Indeed Tad

What we don't know is the quality of the offer - he may well have gone back and said 5 years on £20k no thank you and ball is firmly back in the clubs hands who have stuck with their original offer?

Leeds seem to want to waste huge money on very average overseas seeing not paying the young English lads decent money as the sacrifice in the calculations. Strange club in that respect.

is hetherington past his sell by date? did he just get lucky with the golden decade team? his role has to be questioned given the last 6 years

When Leeds had no money it was no surprise the academy flourished in those days. Recruitment was far more focused and Leeds was a club players wanted to play for e.g. Senior, Ellis and the quality of overseas was off the scale.

These days it appears recruitment is not a priority - the club don't seem on it at all these days. Clubs seem so much further on in identifying and securing the players they want. Leeds seem last in line - when they are early they get it wrong e.g. Olpharts.

The academy seems to struggle to develop young players in key positions - that I cannot understand.

I agree. recruitment is way behind the majority of other SL clubs, and has been for years

Is Hetherington solely in charge of recruitment? Serious question.
If so and with all due respect to the man he is probably not up to speed with how the game has changed and he might just be wanting players on the cheap.

Smith is heavily involved too. It's not all with GH

I don't know who deals with recruitment but Craig Harrison reported on the full 80 a couple of months ago that Smith has very little to do with it at present.

I don't think you can say we are doing it on the cheap as we have been utilising both marquee spots since 2019. Has that investment been successful - certainly not. If the pruning of dead wood continues at the same pace as last year we'll have the opportunity to go on a Wire type recruitment drive for 2023. GH and Rohan will be under big pressure to get that right. On a general point it is easy to forget that the post 2017 wilderness years are not something that's unheard of in RL or other professionals sports. Wigan won the inaugural GF in 98 and had to wait 12 long years to do it again. Saints won the GF in 2006 and didn't lift the trophy again till 2013 and then had to wait till 2019 for their golden era to begin. That's one GF in 13 years. Look what happened to Bradford, look what happened to the great Widnes team of the late 80's and the great Hull teams of earlier in that decades. We'll come good again, and it will have been worth waiting for when it happens.

Appreciate that AC.
I`m probably thinking of the most recent recruits such as Hooley, Roberts, McDonnell, Sangare and Lisone and possibly Olpherts who will not be costing us too much this season.

No denying that cap wise we were in a real hole last season. The players that you mention are indicative of that. I'm just hoping that the next year the squad will have some genuine stardust sprinkled on it. It's badly needed.

Totally agree, I do think our success with the 'Goldens' has turned some of our fans into being a bit entitled, its now more then ever that we need to as a club stick to a plan not make knee jerk reactions to a poor run of form, we might not win a thing for another 3-5 years but as you say that's not uncommon even for the big clubs.

Some people are a bit entitled. For me its more a case of having watched the club almost fall to bits in slow motion, with predictable farce following bad decisions down the years. I think (hope) we've finally got the right coach in who can properly rebuild.

Despite the focus on the new signings - most of whom will be on very low wages in SL terms - its clearly our highest earners who again aren't doing it. How are Hooley, Olpherts, Roberts etc responsible for poor performances when they're not even playing? Look at our 1,6 and 7 and our more highly paid players such as Bentley, Tetevano etc before worrying about fringe squad players who were signed to add depth with the hope one or two make it longer term. You want to win stuff, you need a good spine and big money players to perform like they are worth it. Neither is true right now.

nobody said they are responsible for bad performances. quite simply they were ridiculous signings because they are nowhere near good enough. why get rid of broadband who is better than all of them?

I think fans are entitled to expect that a club delivers value for money and that the team on the field justifies the monies spent on it. Not sure you could ever say that under the Agar coaching regime. Fans have an entitlement that the club can develop the cream of young talent it inherits from the amateur game and all the free hours given to get those kids to that level.

Nobody expects the team to win the GF every year but they do want to be entertained - the club is in the entertainment business after all. The do expect the team to play to an elite standard befitting full time athletes - can you honestly say the club has delivered this in the past few years?

Because Broadbent wanting to be first choice and he wouldn't have been that at Leeds.

He would have got as many games as those players you mention who are fringe backup players.

In the last few years probably not but we've won a CC final and had an amazing run into the GF last year.

Yet there are some fans wanting rid of the coach because of an inconsistent start to the season.

Agar was kept on far too long, we should have hired Smith before the start of 2022, however that wouldn't have helped the salary cap mess, which Smith had absolutely no chance of sorting before this season.

It's a matter of perspective, isn't it? As compared with the glory years there's been a big drop off, and 2018 and 19 were unquestionably poor. However since 2020 we've won the challenge Cup, finished consistently in the play offs and last year made the GF. I'm not sure how long you have supported the the club, but is more success than we managed in the 80's and pretty much the whole of the 90's.Elite is an interesting word - I would have thought by definition only a very small number could be considered elite in any era, so I would say it is unrealistic for the club to attain that standard all the time. Don't get me wrong, I do get massively disgruntled by some of the poor stuff I've seen us serve up at Headingley over the last few years, but I am confident it will come good sooner rather than later.

I`m not saying the likes of Hooley, Roberts, Olpherts etc are responsible for our performances this season and recognise they were brought in for the future and as cover for the squad.
For me and like you have said our top earners are not doing what they are handsomely paid to do and with a bit of luck the majority will no longer be with us.
The style of play is a worry and I`m not sure if it is the coach or the players.
Is it the coach who instills a lack of intensity and play a passive defence? Probably.
Is it the players who cannot make the right decisions and drop the ball and show a lack of indiscipline? Most probably.
Its getting the balance right and the right players to execute and maybe the coach needs to address some of his tactics too.

We shouldn't be getting rid of Smith,he has to be given cash and confidence to sign the guys he wants when cap is free next year but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be criticised when the team seem to be playing the way he wants..and stuff it up almost week after week.

We should be parting ways with Tet , Donaldson and Bentley at the end of this year with looking at Walters and Gannon to replace them along with Martin back in the SR with Mcdonnell.

Hetherington needs to realise we cant use trophy winning to get good players cheaper anymore. We will have to pay market value and carefully manage the cap...with priority atm being FB and HB and retaining the (good) youngsters we have.

the coach to go

I am not wanting to go. At the of 2025 we need to review and assess his position - but not until IMO

We won the CC when there was only 10 teams in the comp. IIRC Leeds only played 3 games inc. the final?

Compounding bad decisions is never a great idea - it seems Leeds specialise in this area

I went to my first Leeds game in 1968 - but I am not one to compare part time players to full time.

In northern hemisphere RL these are the elite - the cream of the crop. There are less than 500 of them out of 40k participants c2%. You surely can expect the players to be able to catch, pass and tackle to a high standard - is this what you are seeing each week - its not what I see.

As I have said in a previous post we won the 2020 CC when only 10 teams were included - Leeds played 3 games inc. the final

I'd give smith longer but I'm really not a fan. despite his methods failing badly he seems too arrogant to change them. he may prove me wrong, I hope his issuccesful but I just don't like him.
if nothing changes in 8 weeks I would get rid. another poor hetherington decision.

I don't dislike him and don't find him arrogant at all and would be sure the players don't see him that way, he seems a very personable coach away from the mundane media questions.

The problem I have is that he does seem too rigid at times to a philosophy that, if we're interpreting it right, looks like it's based on going against principles that for me will always stand firm owing to the nature of the game. Ie territory, possession, pressure, momentum and the energy battlee. My hope is that he does reflect (as he clearly did with contested kick offs) and finds a measured approach.

Still a lot of sorting out needed imo, way beyond week to week results. Reckon Smith can improve the young player production line which to say the least churns out variable quality. Jury's out on signings but I'm happy to wait til he has the cap and the quota to properly judge him on that.
More short term concern is defence. Whatever anyone's thoughts on JJB as a head coach, it's surely beyond dispute that our defence has taken a big dip since he was stood down as defence coach. Our conditioning actually looks pretty good. Surely there's a case for bringing in a specialist as it simply ain't happening under the current setup.