Thought Hall was a bit slack in D in the first half myself. He looks great going forward but there are two sides to the game.

Edwards just lurks about and can make line breaks from very little. Needs a good off-season to do the physical work - really should have passed to Sinfield off break on the first half too.

Not sure why we had a lad playing who didn’t know how to play the ball. Physical specimen to be fair.

Usual industry from the likes of Mayhew. Sinfield had a couple of nice touches but our kicking game wasn’t great throughout.

Combination of struggling against a bigger team and way too many sloppy errors. The is a very talented Leeds side on paper and should have done better today.

All fair points Jimbo. Misssd a few opportunities at times throughout the game. All part of the learning experience. Their isnt many in that team that will go on with Leeds really particularly in the forwards. Quite a few in tears at end presume theyve been told they will be released.

Big off season now for a few. Disappointed with Levi today i have to say but hes still very young and a terrific prospect.

Dont think we struggled with there size to be honest, they got to there kick and fed off our mistakes. When we managed to hold onto the ball for more than a couple of tackles we moved down the field pretty easily. Burst through there middle a few times only to take a wrong option within the next couple of tackles. We were full of errors and bad decisions.

Yes agreed mate. Edwards, Sinfield, Simpson for me are the best prospects and they’re all 17s. Hall, Field, Spear, Tom N-W and a few others are chances but I can’t see many of this group breaking into first grade at Leeds.

For this game Matts yep we broke their line much more they they broke us, we just didn’t have the quality to maintain any pressure or execute.

Their tries were all jagged in good ball pretty much with barge overs.

Was looking out for you both but the flaw in that is I have no idea what either of you look like!

You wouldnt of found me Jim, i watched it on YT, im a 3hr drive from Leeds unfortunately.

Theres never really many from any group that make it to our first team, if you get 2 or 3 from each intake that form part of your squad, your doing well. For next seasons likely squad, If you take Oledzki/Smith/Walkers year as a starting point thats 3, Newman and maybe Muizz from the year after that, 2...Holroyd, Broadbent, Johnson, *Walters from the year after that, 4...Tindall, *Hall the year after, 2. Then you get to the majority of these lads todays years...Hird, Field, Atkinson, Wallace, N-Watten, Parsons, Turner...I like these lads but they're solid not spectacular, unless they have a real development spike we'l be lucky to get 2,im a big fan of Parsons as a 9 but he's missed so long i cant really place him atm, then the year after that with Edwards, Gannon, Simpson, Gatus, Edgell, Morgan, Spear we should be hoping for 3 or 4 when alls said and done.

Like you mentioned on a post a few week ago jim, it will get harder and harder for each group with the amount of good young players we have that they will have to get ahead of.

This 17s group is particularly strong but yes, things have changed over a few years.

Agree with all that mate; even with Parsons though, he’s got Corey Johnson to get past now. Those two could be an interesting rotation but Leeming’s on long-term contract and been in good form too.

Big day for me today, took my boy to his first match at Headingley. He only lasted one half but it’s a start!

Cant believe u didnt see me Jimbo. I was there.

19s was hoping to play Wigan next week but its fallen thru so season over.

I was looking for the white suit, bevvy of beautiful Russian laydeez and the helicopter mate but must have missed you!

My lad did manage to almost walk in to Kevin Sinfield round the back of the stand though so it wasn’t a total loss for celebrities.

I was with Sir Kev n Agar before the game. Agar thought Thurs game was much higher quality than people think.

Brilliant Jim, my lads first will be nxt season, started playing with his local teams u7's this season and loves it.

Superb. So much better for kids than sitting in front of a TV screen.

George is nearly 5 so a bit of a struggle for him to be fair. It was really nice and heartwarming… for about 20 minutes! I reckon we’re a couple of years away from first team games,

I hope mine gets into it like yours! What position is yours lined up for..? Mine’s tall, daft and angry so prop all the way.

Right now id say somewhere in the backs...he loves the ball in hand and seems to be always tying the bootlaces when theres tackling to be done!!

Inherited his Dad’s brains obviously!

Anything in your discussions that might have indicated Gale returning on Friday?

No mate.

Jack Mallinson signed for Hunslet on a 1 yr deal.

Oli Burton leaves to join Batley Bulldogs permanent deal

According to YEP seven lads signed on for Academy next season:

Will Gatus, Jack Johnson, Kai Morgan, Alfie Edgell, Max Simpson, Riley Lumb, Jack Smith (who I don’t know about).

These players do seem to be the pick of the bunch, a couple of future first grade prospects in there maybe.

Pleased with that, I had 5 of 7 getting 33+ squad numbers for 2022. Adds to the depth which is only going to help and likely we will see them in the reserves.

Good set of signings

Jack Smith is a centre, big lad with good skills, i had my doubts about his athleticism, thought he looked quite cumbersome when watching him play for Fev Lions, but he looked much better in that department for us last season, i was pleasantly suprised.

I'm guessing the club really must see something in him when we already have Newman, Broadbent, Edwards, Simpson, Hall in the system,

I quite like the look of Morgan - that's the kiss of death on his career now. He looks very skilful and quite nippy.

Looking forward to seeing more of these lads next year.

Other than Max Simpson who has a chance i cant really see any of the others breaking thru really. I know Agar likes Gatus a lot. Jack Johnson is a big forward whos decent.

Im afraid tho this could be the last half decent bunch recruited for some time.

Do you reckon we've had our purple patch mate? Be interesting to see what effect COVID has had on youth development - may well be a blip for a couple of years, I don't know.

You used to rate young Edgell didn't you?

If Morgan Gannon is the second coming of Morley, I reckon Simpson would be my Keith Senior.

I just think with such a young side in development, the club desperately needs a real high-quality pre-season. Whereas many clubs are in maintenance mode / combination-building with senior pros, our lads need the input and the hard yards in physical strengthening.

In fairness, we don't need a huge influx of young talent in the short-medium term, but we do need to keep tickover and not fall back into the dark days again. Obviously there needs to be the talent our there to find in the first place.