Why is it a question of priorities? Why because they sign player A does it mean they're not trying to sign player B?

Because player B & C in this scenario, were not offered conracts at the same time as your player A's. When in fact they should have been offered before them.

Genuinely gutted about Baldwinson's departure from the club but as G1 said the club did offer the player more than what they normally offer to a player at this stage in his development. There's very little more the club could have done and NZ Warriors seem to be the real deal at the moment when it comes to signing top players as seen with Sam Tomkins.

Leeds Rhinos won't be held to ransom to anybody but it'll be interesting to see how these next ten years pan out now there's a real danger that clubs from the NRL seem determined to sign anyone of quality up from Super League.

Bailey has re-signed

Your argument doesn't hold water now and didn't even before the real facts came out. Given that Baldwinson was hyped up to be the new JP and everyone connected with the development side of the club was talking his stock up why would he not think he had a great future at Leeds? It is not logical.

Even if he had had the NZ offer before one from Leeds as you have stated as a fact (but which is not the case according to the player and the 1st team coach) then surely he would have discussed this at length with the club that has spent so much on his development. If he didn't then shame on him. If he did but wanted more money than the club's valuation then so be it. Thats business.

It is not closing the stable door at all. It is obvious that this player has had his head turned by promises from agents (who want to earn a commission) and maybe too much adulation from junior coaches and fans too making it inevitable that this would have happened anyway to this particular teenager. But please do not keep making out this player felt he didn't have a future at Leeds. He has chosen to go for the money and a future in the NRL. Good luck to the lad I hope he makes it.

Why do you assume that Leeds prioritised Leuluia & Kirke? Because they accepted and the 2 young lads didn't? Leuluia for example had already expressed his desire to carry on at Leeds so I doubt much time or effort went into resigning him, likewise I doubt resigning Kirke took up a massive chunk of GH's time. In reality it was probably two of the quickest and effortless contract negotiations GH has had to do.

Players B & C are (rightly or wrongly) successful first 17 players, who have much influence on the bottom line of the club (success and therefore income). Their talents are on display, and could easily have been offered deals by other SL clubs at any time. As it has always done with this group of players, this club rewards loyalty.

I don't know when the youngsters were offerend contracts, but there is no reason why they wouldn't be able to hand out contracts in parallel. It may be that they were delaying to see how they developed, with respect to leaving it late to get them a better deal. I would certainly prefer a contract as a person with a few first team games under my belt, than someone who is just a prospect.

Exactly, what are the club supposed to do?!

Bailey apparently had an offer on the table from Brisbane but has signed a new deal at Leeds.

Might be wrong, but does he have kids over here that don't live with him? May have been a contributing factor to him staying the UK if so.

AG-His lad goes to the same school as my youngest don't know if he has anymore kids though.

Not sure what you are trying to argue there? You are basically proving the point, that Kirke and Kylie could have easily waited until later in the season for offers, instead of making the youngsters wait for their offers.

Leeds offer was the first one Baldwinson had on the table.

It was higher than usual for a player of such limited first team experience.

He chose to stall on it, got an offer from NZ to go play Under 20s over there and took that instead.

Not sure quite what else the club could have done, or where the relevance is in the timing of other deals. Leeds got in first, couldn't agree a deal for whatever reason and the lad chose to go elsewhere.

Well done to him, but he's not the first junior at any club to think the grass is greener somewhere else and he won't be the last.

Not sure why there is this made up thing of Leeds offered first. But more importantly, there is two players not one.

There is audio of Jordan Baldwinson saying it.

Or do you dispute what Jordan has to say about the matter?

In that same audio Jordan paints it as they've signed Tonks go to keep him company.

Erm, why do you think that is what happened?

Or it could be that he is now on Double that he was on Signed for two years with an optional Third year with a Testimonial year

It's a disgrace, can't believe we have prioritized Bailey's contract deal over some of the under 12's

You don't seriously question why this has come up all of a sudden? Then less than a month ago he was in the media saying how he hoped for a new contract. Then there was Suticliffe in media just a week before signing his contract, saying that the club had not made an offer yet, and he was waiting to hear. You think Sutcliffe was offered his long after Baldwinson?

Personally I would take with a pinch of salt, any suggestion that any contract was offered to Baldwinson before the known interest of NZ Warriors. It was even posted on this very board by postes in the know (before the media got an whiff of it), that Baldwinson was offered a contract by Warriors and was still waiting to have one offered by Leeds.

But of course that does suit the apologists amongst us agenda.

No I don't. I take him at face value. which I do with most people until they come up with stuff that loses them credibility.

Was he? Do you have a link?

Was he? Do you have a link?

I've no idea. What's the relevance?

You don't accept what the player has said but you do accept the rumours posted by Frosties. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

What apologists agenda? Would that be those of us that are prepared to accept direct quotes from the player and the 1st team coach or would that be the gibberish posted by the knee jerkers, chief amongst which appears to be you.

Who got offered what and when is not an issue for me, you can argue the salary structure at Leeds is too rigid but GH has to balance the books.

The issue for me is the message that signing very average players like Achurch and re-signing aged players like Kirke and Leuluai sends to younger players. It says their opportunities will be limited and their progression will be slowed as a result.

We also don't know what it is like to be a youngster in the first team squad and how they are treated at training - could be that the quality of the coaching in the NRL both skills and fitness appeals more compared to the lower standard of the SL.

If Baldwinson did need a push to the NRL than McDermott's handling of him during the Huddersfield game was all the prod he needed.

Care to explain?

He put him and five minutes later took him and that was all the game time he got - this was despite JJB being injured early on which would have been an ideal opportunity for some extended game time. Judging by Baldwinson's reaction I am not surprised he has opted not to stay under such a - let's be generous - maverick coaching environment.

Well because you suggest that these 2 lads had to wait because GH was tied up with sorting out Kirke and Leuluai when in reality the latter 2 will have probably taken up so little time to sort out that they had no effect on when the youngsters got their offers. GH will have given them their offers when he felt it was the right time.....or are we trying to suggest that he would've done it earlier but couldn't because re-signing Kirke took up every single minute of his working day for several weeks?

You know again you only have to look at how many academy players have come through during GH's time to realize that his way of handling them has been fine. These 2 will have been handled the same way as the others who have gone before them....time wise and money wise. But they've chosen to go elsewhere, which just so happens to be way out of our financial reach.

Nope! The rest of his time is spent down under scouting for exceptional players - like Achurch - to hinder the progress of the academy lads - like Baldwinson.

David, I wasn't at the game but I've been told Baldwinson was all at sea and the coach had little choice but to withdraw him. What did you think?