He's a second rower and we short of quality there.

They absolutely are. They’re miles ahead of every Super League team and if you think 2 or 3 quality players is enough then you’re deluded. There genuinely isn’t a single Leeds player that would get in that Saints team. Saints of last year and the last 2 weeks give most of the NRL a game and beat a fair few of them whereas this Leeds team wouldn’t get close to a single one. Leeds need 4 or 5 quality players in the right areas and Saints to lose a couple of theirs before they’ll be competing over the course of a full season.

As a neutral I think there has been quite a big overreaction on here. The reality is Saints are far better than every SL side and have the best player in 6 or 7 positions (including Wigan, Warrington, etc). Whilst that is the case they’ll batter most teams and will saunter to at least another double, if not a treble, this year. If Leeds were losing by that margin to other sides then fair enough but Saints will do similar to most teams between now and the end of the year. As has been said already sport is cyclical and there’ll come a point when Saints have lost their top players and have to rebuild while Leeds will have already gone through that process. It’ll take time and patience but as the standard of SL is so crap Leeds will get back to the top again. You’ve still got more than a fair chance of getting into the top 4 this year.
I do have to say, though, your recruitment isn’t helping. Matt Prior was a baffling signing and a complete waste of a quota spot. He’s managed to blag an NRL career out of being a ‘workhorse’. In other words too small to make many metres, weak as p*ss in contact and a penalty machine but able to do long minutes. He isn’t good enough for a team trying to win trophies again and won’t be on peanuts either. The likes of Donaldson, Seumanufagai, Lui, Evans and Mellor aren’t particularly inspiring signings either when the team is in need of quality players. I don’t understand the logic in signing Bodene Thompson either, even if it’s only short term. He’s bang average so won’t add any quality so surely there’s an academy player who can do the same job?

There's a difference between not been able to beat the best teams & looking like a rudderless division 2 Team.
That's not tery that's a Squad lacking depth & proper quality with a Coach many have said isnt good enough.
At what point did that become acceptable?
Its all well & good poiinting out the rebuild takes time , but it doesnt help when you add poor signings like Rhys Evans ,retain past it & never will bes like the Briscoes & Cuthbertson.
We have at least another 5/6 very good younger lads who should be in before signing dross.
Alex Sutcliffe proved v ST's we have better players available.
The rebuild will take time but it will take far longer how we're going about it.

That's not likely to change with the signing of Thompson.

Spineless, gutless garbage and that's just Agar.
Sinfield isn't Harry Potter and hasn't got a magic wand.
Some painful seasons ahead. The 3 year membership deal doesn't look so entertaining now.

Is Sam Walters not ready for a chance if we are short on 2nd rowers?

Sam Walters isnt ready for Super League but until he starts playing regularly he never will be. No youngster is ever ready but at some point they have to be given a chance. Walters and Holroyd are 2 kids with genuine potential to be top class.

At some point you have to accept physically they will be lacking, mentally it will be tough for them, they will out of their depth at times and will make errors but they need to given an opportunity to develop.

Signing players that are never going to be good enough isnt the way.

Ridiculously, Walters inparticularly is much more ready in this modern game, than he was pre Covid. His style and build absolutely suits what we have now. Juist give the lad a run, let him gain experience and learn from there. Nobody can tell me he wil lbe any worse than what we currently have playing there.

I would like to see Walters, Holroyd and McLelland get a good run of games rather the odd game here and there as last resort.

The game seems ridiculously quick and open at the minute doesnt it? Id like to see him given a chance, at least there is potential there. Journeymen short term signings make no sense to me at all.

The only logical conclusion you could draw from signing Thompson (the last one was bad enough) is that the club don’t believe in Walters enough yet. Seems the fans have more faith in him than the coaching staff.

Who spends most time with him?

Some incredibly poor performances with probably only Gale, Smith and Leeming worthy of their place.
Both wingers poor and whilst it`s a first game back fro Tom Briscoe he certainly isn`t going to add anything to this team.
Handley at FB was embarrassing, Sutcliffe tried and so did Newman.
McLelland needs more time playing alongside Gale.
The forwards were a joke.
Prior should play LF and Holroyd should have made the 17 not Evans.
We are at best a mid table team and are fortunate the likes of FC, Cas, Huddersfield and KR are as bad as they are.
Anyone still think we got the best deal with regards to Lolohea and Lui?
I said from the start he would be a better fit alongside Gale than Lui would.
And whilst Donaldson gets bagged a lot on here he would most likely have been our best forward last night based on effort alone.

Gale? Gave away a number of penalties, kicked poorly, completely vanished when you went three tries down. I only noticed him when he was giving away penalties or mouthing at the ref about penalties given away by his team mates.

Thought he was dreadful myself.

Whilst I’d like to see the kid given a chance, he’s our future not a 31 year old journeyman, if he’s not physically or mentally ready to be exposed to SL then it could do him more harm than good. That said if not now, when?

Who has more to lose?

I agree with the above - the concern is the club is taking about financial losses and controlling costs - that doesn't suggest investment in the squad. The other concern is the lack of quality coming through - this can only worsen with the reduction in academy and reserves.

Add to that Luke Briscoe too - these guys shouldn't be anywhere near a SL side.

I'd say that's pretty sensible given the current situation to be honest.

The coaching needs a refresh - it is a shame they couldn't persuade Ryan Carr to stay - perhaps that would have been too much competition for Agar - the current assistant coaches - one has no experience, one has been a disaster everywhere he has coached, one has never been a head coach at a lower level - Agar is either reaping what he has sown or is working with his hands tied behind is back?

If you want to experience losses like yesterday - yes it is - no sure that is really what the club are really looking for?

The success on the field drives all the other revenue streams - if you want to get out of the financial mess they say they are in you have to generate revenues, they can't cut their way out of £4m hole.

I honestly think both the posts above are an over reaction to what was a very poor performance against a red hot team when we had injuries to key players after a an unforced 5 month layoff.

We don't fully know the ins and outs of the financial situation but I prefer the club to be cautious - especially with no relegation this year, of course success drives income but we were in the model of a rebuild job then the worst possible timing we had a global pandemic shutting down the entire operation, if there was anytime ever to cut the club some slack it is now.

I'm not hiding my head in the sand, quite the opposite I'm being realistic with where we were and where we found ourselves now, let's face it we could have been in a lot worse position than in the top 4 with a positive points difference.

Feel like a lot of people here are overreacting and still forgetting where we are as a club in terms of rebuilding. Saints are a fair way ahead of us currently. Add to that we were without first choice players in a fair few key positions in the team and Sts were big favourites for this. Personally I thought if we could start strong and keep up physically we could see a good game OR we'd have 50 put on us. I couldn't see much in between. I thought we looked bright for the first few minutes and seemed to be a bit less sloppy than we were last week but they bullied us completely through the middle. We already know our pack is a bit lightweight. I think Prior's been a good addition but he was very poor last night. Gale's been fantastic but he was off his game - thought his kicking game especially was unusually poor but can maybe put that down to the added pressure of the beaten pack. So we've gone into a game against a superior side with a weaker pack, missing players in key positions and with key players putting in weak performances and people are surprised we got turned over? Throw into the mix everyone's still getting used to the speed of the new rules - there were LOADS of points shipped across all the games this weekend. I'm not defending the performance, it was poor and we got soundly beaten by a better team but there seems to be an awful lot of people who need a bit of a reality check on here in my opinion. We're not a top 4 team at the moment. There'll be a lot more teams soundly beaten by this Saints team this year. I still think we're a far better team then we've been the last couple of seasons so we're still moving in the right direction. We need to be prepared to knuckle down and remember where we've been and how much work there is to do I think. Lack of relegation this year means they can at least concentrate on rebuilding without the panic of that weighing on their shoulders

Yep, this game was a good example of how hard it is to play behind a beaten pack. You won't see the best of McLelland until he gets an extended run, he was pretty ordinary in his first 2 or 3 games for Fev until he started playing regularly with the same guys around him and his confidence levels went up (and he was playing on the front foot for an in-form team).