Merrin is quality and easily worth Marquee player status, I just hope he settles in ok!

My first choice back row too Mark
3 cracking footy players and with plenty of pace too.

Lets buck the trend of using 2nd rowers as nothing more than battering ram type players who aren't encouraged to play what they see during the game.

I just hope that our fans will be patient with our transition should we suffer a poor start or if we lose games along the way.
Let's start the integration of our juniors with the goal of being back at the top table within 3 years and any success prior to that will be a nice bonus

As a fan after watching the 1977 and 1978 CC final wins i had to endure plenty of barren years before we finally became consistently successful

Not often that 8th/9th placed teams are noted for entertaining rugby. I get your point though.

Can I please ask what possible impact you think JJB and Ablett will have off the bench?

A hell of alot more than Ferris . Donaldson , Suttcliffe , Mullaley ,ect .

All together, "Let's do the time warp again......"

Exactly this. You can't have your cake and eat it in RL - if you're losing the energy battle and failing to go forward, you will incur more penalties, more errors, and be out of gas when on attack. We played compressed most of last year because the pack wasn't up to it and some individuals came up with errors consistently (Sutcliffe being one).

Totally agree but our BR cant play if our front row isn't doing it's job. This is why we keep having second rowers sucked in to playing a prop role - we don't have enough proper props. Give us three high-impact props on rotation to create some dents in defences, and then watch Merrin, Ward and Smith go.

We don't know how well Cas will travel this year - we're assuming they'll be up near the top again. I do like the way Powell coaches his sides I have to say.
I do think the friendly showed Leeds being far more competitive already than the ragtag side which limped through the second half of last season.
Cam Smith has to be in the 17 even if not starting, because he's shown he can cover 6/7 as well as BR.
With Hurrell and Watkins here, Sutcliffe is left battling it out with about 8 other players for 3 or 4 BR shirts. I think he needs to go out on DR and get game time at this stage in his career.
In terms of impact and average metres gained per carry (I know that's just a stat, but...) - I'm starting to wonder whether our best starting front row might be Oledzski, Parcell, Crosby. Cuthbertson and Singleton/Peteru off the bench perhaps.

Crosby seems to get overlooked quite a bit. Not sure why, like you I have him down as one of our better FR options. Oledzki: we definitely can't afford to overlook the dent he puts in the opposition defence line. Cuthberstson is a bit soft for a starting prop for me and Singo is better against tired players with his quick ptb than he is against fresh ones where this is less effective. So yes, I pretty much go with what you've said. Peteru I'll reserve judgement on until I've seen him have a good, injury-free run. I think he might turn out to be an asset. Then again, I've said much the same about Ferres...

I'm not sure whether Peteru is dominant enough for prop, or fast enough for BR (probably why he's here and not in NRL).
We're going to get injuries pretty much from round 1 so I'm sure we'll get to see plenty of combinations of players throughout the season.
I just think we need as much go-forward as possible from the props and second rowers in order for our ball players to show their worth.
*IF* the pack can perform, I actually quite fancy us this year - some people forget just how ravaged we were by injuries in 2018. We have a tough task in establishing momentum and confidence with our first games.
I don't know: I actually liked McDermott in many ways, and his record overall was phenomenal. He did however squeeze players into his way of thinking and suffocated their natural style sometimes: if Furner is brave enough to let his talented players play, we could see success sooner rather than later.
We just can't let talented players play if the side is constantly on the back foot getting bullied in the middle...

I agree entirely and I would love a meter making prop like a Walmsley prior to his injury or a fully fit and committed Garbutt to give us the grunt up front

But then I wonder how the hell Wigan managed to win last years grand final with Sutton,Flower,Clubb and Navarette as their props as none are really what you would call "meter munching props"?

Wasn't Wane's philosophy that he wanted his props to go to ground without any leg drive and to then get a quick play the ball which then went wide on the next play?

Wigan always seemed to make their big inroads when they went wide to players like Bateman and their outside backs and gained their territory that way
Either way it proved successful

I'm intrigued by the new 8 interchange rule and to see how it works for each side over this season

Wouldn't say Clubb was a slouch at making metres, he usually makes good ground.

I personally wouldn't wish to sign Clubb or any of the other Wigan props mentioned

I didn't say I wanted to sign him though we could do worse. The others I'm in full agreement on.
Anyway, who could forget Clubb's GF "bomb"?

The fact that Crosby is looking credible as one of Leeds’ starting props probably tells you what you need to know - he’s a rotation prop at the top clubs I would suggest. Solid enough but a club like Leeds should have internationals in key positions. Garbutt was the right quality when fit, but truth is we never replaced Peacock’s role. Galloway was a good bloke but never really got going with us. Now we’re left with Singleton, a bunch of project signings and one big lad from the Academy who has potential but is still a bit undercooked.

We all know we need a prop but I would much rather go into the season as we are and have the space for quality than next year rather than a panic buy now.
Think a lot over play how good garbutt, and I trust that the club had their reasons for getting rid. He doesn’t fit with your internationals for key positions theory anyway nowhere near being an international

Have to agree. The club have signed 3 class players. Let's see how our next off season recruitment is once we've had afew more retirements + released the rest of the deadwood.

Signed 2 Class players and lost 2 class players

Agree with that. Injuries to the pack will expose us again this year imo

This issue with Garbett I think gets blown out of proportion on here to be honest. I don't believe for one minute he was a bad influence. He was in the Carnegie on Sunday watching and with players. I think it was just simply the case that they had to sort the team out, create space on the cap, and sign what was more pushing for them. In those terms it wasn't just specific postions they were looking at, but type of individual. I think they fully intenteded to replace Garbutt in those changes, but non movement of other players to release more cap space is what has stopped that, or postponed that. I am sure if they could have guaranteed Garbutt on the field more consistently, that probably releasing him wouldn't have been one of the cap spaces they would have considered.

Underlying problems were too serious to worry about losing a winger, however good, conditional on signing an equally good player to fill one of the less peripheral positions. And for whatever reason, Garbutt was effectively lost to us before that, given his limited input for much of last year. We're halfway through a re-build and while our pack looks weak, we might actually have filled the more problematic positions in the side as a whole already. Going forward, we free up some cap, sign up some beef. Job done.

Hopefully.

Agreed. The problem is of course that if we get another few key injuries, and that pack starts getting taken apart again, we'll go on another losing streak and the pressure will rise very quickly for the new management. Some fans will be patient with the rebuild phase, many will not and will vote with their feet.
On the other hand, on paper if Furner gets selections right, our back row looks extremely competitive now and if Oledzski can continue his progression, we might not be all that bad.
You'd have to think that backline has tries in it if the pack lays a decent platform.
None of us really know how Leeds will go this year because we've had a huge amount of change in a short space. Maybe we'll be releasing dead wood when the opportunities arise this season so that we can announce something more meaty in time for 2020 (a Burgess twin would do me to bookend that pack).
Props of Oledzski, Holroyd, Burgess, Singo/Crosby/Peteru suddenly looks far better to me for 2020.
It wouldn't surprise me if we lose Ferres, JJB, Ablett, Parcell, Cuthbertson, Mullaly, Ormondroyd, Walters, Golding, Sutcliffe, Donaldson - maybe one or two of the Academy lads who aren't looking like they'll make it. We could and should have a shed load of cap becoming available for 2020 with which to finish the rebuild.
I'm not saying all the above players should go necessarily, but they will all need to prove something this year in order to earn a longer contract IMO.

Totally. No-one can legislate for injuries but if that happens then it's when that alleged new team ethos will come to the fore. It won't mitigate all the damage but heroic effort will always find more favour than the meek, what-do-we-do-about-this looks that the players too often resorted to giving each other last year.

Well, if Leeds are anywhere near relegation this season after the money they’ve spent, someone needs shooting. We should have some space to complete the rebuild. It’s just getting the right balance between character and the club’s extremely valuable culture, and outright playing ability.