Kylie Lauitiiti has had some issues but Ali Leuluai has proven pretty durable.

Well he told the Yorkshire Post in the run up to the CC Final that he's been playing with injections for most of this season to get through the games and has missed at least 6 or 7 entirely. That would suggest to me, taking his age into account as well, that he might be might be in the latter stages of his Leeds career. And yes, thanks, I forgot to even mention Lautiti, but that only goes to prove my point further.

Kylie is also 32 (I think) which isn't good.

As for replacements, it depends if you want to go internal or external.

There is already a thread about Webb V. BJB and I think BJB is the natural replacement for Webb.

There is also a thread about McShane and I think he can step into Buderus's shoes with Diskin switching back to the starting hooker.

Personally I like Ambler and while he is different to Kylie I think he will mature into a very hardworking prop.

That is the good thing about Leeds, we do have some good youngsters who despite their age have had quite a bit of first team time. You've also got Amor and Pitts. Not ready yet but still young. And of course, there is Watkins.

It'll be interesting to see who is brought in. Fielden re signed by Wigan so that's him ruled out. I'm lost as to who will be brought in....

& ELima now going to the Dulls - he's a player I'd like to have seen at Leeds -

Does seem very quiet on the possible signing front which could indicate a player still in the play-offs either here or in the NRL!

Or Eastwood won't go, which has been my own view since it was announced about returning home.

IF he stays which from what i've been told is a zero possibillity he's a lot of making up to do to some of his team-mates mate.

I agree, I've thought all along that Hetherington is calling Eastwoods bluff with the big transfer fee, I wont be in the least surprised if he is still with us next year.

Can't see any NRL club being so desperate for Eastwood's services that they'll pay anything remotely close to the figure being mentioned. In my view the onus is now on Eastwood to buy himself OOC - which I don't see happening.

Or a player swap.....

It certainly does, but it's so typical of GH in the way he operates (not a criticsm in any way). Bulls n Salford snapping up players like nobody's biz

mind you they need to...



Hopefully you are guessing correctly though, I don't want to sound like a 10 year old but surely we must have plenty of cap room for a top drawer addition and one good solid addition (both in the forward pack hopefully).

Yep, that surely has to be GH's plan as you normally see players released not put up for sale... and I think GH's plan is spot on. He is one very good business man as the Bulls will vouch

.

I think there will only be 1 signing for next year if Eastwood goes (which should be a forward) since Hetherington always likes to have a bit of cap space to play with and with Smith returning we're right up to the cap this year. So I think Eastwoods cap space will be used on a forward whereas Donald's will be used to keep hold of the likes of BJB for the future and leave us a bit of space to play with too.

If the money Donald had previously received was going to BJB, what were we going to pay Donald under his new contract?

There are two salaries(?) available Donald and Eastwood, so we can reasonably expect at least 1 top quality signing, and either some room to manouvre mid season, or another average quality player.

All you internet experts seem to have forgotten that there might be some junior players who will need enhanced deals?

Clarkson was part time at the beginning of this season, BJB has just played a season of Super league etc etc

So on the basis that 7 players were all re-signed earlier this season, at a time when Clarkson was already in and around the first team, and we have known for a long time that BJB would be coming back, along with the effect on the Salary Cap that both would have, are you suggesting that GH is either unable to count how much money he would have been spending on the cap, or that he is now so generous that rather than bring in a new player (or 2 to replace the ones leaving) he is going to needlessly upgrade a junior players contract?

I'd give GH a bit more credit than that.

Agree re Clarkson depending on his current contract expiry at Leeds.

When is Jones-Bishop contracted to?

Hetherington doesn't strike me as someone who gives upgrades until they are earned and/or until he has to.

You also forgot the almost certainly reduced contracts of Ali, Kylie, Senior, Diskin, Buderus (and isn't a mere 10% reduction enough for the rest of the team

). But then the probably increases for Bailey, and probably Smith.

I was actually taking that as a "given" tbh especially as the contracts Clarkson and Ambler have signed are already within the cap for next year as is Bjb's return.
I still expect at least 1 arrival.

I'm saying you have no more idea than I do and it's not as simple as your previous post makes out.

I give GH plenty of credit and tend not to fucs too much energy on the issue. Needless to say, it's better left in GHs hands than the vast majority of the experts on here.

I'd definitely agree that GH is the best person to deal with these issues (not that the likes of you or I will ever be involved I suspect).

Where I disagree, is that given the competence that GH has in this area, he will know full well that when two senior (no pun intended) players leave, this gives him a surplus of Salary Cap spend that is very unlikely to be taken up on contract upgrades for two or three juniors. This is a very reasonable assumption given that one of the players leaving had signed a new contract only weeks ago, and the other was 1 year into a 3 year deal, oh and that we had Smith on board for next year before Donald announced he was leaving.

I don't understand what you are disagreeing with? Is it that GH is best left to deal with this or that it is not a simple as you think?

I avoid basing massive hypothesis on assumptions and try and establish facts. I guess that is the difference between law and sales, you just make stuff up to suit and I find the flaws in it..

Massively OT - but what area of law are you in? Just curious.

G1, the bit I disagree with you on, is that you seem to think that we will have to pay out additional salary to BJB, Clarkson and other juniors, whilst I am saying that we must have already known about this and factored it into our sums when calculating how much we had to spend on re-signing the 7 players we did earlier this year. Then considering that one player who agreed a contract extension (Donald) has subsequently decided to retire, this leaves even more spare Salary Cap capacity.

These are facts not assumptions, so you might as well drop the Law V Sales guff which you are using to try to discredit my statements.