I don't think money has anything to do with it, not that I dissagree with your comments.

It's all about progression and opportunities. The lads out of the first team, coming through, have been dissilussioned wtih the limited opportunities this year. I know that Barrie McDermott himself has had disussions with GH about it all.

Give them a path to prove themselves, then money isn't really the deciding factor in most cases, as we have seen with a lot of Leeds first teamers. Don't give them the opportunity and they are not going to sit waiting on bottom scale.

I understand GH has been actively in discussions recently with the clubs coaching team on this subject.

If he can't get a look in at Hunslet then I would say he isn't...

If that's the case at Leeds (and McDermott spoke of a general problem area in the past - =#0000FF"Far too many British juniors wander about drinking beer, covering themselves in tattoos and getting excited about mobile phones, rather than rating rugby league as highly as they should do.") Then it perhaps requires strong leadership - inspiring role models - possibly even a little bit of 'forces mentality' which you would think the current coach would be able to draw on - so what's going wrong?

I don't know the answer but if it's the case that the much vaunted Leeds Academy are turning out a number of 'complete bellends' which appears the implication of your question - and after seemingly recognising the problem - then whatever measures have been introduced to combat the issues are either not working or it's too soon to judge the results.

As I understand it a club can spend £75k on players outside the 25 man squad. But that only applies to players who play a SL game. So say Baldwinson, Watson, Chisholm & Briscoe are all paid £20k a year each, then you could only play 3 of those 4 in a SL game this season as the 4th would take Leeds over the £75k salary cap.

I suspect it's cultural and/or hormonal. Either way, beyond the powers of the club to deal with.

Jimmy Watson has signed a permanent deal at Hunslet until the end of 2014.

How can a permanent deal be until the end of 2014?

Its not a loan or Dual-Registration, but you knew that already.

Is he no longer available to Leeds then?

Not unless he signs a month-long loan or re-signs permanently, no.

According to another source, he's still available to the Rhinos if needed. So how is it a permanent deal at Hunslet?

He isn't available to Leeds, the other source is incorrect.

The other source is effectively Leeds Rhinos PR officer.

Yep. He's incorrect.

Couldn't Hunslet dual register him with us if we needed him?

No. Championship players can not be dual registered.

So, GH is incorrect then?

So we would have to loan him/re-sign if required

He is.



Correct.

I love the confusion which arises out of all these alleged permanent deals that may or may not be permanent, in a dual-reg or non-dual-reg kind of way, whichever may apply at any particular time and place.

Only in a sport run by morons could such confusion ever occur.

Welcome to the era of franchised Super League and dual-reg bollox

sounds quite restrictive. I imagine that means those players are on about 10k to ensure that in an emergency there are enough players available

Yep, probably less than that in reality as most of the u19's aren't full time. I think it's deliberately restrictive, so that a club can't "stockpile" young players without really giving them a go. I sympathise with the aim of it but it has negative consequences for a club like who are trying to plan the next generation of players to succeed the likes of Sinfield/McGuire etc

You'll find that the more senior u19s are on about £100 a week plus win bonus. But the u20s last year had their win bonus taken off of them for winning too many games. Eh!
So that might be the case of the u19s this year too.

With the likes of Sutcliffe he too will be on the same money but will have a reasonable appearance bonus involved. Like 5k if he plays 5 senior games. Hence they probably want to offer him a new deal right now. Which will be about £18k.

It all sounds a bit ridiculous and something that penalises a club that finds the young talent.

Is this something that might explain the apparent bewildering reticence to introduce too much talent to the first team this season and previous? If so, it would make me, for one, more understanding of the 'unfairness' shown by selections made at FB/RW etc. Blaming McDermott is more fun and encouraging in making the effort to prod and poke on here, but it does seem - now - a little more unfair. Damn !



Instead Leeds finds the talent and clubs like Warrington (and probably now Salford) benefit. Great.

That's twice in the same year I've found myself agreeing with you - whats going on?