Smith to FB, BJB to wing, thats his best position IMO.

.....and Webb to SO; Sinfield to LF (or hooker) and Burrow back to the bench.

he has shown glimses of a good player but no consistency

imho not a leeds player we want to take up an overseas quota

poor on friday was not the word but most of the team were aswell

The fact is BW has already offered up a poor display .... If he's not dropped, then this is what breeds complacency within the squad, by thinking how many poor games does it take to drop me ?

Bench him now and get him and a few other senior pros thinking about what will happen if they have a bad game or not running about as if their lives depended on it, they'll find they're getting dropped and kicking their heels until such a time as their hungry young replacement makes a similar mistake ....

I don't disagree with the sentiment, but I'd bet half the team were already thinking about the WCC rather than Wigan. BM is not going to take any risks next week - especially given we're only two games into the season and a number of potential replacements haven't even played a game yet.

I can't argue with that either TBH, but I would hope that going forward he does show a ruthless streak towards poor performers. We certainly have potential replacements for almost every position now.

considering most of the players had off days we were only a couple of bad decisions and badly dropped balls away from beating wigan
i'm still confident we can beat manly whatever the 17 is

Are you Maurice Bamford or Peter Fox? Sports psychology has moved on a little since the 1980s - it's not all about motivating your team through some sort of reign of terror.

BTW I've watched the season review a few times, and in highlights Hauraki has thrown some lovely passes. However, when I've watched entire games I've been less than impressed. He was in the box seat to play in the GF, especially as part of a team that beat Wire, but he was really poor in that game, making errors at bad times and areas of the pitch.

I don't know what game you guys were watching. The only two players who trucked the ball up with anything approaching hunger were Weller and Delaney. Leeds played for the most part like they didn't want to get hurt before Friday.
This Weller bashing is getting a bit ordinary now. If I could be bothered I bet I could find some very similar threads about JJB from a few years back, and Burrow from not so long back, and Ablett, Clarkson, McGuire and Webb.

It'll be interesting to see the stats, but even on re watching the game Weller is still coming out of it with credit.

No complaints about Delaney...but you might consider Hauraki's ball retention abilities were a little suspect

I don't know what game you were watching. JJB was a million miles ahead of anybody else, and the next closest who was miles ahead of the rest was Griffin, in regards the attributes you questioned.

Delaney may well take the ball up, but he is about as threatening as a baby rabbit. Hauraki blew so many chances for leeds he could have been the big bad wolf.

We were some way off competing with a competent Wigan side, we never came anywhere near troubling their line. Poor performances must result in players being dropped from the starting squad. If not we get complacency. A good number of players could have played themselves out of the starting line-up for Friday night. The only player guaranteed a start should be McShane, his performance was faultless on Saturday????

I thought Griffin was very good on saturday, him and JJB stood out whilst we were getting battered in the forwards.


Hauraki.........well, pfft, I'm just not convinced by him yet, he does a job to a degree but it's not a job that should take up a quota spot, he may come good you never know but he's no kid and his basic ball retention is a problem although his defence has improved in the last 12 months.

Weller playing right centre was a surprise considering that Delaney and Clarkson were all playing in that game and had played right centre before and seem better candidates for the shirt. So that what a puzzle, as Wellers improvement mainly is in defence due to the safety in numbers more in the middle so at right centre he was always going to be under the microscope. It didn't go well for him, so didn't see the point in putting him through that pain for a full stint. Surely another switch of some sort wouldn't have hurt?

He's a decent player to have around the squad, though I don't think he should be a guaranteed starter. On Saturday he was playing out of position so I think any criticism of him should take this in mind.

His improvement at the end of last season was notable, and he performed well in preseason so writing him off after a shaky team performance playing out of position is a little premature

Weller had a really good game against HKR and had a very good pre-season. On Saturday he got played out of position in the centres and as a result put in a below par performance. As already mention his wife gave birth on Friday so no doubt his mind wasn't on the game Fri or Sat. Give him a break.

Then why select him ? The buck stops with whoever did that. The so called strong squad should not have resulted in a guy not mentally fit been part of the team. That's where he should have been " given a break "

.... Or do you think Clarkson would have been a worse selection at LF ?

If one more forward was needed to fill in at centre McDermot struck again by not using Delaney.... Do you not think Hauraki deserved that break also ? His coach is a buffoon when it comes to selections.

Still doesn't excuse his poor ball retention though....

I think that's a consideration definately, but I doubt too many people based their opinion of his relative merits as a member of the Leeds squad on that one game.
My guess (and I'm not a mind reader) is that the club was looking to replace an ageing Ali with a similar style of player, an impact second row forward who could bring some energy and pace off the bench with strong wide running, aggresive defence and creative offloads. Someone who could make things happen at crucial times in a game. It seems that the failings in Hauraki's game were "acceptable" to the coaching staff and we could work on them.

From the 30 mins I saw of Ali in week 1 on the telly and what I've seen of Hauraki so far (in his entire Leeds career) I'm not sure the club made the right call.

I would guess its a risk thing. Hauraki is young and although not in the class of Ali, is in a similar mould, but with many more years ahead of him. Ali is an excellent player, but one that Leeds were getting decreasing amount of minutes out of for various reasons

You could also say, he's mid twenties and quota, so should be the finished article. He's either not been coached properly at any other level or we have some miracle workers on the staff who can transform him.

I actually think Hauraki has a good skill set. He's got a good offload game and break tackles, he's also improved his defense out of sight since he first joined. However, I think he lacks the temprement to be able to make the right decsions when it matters, and he always seems to save his worst brain farts for the big games. Unless he improves this part of his game/charachter he'll never be good enough for a top 4 team.

Yep. That's how I see the lad, although I think for the most part he's an excellent player to have in the squad. I suspect a few who are complaining about one bad game, in a match where most in the Leeds team were below par, were the same folks who were chelping about Delaney last year.

Temperament might just be it. Talking to him during off season he was explaining that he has always been a pivot. At Crusaders if he wanted the ball he got it, then the half backs would run off him. He was saying that taking the time to adjust to being part of a bigger machine, and being where he needs to be when he needs to be there, has been a source of frustration but he has been really well supported by the other lads.
I know it shouldn't make a massive difference but he seems well liked by everyone and he will come good.