Bentley has had a stop start time while at Leeds but was excellent in the run in last season. He has contributed more in the last two seasons than Fusitua. I would have had both Handley and Macdonald on the wing before Fusitua this season. He is good at taking the high kick over the tryline, and has come up with a couple of tries from that play. Pity it's taken our halfbacks 2 years to realise that it's his strength.

And I would say Bentley is good at scrapping and competing in the middle and has great commitment, but is also good at giving silly penalties away and making mistakes at times.

Sorry I just disagree I’d pick three other of our back rowers over Bentley but probably pick Fus as first choice wing.

Handley not been on top form this year for some reason - probably not helped by inconsistent halves and centres.

Isn't it likely that Bentley will be on less than his current deal? He was signed as an up and coming star, but aside from a few games at the end of last season hasn't lived up to that. Based on the fact he was apparently sounding out offers elsewhere but stayed we might have been the only half-decent offer going.

I read somewhere he was one of the better paid players - if he still is we need to give our heads a wobble.

He is marginally first grade starting quality in the second row and James McDonnell is the better player.

Bentley looked good in a dominant Saints side - not the same player in a weak Rhinos side. Take it he didn't get any offers from the NRL?

No, course not. You need to be really good to get NRL….

Yeh, like Leeming and Gildart

And don`t forget Bateman.

Good to hear Bentley is trying to turn the corner and has now gone 100 days sober.
He talks about the demons of drink and how he now has a purpose in life.
I`m sure we will see a better player this year.
"When I look back now, I was just pressing a self-destruct button," Bentley continued. "The hardest part has been admitting and accepting that I had a problem making me feel weak, but I now realise how strong it is to do that.

"It's not been an easy road. There have been some pretty testing and difficult times, but since stopping, I feel I've grown so much as a person. I'm enjoying life so much more; my confidence is through the roof; I feel I'm better to be around; I'm enjoying training so much more; and I've lost over a stone. Relationships with friends and family are so much better. I'm growing my own business away from rugby. It's given me so much more time to do things that are way more productive and rewarding.

Brilliant and good on him. Might see a rejuvenated player this season

.This can only be good for him his family and friends and the team .He'll need continue support but well done James.

Good on him.

I gave up for around 3 years and as difficult as it was it totally recalibrated my relationship with Alcohol (dry January really isn’t long enough to make a difference)

Along with Bentley I get the feeling there are quite a few players in for big years to right the wrongs of last season which I personally don’t think we appreciate how tough it was for many involved, there was a lot of things going on and it seems the squad is in a totally different place mentally this season

I think you`re right Chris.
Oledzki said something similar that he played injured last season and had to deal with the demons in his head as he knew he wasn`t performing.
The pack certainly did underperform and I`m sure they will be looking to put it right this season.

Good to see from the training photos that almost everybody appears to be involved. Not sure if I've spotted Holroyd yet. Is he currently injured?

Knee injury which kept him out of last game against Cas must have been more serious than thought. He’s a good player I hope he is fit for the season start.

This is my concern with our front row options.
If Holroyd misses the start of the season, we have Sangare and Goudemand in our starting 17.
This is way below the level of the top 4 or 5 teams.

We're hoping for a lot with our props.
Holroyd stays fit
Mik improves his form
Sangare ups his fitness and workrate levels
Hudson can step up to this level

Hope it all comes together, but this is a big risk area for me.

Unfortunately there were car more pressing issues to fix with the squad so it was nigh on impossible to fix the prop issue in one off season.

I think TNW will be a breakthrough player this year

I think Hudson will appear more than him though.

Peter Smith seems to think he'll feature in one of the pre season friendlies.

I wouldn`t be surprised if we don`t hold on to Newman we sign a prop mid season.

From what I’ve heard Newman will be re signing before the season starts

Really?
Going from the table last year I totally agree on Wigan, they have a huge pack and a set of impressive front row players. But I would say the squad is unbalanced, if they get an injury or two in the backs then the replacements aren’t great.
Saints front row options is 33 year old walmsley, 25 year old matty lees, 32 year old Paasi coming off a huge injury , 19 year old George Delaney, Mata’utia covering prop, maybe Knowles and wingfield coving prop.
Catalans - taukeiaho who probably leaves, sims covering prop, seguier seems a backfow now, scimone played 3 games, satae great in short burst, navarette not convinced, mcmeeken, deazaria, Bousquet. So a fair number, a lot who aren’t traditional props and I wouldn’t say significantly stronger than what we have.
It’s the same for any team, take the best two props from saints, Catalans or any other team bar Wigan and you are going to struggle a bit.

Good to hear regarding Bentley and hopefully this leads to very tough choices in the 2nd row with Martin, McDonnell and Gannon.

I've seen a few are doing the Hard 75 challenge which can only benefit Leeds.

Yeh really.
Our pack got rolled regularly last year and we had Tetevano and Walters, who have now left.
Hope I'm wrong, but we need a lot more from Mik and Sangare this year and we need some luck with injuries.
Hopefully Hudson or TNW will have an impact.

I agree with Chris that we had areas that were higher priority i.e. half backs.
But I think a big impact prop was a higher priority than FB and hooker tbh.
I'm sure Ackers will be a very good signing, but I'd have preferred Burgess.

Disagree on Ackers, he’s one of, if not the best hookers in SL, we haven’t had that class at hooker for a long time.

FB and pace was a priority, we didn’t actually have a proper FB in the squad, Myler wasn’t an out and out FB and he was getting on.