I haven't heard any news from GH or BMcD regarding next years half back pairings. I'm just hoping we have some succession planning plans in place for when Danny & Rob retire which increasingly looks like this year to me. Danny just isn't the player he was and can't be expected to lead the club with his constant injuries which is increasingly slowing him down. His kicking game is poor also but probably as good as what we've got.
Rob has been an outstanding player for us and as an impact player still has value but not an 80 minute player no more.
Jordan Lilley is too slow and doesn't command the position and he's better staying for a couple of seasons to see what improvement there is.
Liam Sutcliffe is a different matter - he was heralded as the new Kev Sinfield, tried at stand off, then looked like he'd found his plae at full bacl only to be moved for Ash Golding. I hear his agent has been gathering offers so we need a decision urgently. This brings me to Joel Moon - has done very well for us in an emergency, its obvious moving him to stand off is the only thing GH/BMcD could do as Danny couldnt perform week in week out. But I reckon Joel is a fantastic centre and we should be thinking of playing him in his proper position next year.
Im hoping we have been planning for this senario for at least 18 months. Its obvious to everyone we need a leader at stand off who has a sound kicking game as well as a running game too, his defense isn't as important. Tell us GH/BMcD ?? what have you got planned ??

Jordan Lilley is only 20. McGuire was 21 before he was a regular and 22 before he was scoring heaps of tries.
Burrow too didn't become a regular until 2004 when he was 22/23.

They also had Dunemann to help them from 2003 and Sinfield.

Would suggest you be patient with Lilley who's had fewer opportunities at Leeds.

Think Leeds need another Dunemann type player to bridge the gap between the old guard and the new.

At least you got your last three sentences correct there Bullseye, pity about the inaccuracies of the first paragraph.

Think we need to sign two HBs not one.

Spot on. We need to get a half in for the next two or three years (Wonder if we can supply Cronk with the same atlas we supplied Moon?) and let them work alongside Lilley, Sutcliffe and Walker with the best pair becoming our first choice halves.

Not sure how easy it is to get a half decent NRL halfback at the moment given the disparity in salary caps.

I suspect Cronk is unlikely. Someone further down the hierarchy might be more achievable.

That one was more wishful thinking on my part. I'd imagine someone like Hodkinson would be more likely with Newcastle paying some of his wages.

He's the name that occurred to me too. If Salford can get Robert Lui over here Leeds can do as well or better.

I've said before, unless we can get someone 'good' go with what we have,

one thing for sure. burrow or moon aren't the answer

Sadly, I think that Lilley lacks the basic speed to be an effective half back for Leeds.
The one thing Burrow still has is pace & in his younger days McGuire had pace too.

Some of the best halves had little pace. Other things can make it irrelevent. Ask Peter Sterling. Or probably more realistically ask Paul Deacon. You need to decide on Lilley a bit further down the track.

We lack pace in the middle hugely, we just don't have an awful lot of dynamism in there. Parcell and Burrow can offer it around the ruck but for a team which offloads as much as we do we don't exploit them as much as we should.

I think if we can find a top organiser to take the pressure off, i'd be happy to go with Sutcliffe who is deceptively quick and strong and Ward is a capable ball handler at 13 but top organisers are like Hen's teeth at the moment.

Conversely if we go with Lilley, we need a real dangerous runner whose presence will take some pressure of lilley because he will take time to be the type of scrum-half who can dominate a game and create gaps.

I think we are in a difficult position at the moment regarding recruitment. We have done well picking up some unheralded players like Parcell this season, Garbutt last, and Cuthbo in 2015 but less well with trying the same thing with Mullally, Achurch, and Falloon.
Personally i don't think we can afford to take a risk with that level of player right now, we arent in a position for a 'punt' like that because if we get it wrong it not only screws up our recruitment for probably 3 years, the opportunity cost is Lilley and/or Sutcliffe.

Go big or go with what we got.

Can I please remind you that we recently had a player without pace, he had a good rugby brain but NO pace.

The joke on the stands was don't worry he can go on for years as he won't loose his pace as he never had it.

He played loose forward and then half back for years.

He retired in 2015.

Pace is no good unless you have the player next to you who can move the team around and create the space for the player with pace

Lilley is too young to right off just yet

Surely the last year or so has shown that Burrow shouldn not be picked at halfback? There's no point in having 'cover' if its not up to scratch. We'd be better off putting a kid in there. I'd actually keep him next year anyway, as he's still a good bench impact player, but I don't see him starting many games at all.

As for Lilley, lacking pace means he has to develop other parts of his game. The best place to do that in the system we have is with the Bulls. He may not make it, but he's probably more likely to do so alongside a running halfback like Moon.

The OP is right in that decisions need to be made soon for next year. If we're to have any chance at all of recruiting a half decent playmaker we need to be talking to them today, not waiting until the end of the year. If we leave it too late the decision will be made for us through lack of alternatives.

Pace can be worked on. Luke Gale has developed enough to be dangerous. He never had it when he was younger.

I just don't see Lilleys future at Leeds at all.

I'd like to see Joe Mellor at Leeds.

To compare Lilley with Sinfield is a mistake. No disrespect to Lilley but he isnt in the same league.

I agree, and hope somebody is being lined up but there is also the chance they are waiting to see what happens with McGuire. I personally think he should/needs to call time after this year but have a feeling he may carry on.

Me too.

I'm not sure what he would bring to the team that we don't already have. If we're going to be targetting players under contract then they either need to have qualities we desperately need or be massive improvements on what we've already got.

Mellor is now 26 and still hasn't lived up to his early hype. He is not the quality we should be looking at if we're looking to stay at the top end of the table.

Daniel Mortimer

The omens seem to be that GH/BMcD are looking to use the Maguire/Moon partnership next year in the hope that either Lilley/Sutcliffe would improve sufficiently to save them money but for me I cant see either of them dominating a half back position.

I don't think Lilley is gona get the chance to be honest. Do we know if he signed that new deal last year or what?