Is it possible that this is the reason Leeds are floundering?
Many were worried about this when we were looking to sign Ferres given what he had done.
We also have a lot of Aussies in the pack who might not appreciate what it means to play for Leeds given attitude towards SL of most people down under.
Galloway in his first interview seemed to know very little about the club and Falloon has come off the back of some pretty serious drug allegations.
With the loss of Sinfield and JP the ethos and culture of the club did seem at risk.

A moment stood out to me on Monday when directly after we had scored the fans were clapping the players as they do, but only Achurch (the scorer) acknowledged them and most of the team had their heads down and looked like they just conceded, not just scored.

We're getting in good attacking positions, but the halfbacks have no idea how to unlock defences. It's as simple as that. The games against Warrington, Cas and Wakey are prime examples.

Think effort is going in so not this for me

Try playing halfback for a game or two, the defence is ultimatley unlocked by a quick ptb or by work done in field to create an overlap such as meaningful runners to pull in defenders or wrap arounds. Then you need someone to run a line at a gap to hit with a pass.
Currently imo the 'dummy' runs in the middle of the field are with no purpose near the line and we have very few overlaps.
Also for all our halves are running, I have not yet seen an opportunity gone completely begging due to a halve not passing, we havnt had second rowers or centres screaming through holes when a short pass could have put them in, and havnt created many overlaps all season.
I concede though that this could have nothing to do with attitude, just poor attacking coordination.

The halves also arnet the ones who are putting in high tackles or dropping the ball on play one.
Although they are far from blameless I dont believe that if Mcguire had been fit we would be steaming ahead because we had a lot of possession against Wire with him on and still failed to unlock the defence, and I would certainly call Mcguire one of the top halves in the competition.

Our outside backs also won us a lot of games last year when the rest of the team wernt really performing but that has failed to happen so far.

And Sutcliffe runs into the line on every play. But let's ignore that eh because he's young and coming back from injury. Cobblers. We should have broken the bank for Widdop

There is a little truth in some of your postings, but there is lot of bull$hit in there. To the point where I question if you are a fake troll account? Maybe it's just because I f*cking hate Souths.

I love "the serious drug alligations" bit of your post.

What a load crap that is for starters.

At worst, at the very worst him and a few of the players got a few grams for Greg Birds wedding.

Big deal.

Plenty of SL and NRL players are bang into it.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong but Falloon has always seemed like a really good bloke. He takes a few poor late tackle options and now he's a part of a culture problem.

Every play? Sutty is a good running threat, that is his main strength, he's scored a couple of tries from it this year.

As the poster a bit further up pointed out, the lack of runners is causing a problem, do you want him to just pass the ball down a static easily marked backline then?

We've also scored a couple of tries off his kicks this year, but he seems to lack confidence to take this on full time.

Not to say he hasn't made some wrong decisions, he strikes me as someone who trusts his size/speed too much meaning sometimes he does step and get caught, particularly annoying on the last tackle, and he needs to take some ownership and organisation.

At the end of the day there's a lot a team and a coach can do to help a young half and he's not getting much of that atm, let's see how he goes with Mcguire next to him, and a few team mates hopefully with more confidence giving him some options.

If you were going to break the bank somebody better than the average Widdop would be required

Funny that, there is a lot of fans, players and pundits down here who rate Widdop as a genuine word class 5/8.

I'm in that camp.

How does that gel with the Dragons' powder puff attack? Last week was a good example of why Widdopp needs to change the way he plays. He set up one try with a nice early pass to Dugan who was running from deep. The whole rest of the game Widdopp was in his usual left channel trying to create plays via a flat attacking line close to the defence. He hasn't looked like setting up a try that way all season, and didn't for much of last year as well. It's obviously not just down to him, but the Dragons and Widdopp need to play with more depth to the attacking line IMO.

Really we get most of the media over here now either via premier sports or the net I don't red or see anyone suggesting Widdop is world class half back - i would be interested in who you think is suggesting he is?

No you don't get most of the media you get a fraction.

I'm aware of you dislike for Widdop from previous.

Widdop is bang average. The dragons have been really poor this year, especially on attack. Now that's not all down to him, but is he is as good as people say, with the experience he's got surely he's be able to pull them out of a hole.

Slightly better version of Matty Smith Imo, lots of effort without much end product.

bloody good goal kicker though

Bang average is a hell of a lot better than we currently have.

Bang average? Most on here would be ing him off if he came. Fact!

Seen a few of your posts over the last few days that really make me think you have two glass eyes!

Does my head in on here how most just seem to follow the view of the majority, widdop IMO would be a vast improvement on what we currently have and provide us with what we lost in sinfield.

Widdop is far better than any half back in super league, and I am including Carney in that.

Bloody hell, swap the players names and the club, and you would be describing Leeds. Did McDermott take advice from the Dragons coach?

I see Widdopp set up a mighty zero points on the weekend. He's so far from world Class with the ball in his hands its not funny. Like I say, its not all his fault. IMO the Dragons play way too flat, but for a player with his experience to not adjust the way he plays during games speaks volumes.

Back on topic, whilst I don't necessarily buy into the BM not coaching, it would appear that the team spirit (that some mocked in the past as overrated) is the single biggest issue within the team right now. Losing Sinfield and Peacock as leaders both on and off field seems to have tipped the squad.

Have a look at our overseas players for example:

Galloway - plodder for years would suggest not bothered about mediocrity.
Cuthbertson - ditto
Garbutt - didn't even really get started in the NRL by age 26 when less talented players have shown hard work can get you there
Falloon - part of the GC glee club.

When you add to that list some other players who need to be managed off-field (I'm looking at you Mr Hardaker), a massively successful 2015 which might have led to some others getting complacent and then pre-season issues, perhaps a poor 2016 was to be expected?

Is it not simply the lack of training facilities and loss of crucial technical/medical data due to the flooding?

In pro sport small margins make big differences.

Pretty much reflects my thoughts on the matter, although I would focus on the signing of Falloon as being a key issue, mainly because his lack of input on the field means that his potentially disruptive influence is in no way balanced out.

On Widdop, he is a good player but, he is not and never will be world class. The only reason he is anywhere near as useful as Carney, is purely down to the fact that Carney would lose a mental agility contest with a roll top desk. If we had signed Widdop, (I never got the impression he wanted to come here), we may be slightly better off than we are now but not that much I suspect.

Just noticed that Benji Marshall can't get a gig in the NRL for 2017 (yet). That should keep the thread going for a few weeks.

Isn't Cronk off contract this year? He is the type of player we need, and who GH should be asking to name his price imo.

Id prefer us to ask Todd Carney to name his price.