The thing is, Lilley is far ahead of the likes of Gale, Sneyd, etc were at his age. Gale was playing in League 2 at this age and Sneyd wasnt really playing more than game here and there for Salford. Matty Smith didnt really make a position his own until he was about 22.

I dont think there is a 19 year old scrum half in the country who is 'good enough' to be playing week in week out for an SL side, i dont think there has been one for a while. Danny Mcguire was wasnt, Matty Smith wasnt, Sean Long wasnt, Danny Brough wasnt.

Lilley needs a prolonged spell in the same team so he can get used to leading it around the park and dictating play. Swapping him around between Leeds and Featherstone every other week isn't helping his development.

If another half is brought in, he can be sent off to Featherstone for a year (injuries permitting) to work on those leadership and game management aspects of his game.

Agree with this.

I think he gets a lot of stick for a youngster who shouldn't really have so much put on him this early. Mags getting a few injuries has been un lucky but He and Burrow just haven't been able to step as up we needed them to. Sutcliffe is still young and coming back from a serious injury and now has been put into FB where he looks ok atm.

As i have said elsewhere, If sutty keeps FB then that's him sorted, We still need a new HB that can kick/organise us while Lilley learns his trade a little. If that means losing Burrow or Mcguire then I am fine with that. My preference would be to lose Burrow out of the two as despite his form he just isn't what we need and seems unable to do what we need from a HB.

When McGuire was out earlier in the year and we knew he'd miss several weeks I think that helped Lilley as he knew he was going to get a run of appearances together. Not sure how many games McGuire's going to miss this time but Lilley just looked a little over eager to take this chance as it was his first in several weeks and might be last for the remainder of the season.



Think this is spot on. Young HB's lasting at big teams (or not being switched to FB) are a very rare breed because they aren't given the time to develop under the increased spotlight at bigger clubs. It wouldn't surprise me if Lilley ends up following a similar path to Gale and then when he's 25/26 people ask why did we let him go?

We should be looking at keeping Lilley for the next few years at least.
Signing Oledzki and Ormonroyd when we have Mullally as a project is interesting... I assume they are academy age?.

but we aren't so you can't say that. handley needs to bulk up a touch. another year or two with plenty of games and he'll be ready

Ormonroyd is older than Mullaly isn't he?

I don't know. With Galloway, Garbutt, Singleton,Cuthbertson, Mullally and Baldwinson ? that's alot of props.

I can understand what you say with Briscoe but we would need a better first choice winger than Handley.

Baldwinson is going to Fev as part of the deal isn't he? With Singleton sometimes named at loose then we have a good number of props I think.

One of the brighter spots of this season has been the performances of Garbutt and Galloway. Yes the latter got off to a slow start to his Leeds career but has become a solid performer and Garbutt makes more metres per game than any other prop in SL this year. This without a top quality hooker either so room for further improvement if Segeyaro stays and helps the forwards perform. If we can get Cuthbertson back to somewhere near his 2015 form as well then that particular area looks good.

Galloway is slow and steady, a fair plodder but he gives away a bad high tackle penalty every game.. often at the worst time.
Singleton has done well at LF and is where I would see him continue but I think with so many back rowers..and Ward to return too will see one of JJB or Delaney moved to LF.

The only place you can play either JJB or Delaney these days is at loose, in that middle unit.

You can't play either as edge second-rowers these days IMO, not mobile enough.

Just on Galloway's penalties. I'm betting he doesn't give away any more per game than JP did in his last two years. He used to pick up at least one a game for a high tackle or not getting off the tackled player.

Oledzki is 17/18 and one for the future. Ormondroyd is about 24, both will be about 6ft 4 or 5

Ormondroyd is part 2 of GH trying to make up for what happened with Amor.

Tried it with Yates, and apart from winning a few penalties for high tackles it failed. So now he's fishing around in the Championship again.

Stats say Galloway has given away 14 penalties in 20 SL appearances. 3 of them were in the same game vs Cas away so 11 from the other 19 isn't really bad at all. He does seem to give away quite noticeable ones though.....he gave away the high shot vs Widnes last week with 2 mins left that gave them the field position to get the DG.

I don't think Galloway has been too bad a signing overall. A bit too much was probably expected of him considering the man who's boots he was filling. Probably a six or seven out of ten season for me, i think the most impressive thing for me has been his willingness to never take a backward step or shirk responsibility despite our horrible season.

He's had a much better season than Cuthbertson, but Cuthbertson has a bit of 'money in the bank' from last year's showings.

Does seem that teams have worked out how to defend against Cuthbertson. The question then becomes does he have anything else in his locker?

We seem to have stopped the JP play from the last couple of years where he'd pass at the line. Would have thought Cuthbertson with his decent hands would be the ideal candidate to run that play again.

I don't know, I think after 6/7 rounds last year surely teams knew he was strong in the offload department yet he was still doing throughout the year. Personally it seemed to stop when Aiton got injured who often seemed to be in place to catch those offloads and who he had good on & off field chemistry with....yet he still produced 2 offloads in the set of 6 in which McGuire scored his 2nd try in the GF.

Do you think Cuthbertson will benefit from a proper hooker again, like Aiton last year who seemed to have us on the front foot more often than not and fed off a lot of Cuthbertsons off loads? was it just coincidence he was at his very best up until Aiton got his injury? Obviously the whole team has suffered without a 9 but him more than most for me.

I just want Cuthbertson running straight and hard again for a start, then his natural game will flow from there. I think he has suffered by taking too much responsibility in that his first thought is he has to create when in reality, he is a forward first and foremost, he needs to get back to that way of thinking.

Agree with that. I think he's trying to do too much and fix too many problems.

I also think when we, as a team, get back on the front foot and gain some confidence, his offloads will start to stick. IIRC at the very start of the season he and Burrow were doing a sort of run around offload play that was looking dangerous. When we get going again I reckon Cuthbertson will still be a dangerous player.

I think that's what he needs to do, just remember first and foremost he's a prop. Just again on the 'teams have worked him out'.....Round 21 last year we went away to Wigan, they'd already played against him twice that year and he'd already built up reputation as a massive offloader doing twice as many as the next guy, yet he did a season high 10 offloads that night, so again I don't buy the "he's been figured out" line.

I can't recall too many times where he's been looking for the offload and there's been nobody there, so I'm not sure it is all down to missing Aiton. I do think teams are focused now on getting two men up top in the tackle and looking to make him tuck the ball away. Could be tied in with the continued use of wrestling techniques across all teams in SL, defences are just getting better at preventing the offload in general across the competition.

Well played on Friday, well deserved win. Seems I was right to have the back and forth with Gotcha about the merits of your side and that there is quality there.

Both sides defended well, i think we were hampered by losing our 'running' half back and our most dynamic 2nd Rower in the 1st half leaving us pretty short, as we had no clue how to get over the line in the 2nd half. Sneyd doesnt seem to be able to create from the hands, so relies on kicks. that was our problem.

Just to clarify here, and I am sure you will agree since it is only a few pages back to bring back to the front. I stated we did not have class all down our squad, which is what you said. I further stated that class was restricted to Watkins, Moon, and Segeyaro.

Correct me if wrong, but our best players on the night were the three above plus Garbutt, who was equally outstanding. In terms of "class" Friday highlighted exactly what I said.