Good point. I seem to recall a lot of his earlypromise came from appearances out on the wing where his reading of th game wouldnt have to be quite as good, and mistakes were not as noticable. Maybe now at FB he is just getting found out

Owen strikes me as a very dumb person and player. Injuries have nothing to do with that as TS mentioned.

If I was Millward I'd seriously think about returning him to the wing to regain some confidence and play McGoldrick at FB. From what I have seen of Castleford this season Millward as got is work cut out.

Yes, at FB he's always in the firing line get him on the wing maybe he gets the odd walk in try, they put a lot of pressure letting him be the uncontested number 1.

Agreed. Chase the one man band is out of tune this year and cant carry cas. Orr's age seems to have caught up and they have no real strike power, be it in the forwards or backs

If they had a bit of strike power in the forwards I think Daryl Clark would cause a lot of problems to a defences around the league. He looks a real talent.

Surely Aston Wilson deserves a shot by now.
It's all Ian Kirke's fault.

IIRC at the time Shenton was one of the current England centres and Leeds ended up signing an Aussie no mark to play right centre instead. Owen was looking promising on the wing.

Delaney has proved to be an excellent acquisition but for me only really since his move into the pack late last season. At this point Leeds haven't really looked backed since the switch.

__________

Watkins always possessed huge potential but some weak areas also. The weak areas have been addressed and improved, aided in part by a shift in his defensive role and any slack moments are becoming rarer and are far outweighed by the other many positives he brings.

Hardaker is doing remarkably well considering the limited time he's had at the club in comparison to the rest of the three-quarter line. Will be a work-in-progress for a year or two yet but very promising.

Hardaker's future is interesting because whereas Watkins has always been viewed as a centre and will still be playing that position in 10 years time most likely, Hardaker has previously been touted as full back and half back material and i wonder if centre will still be his position in 3/4 years time.

Looking back in hindsight it now seems to me that Senior's injury (for the club if not him) was a blessing in disguise.
Without it would we have dared drop or even rotate him to accommodate Hardaker in the centres?
& for NE where is As(h)ton Wilson now? (Not sure how to spell his forename.)

It won't be long before the NRL and Union come sniffing at our 3/4's. Although all of them are currently on long contracts it wouldn't surprise me to see at least one of BJB, Hall, Hardaker or Watkins in the next year or so.

I see is long term future as a centre, who can fill in at stand off, full back, wing and further down the line at loose forward.

Watching England vs Ireland yesterday, exactly the same thought crossed my mind.
Especially with the Leeds connection of Lancaster & the obvious Farrell influence.
How good though are the Welsh wingers & both very young?

I doubt any of our young backs will leave they've all bought into the clubs ethos and seem to have the desire to emulate the likes of Mags ,Sinny ,Jjb etc as been 1 club men.

I'd suggest Hardaker at the moment wouldn't go well in Onion due to the fact he isn't very big and would get bullied in the rucks a bit. However the likes of Watkins or Hall would do very well imo. And agreed, one player who has impressed me and who I think may do well if they switched to League was Denton from Scotland. A dynamic second rower with great strength, I think he would go well in League.

Not that I disagree with your post but with the benefit of hindsight are you now pleased we didn't sign Shenton.

Shenton is still a good player but currently playing in an out of sorts team.

Would I rather have been watching Shenton at right centre for Leeds instead of Delaney these past couple of seasons, yes. Would I rather Shenton was at right centre instead of Watkins going forward, hell no.

Watkins at the time was being widely touted on here as the successor to Senior on the left so I expect it will have come as a surprise to some including me to discover he always favoured the opposite flank.

Last I heard, we had taken him on trial after you guys released him.

Shenton's a pretty reasonable centre from what I've seen - the sort of player that every side ought to be capable of producing. What he is not is an international standard centre. Watkins/Hardaker have the potential to be much more than that.

It doesn't seem to have hampered Josh Jones's development on the opposite flank.

Saints look more dangerous when they move the ball left than right these days, and it's a few years since you've been able to say that.

Cudjoe and Wardle are a better centre partnership.

Absolutely no doubt about it.

Always felt Shenton overrated. Lacks class.

Cudjoe is a very good player but would we swop him for either of our 2 not on your life and Wardle wouldn't get the centre spot at our place before Ablett let alone the other 2.
Of course the "we are top in april" approach is well and truly on show but like we said last year wait and see.

Fair point. At the mo our three quarter line is on fire. And tbf it had the better of yours a couple of weeks ago. But as you quite rightly point out it's doing it when it really counts that matters. It'll all come out in the wash as they say.

But on CURRENT form Wardle/Cudjoe have it over your lads. But will that be the case come Oct? Good question.

But it's great for the sport that we now have plenty of good English lads on the up.

IMO the most impressive player in the Giants back line is Eden. He'd be a nice addition to the Leeds back line when Webb retires



But it is pleasing there are a few decent looking young English players coming through in the threequarters.

with your young backline and ours we'd rip the aussies apart between us at the mo