride than others is because he's given so much to the team when we've been e. And we'd all love to see him be able to share some of that burden and start to go up through the levels.

[quote="Leeds_Luke":2mb3uz2a]Isn't the club trained dispensation capped at £100k per year, and we are already at that limit? I'm also confused about the lack of cap space. Blease has said publicly several times that we are still in the market for another signing, if the right player comes along. Is he wrong, or simply making it up?[/quote:2mb3uz2a]We may have some cap space but not enough to sign a player on a large contract such as Watkins.

[quote="JRhino1":2o79502a]I’ve been really busy with work etc so not had chance to catch up with my source until yesterday. So Blease & Hetherington are really pushing to sign Watkins but it all depends on dispensation on the cap as we have no wriggle room at all apparently which is a bit of a shock considering we’ve released 10 players and only brought in 5 signings however I think this shows that a fair chunk of our squad is on top money and some probably overpaid for what they produce. If Watkins was to resign for Leeds 50k of his wage would be payed by the RFL due to being club trained. The Harvey Livett Signing seems unlikely now as Leeds are fully focusing trying to get the Watkins deal over the line. Finally injury report and it’s the usual case of us been told Jarred O’Connor- likely return between round 3-6 Alfie Edgell- no return date yet from fractured jaw Ned McCormack- knock unknown how serious Ben Littlewood- knock unknown how serious Jake Connor- knock not thought to be serious and should play this week Lachie Miller- return to play round 1-2 We’d have to have some serious rotten luck if we lost all 3 fullback options to injury.[/quote:2o79502a] Thanks for your service, Jr. What will be, will be, with Watkins. If we pull it off, great. If not, just let Littlewood have a go and see how we get on. The S+C has been frustrating for a few years. As it's been said, we've been unfit for years, but we've also picked up knocks and injuries like nobody's business. I know Hunwicks left the club half way through last year (though the impact he had on the team in his second spell doesn't seem too impressive, unless I'm missing something) and he just seems to be replaced internally. The partnership with Leeds Met/Beckett/Poly produces some good sports scientists, but we don't seem to bear the fruits of it. Hopefully this is just down to it being an intense pre-season, and it'll ease off during the season.

Hearing that Salford will be safe and won't need to offload players

I hope that's right. That's the best outcome for the game as a whole.

[quote="Once were Loiners":2ga0puid]I hope that's right. That's the best outcome for the game as a whole.[/quote:2ga0puid] It is if it's a long term solution. If it's merely kicking the can down the road for 6 to 12 months then not so much.