Isn’t Rhyse Martin the PNG Captain?

Interesting reading the latest article that MacDonald would quite often turn up late for training.
Maybe some of the players are disgruntled that Smith is letting his mates get away with things and have lost respect for him as a coach.

Or RS has told him it's not acceptable and he's spat his dummy out?

Could also explain Cameron Smith's outburst about burning the the MacDonald flag if that was true.

Who knows? Does feel like the press, scenting blood, are throwing about a bit of gossip and seeing if it sticks. Ultimately McDonald performed pretty well on the field, but I appreciate there is more to it than that.

Its probably worth reminding people that JJB was on the field through most of the terrible 2018 and part of 2019 seasons. Ablett played most of 2018 as well, as did Ryan Hall, Tom Briscoe, Brett Delaney, Kallum Watkins, Brad Singleton, Cuthbertson, Moon, Parcell. All of them were part of some of our wins previously. What happened to the prized 'culture' everyone cr*p's on about? I think its clear that the culture was led by just a few - Sinfield, JP and McGuire. The rest were followers. As is normal in a team. What we haven't replaced is that core leadership group.

Does Frawley for skipper start here?

Whoever will be Captain next season, they don’t currently play for the club, that’s for sure.

smith doesn't do captains.

or leaders by the looks of things

Indeed. That was my point. And it has shown this season

I don't think that's the case about Smith at all. I'll keep saying it, there's zero reason why any player on the field can't take charge when things are going badly, or when the team needs organising. Nobody needs a captain's armband to do that - they need the will and the ability to take their teammates with them. The reality is we still don't have any natural leaders in our squad. Hopefully Frawley and whoever else we bring in at halfback can be the leaders we need.

Hardaker was equally poor in his first stint at Leeds - regularly missed or was late for training, off field antics etc. MacDonald has been trouble everywhere he's played - why would Leeds be any different!!

Which begs the question why we signed him as it can only go one way.

There is rumours going around about lack of discipline. I.E players missing training and coming late . Something is definitely wrong

Smith's move to not have a captain seemed to be a way of justifying starting with O'Connor after Leeming's form was erratic on his return from injury in late 2022. Maybe it's also a recognition that there aren't any outstanding candidates in our current squad?

RS frequently talks up Handley and Cam Smith as having leadership qualities. I can maybe see it with Cameron Smith (certainly not for large spells in the last two games) but I'd rather CS worked on his game a bit more and we had an out and out captain in the halves.

Aside from the likes of Sinfield, McGuire and Harris, who all were superstars at some point in their careers (at least in SL), who else have we had who has been a decent captain in recent times? Gale? Ward?

Rumours from where?

The only thing Ive read is a Matt Shaw article stating that Macdonald was often late/missing training, Ive not heard anything about it being 'a thing' with other players.

I think that's recipe for disaster. But a captain does need to be intelligent & lead by example. I think that should have been Sezer but doesn't meet the second criteria. It's Martin or Smith for me, but the former does seem a bit relaxed at times, Smith is trying too hard. It seemed a natural progression for Oledzki but he is not on the pitch & playing well enough at the moment.

Having a leader in the halves would be good but like a lot of things it doesn't work terrifically well behind a well beaten pack. Not sure whether Can Smith can be the inspirational figure the forwards need, or indeed whether that pack has the stones to respond to a leader whoever it might be. But if the other Smith can't get this most basic requirement sorted, he's toast. Simple as.

Agreed

If the rumours that Cameron Smith told fans in the crowd after the Hudds game that MacDonald would not play for Leeds again are true, then it is pretty unprofessional and certainly not captain material. You would never have had Sinfield saying such things to the fans.

The modern view of leadership is more distributed, so different players show leadership in different areas or at different times. We do however look rudderless at times.

Cam Smith tends to act as overall captain - I'm not sure this is as big an issue as the playing roster is.

I feel like after years of false dawns and poor decisions, scratching our way out of post-stadium-post-Covid horrors, it really is time now for GH to show he still has the touch to guide the club back to being competitive.

For me the next 3-4 signings are pivotal. Get these right and I think some on here will be pleasantly surprised with what we could do next season. A couple more Tetevanos and we are bouncing around the wrong end of the table still. This is quite a pivotal moment for the club for me: we have so much cap and quota available in one go, we must get back on track.

I know some think I'm overly optimistic but it's actually pretty (not sure if this is the right word but..) 'exciting' to see what happens isn't it?

Imagine how good it would be if we actually get the signings roight and we are back up there competing next year, this seasons was done a while ago and im glad to see the back of it but as you say with a couple of astute signings (I think Millar is one of them) next year could be good, we've finally got rid of a lot of the players we have been moaning about and its time for a fresh start, younger players are a year older and there will be more come into the first team squad.

I honestly expect us to improve next year and then kick on from there as the academy quality lads finally come through to first grade.

Once Leeds starts winning again everything becomes easier; we are in that pivot right now.

We have to improve next year Jim.
If we go further backwards, we'll be in the Championship mate.

Can't happen. There is no way we can get relegated next season, even if we lose every game. Which is very dangerous to how high we set our standards.