Mullaly will be at Belle Vue on a permanent deal come August anyway

Hunch or something you've heard?

For the first time in many years, Leeds have a pack which is not a settled group. In the space of one year we have lost kylie, JP, Bailey, kirke. These had been the 4 core props for 8 seasons. Also aiton gone, Sinfield gone as an option for LF and JJB hit with long injuries.

Whether by chance or design there is real scope for some of the younger players like mullalley and keinhorst to challenge for places as there is no set pecking order at present.
Falloon And Ferres are on one year deals, achurch and JJB in last year - so all should, be keen to impress.
We know Cuthbertson, Garbutt, Ablett, Singo, ward and Delaney will graft but they and Galloway will face genuine competition for places when all fit.

And who emerges as real pack leaders will also be interesting to see. Given all the changes and new faces and with Sutcliffe to come in at pivot plus loss of the artificial pitch to work on - it may take a bit of time before we see the best of this team in the middle of the park. Looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

It looks to me as if both JJB and Achurch have been pushed a step further down in the 2nd Row hierarchy.

Given the number of props we have got I find it very unlikely that, as a previous poster put it, "expect to see JJB spending some time at prop".

Based on last season it looks more likely that Cuthbertson will be the loose forward until Ward is back to full fitness.

JJB is a great character and has been a great player but with his injury record and turning 35 during next season I wonder if he should be thinking about retiring. Keinhorst has a very similar build and can do a similar job but also cover centre.

Achurch has had a few chances and shown only glimpses perhaps we can let him go as well - Mullally is the same build and looks just as fast maybe we could have him as cover for prop and 2nd row?

Moving on to the halves.. Lilley has looked pretty good in his few games and his kicking is accurate - it will be interesting to see, especially before Sutcliffe gets back, how McGuire, Burrow & Falloon get on and whether Lilley might be a better ft than Burrow.

This is perhaps the key one for me. Everybody is going on about Sinfield and Peacock and how we replace them. Peacock, you don't replace like for like, we've gone for strength in depth in our props instead of one superhuman guy who did ridiclous amounts.

Sinfield/Sutcliffe. Of course he won't be able to give us what Sinfield did in terms of game management and leadership but he can offer other things that Sinfield couldn't in terms of speed and a better running game.

Aiton's departure has gone under the radar because of the 3 retirees but he in combination with Cuthbertson was a massive part of why we collected so many points in the opening 23 rounds and with us having more strength in depth in the forwards now even with Peacock's absence then a good season from Falloon is a must. If he can have as good or even better season than Aiton did in 2015 then we're looking good. If he's one of those overseas flops and it has a knock on effect on how well our forwards do then we might have some struggles.

I would like to see

Hardkaker
Hall moon Watkins Briscoe
Sutcliffe McGuire

Galloway Falloon Singleton
Ward / Ablett
Cuthbertson

Garbutt/ferres/, Burrow, one of jjb/Delaney / mullally

We all know JJB and Ward will take time to get fit, never mind back to best..I don't think throwing Ward in at 13 will help until he's sorted.

Delaney seemed to really struggle last year and must have been carrying injuries. It's up to him to earn a spot now but I think he will get the place until ward is back and then be fighting for it with jjb

That said I do hope Keinhorst and Mullally get a good amount of game time this year.
Keinhorst did well last year and was unfortunate to lose out to A church on selection .
Mullally seems to have gone unnoticed with little expected of him, it will be interesting to see if he can make people take notice.

Agree aiton was a key part of how well we played early part of last year in particular when crabbing right in an Ellery stylee and getting Watkins in space. Falloon looks good athlete - like others may need bit of time though. Thought aiton of 2015 was a fair bit better than the 2014 vintage.

I think there's plenty of game-time for the likes of Mullally Keinhorst and Baldwinson & imo we could release Achurch and we wouldn't notice his absence.

I think you may well see him gone next season to allow an increase in Ferres and others wages.
Maybe even mid-way through this if a Wakefield or a Salford are struggling with injuries and have any cap space.

I think with JJB and Ward out it's unlikely Achurch will go. Especially given one of those is retiring and we have only Keinhorst and Walters for cover aside from him.

Given the need to rotate the props more this year with no big JP stints, I'd expect Achurch to regularly be in the 17 as the bench second row:

Hardaker
Briscoe
Watkins
Moon
Hall
Sutcliffe
McGuire
Galloway
Falloon
Cuthbertson
Ferres
Ablett
Delaney

Burrow
Garbutt
Singleton
Achurch

When fit, Ward starts at 13 and Delaney drops to the bench for Achurch.

The back row looks a lot stronger with Ferres, but when everyone is fit we look overloaded on a numbers basis. Re Achurch, he signed for 4 years didn't he? If so he'll be in his last year, so he'll definitely want to show he's worth another big deal whether at Leeds or elsewhere.

Last year of his deal at Leeds.

Lilley, Ferres, Achurch, Falloon, JJB our out of contract players for end of 2016.

No problem with that. We were often short of numbers last year so glad we look like avoiding that. The game today anyways mean it'll be quite unlikely you'll ever have a fully fit squad to choose from and even if we do we should see it as a chance to rest a guy or two here and there.

Achurch will probably be gone after this year. JJB probably will call it quits in 2016 and although he scored the winning GF try, Walters needs to impress when playing after a mostly disappointing 2015.

As it's Achurch's last year to impress I wouldn't be surprised if he does a "Bailey" ..and has a half decent season to secure another contract. The rest I agree with

In terms of strength in depth, this is arguably the best Leeds have looked in the forwards for a while fitness permitting. Given the quality in the backline, the deciding factor in how successful the season pans out looks like being how the new half-back partnership comes together, and whether both Sutcliffe and McGuire can both stay fit.

An extended spell with one or both of Burrow and Lilley in the halves could have a serious impact on Leeds's season.

Having watched the end of last season, the NZ game, the boxing day game, and the Hunslet game, and voiced my concerns over the half backs, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I would have so much more faith in a McGuire/Lilley partnership than anything else. I genuinely think Lilley offers us everything we need from the scrumhalf role that Burrow will not give us, and that McGuire gives at Stand off that Sutcliffe probably won't.

I know both Sutcliffe and Burrow have a skill set that can offer something more themselves than Lilley can give, but I think what Lilley has in his locker is exactly what this side needs to link well together through the backs and forwards. Plus he gives us a kicking game, and a good goal kicker.

I would tend to agree: Lilley has very much crept up on the blindside and IMO is already deserving enough of a starting chance in the scrum half role. I have made some less than entirely serious remarks about McGuire being 'yesterday's man' (he of course still has much to offer - if not quite enough to be captaincy material) but I can already see Lilley being good enough to step up.
Golding too I can seriously see stepping up to cover stand off as well as FB.

I understand Sutcliffe and McGuire deserve to be the starting HB pairing, but I hope Lilley and Golding will both be given the first opportunity to step in if either Sutcliffe or McGuire fall victim to any unfortunate injuries. Certainly both would be better than bringing in Burrow as a starting half/hooker (who should instead remain bench impact player, at which he best excels).

It would be a surprise to see him on the field for any length of time going off the last three years. If he does manage it, i don't think many would be surprised to see him go pretty well if he does stay fit, he has always looked to posses some talent when on the field. Even if he does stay fit and have a good season though, it's highly unlikely he would see anything like the deal he currently on, if rumours are to be believed.

I know GH is fond of saying "this is our best squad ever", and that with the loss of JP and Kev he probably *won't* be saying that this year, but to to me the squad does look more balanced and deep than any I can remember.

We know how good our 1-5 are, and we also know that we have very good reserves in Golding, Handley and Keinhorst. No switching Ablett to centre and no one injury away from Joe Vickery.

Replacing the JP of 2015 is not the same thing as replacing the JP of a couple of years earlier. In some respects Cuthbertson and Garbutt took some of the slack off him last year and while we'll always miss his presence the addition of Galloway and Ferres leaves the pack looking stronger than it has for a long time. (Similarly, Kylie is a Leeds legend, but replacing the actual impact he had in 2015 is not that demanding and should be well within either Mullalley or Baldwinson's capability). Again, there's more depth than we've been used to, with Keinhorst, Achurch, Mullalley and even JJB/Delaney out of a first-choice 17.

The question marks that remain are:

1) Will Falloon be an adequate replacement for Aiton? If he is, we're well set. If not, we don't want to be relying on Burrow as hooker all year.

2) Will we be able to replace Sinfield/Peacock's direction and game management? Kev has been doing less ball-in-hand and even open play kicking over the past couple of years, so I think we can replace that. Whether we can replace his smarts is another matter.

3) Goal-kicking. We're just going to have to face that we'll average 2-4 points less a game due to the difference in ability between Sinfield and Sutcliffe/Hardaker. No easy answer to this (other than score more tries) and it could cost us a few tight games.

But overall I'm more confident ahead of this season than I've been for a while. Now watch it all go wrong...

Lilley could well get a chance. I'd be surprised if either of the 1st choice halves goes through the season uninjured. Plus, as Gotcha has pointed out, he could well be our best goalkicker which isn't to be sniffed at.

Those are very good questions.
1. I suspect Fallooon (or indeed any other hooker playing in the NRL) could do a passable imitation of anything that Aiton did last year. In other words, I've no worries on that score.

2. You call it smarts, I'll call it steadiness under pressure. I don't think that can be replaced, at least not immediately; it takes a hell of a special player and a hell of a lot of experience to marshall some of those tight, backs-to-the-wall games. That isn't a disaster as we're still good enough to feature in them and we'll win our share; but maybe not quite the lion's share we've enjoyed.

3. Can't argue with how you see it, except that without Sinfield's control we may actually blow more teams away by playing more flamboyantly. We'll probably lose a few more too.

I think he'd really have to go some to get a new contract. Ferres for a start will be offered a longer and better paid deal after this year and potentially better money for the likes of Lilley or another youngster if they have a good year. Add to it that Falloon will either be like Ferres and offered a new longer deal or we'll be on the hunt for another starting hooker then Achurch's rumoured big salary will possibly be needed to make some of the above possible on the 2017 salary cap.

I think the sheer grind of the new league structure requires a considerably bigger squad than previously. Hopefully the kudos of playing for this undisputed champion team will keep players patient for a piece of the action...

If we go with McGuire and Lilley it means burrow and Sutcliffe fighting it out for the last bench spot. Might be a good idea for the first few games while Sutcliffe gets comfortable with his leg.
Achurch must be gone at the end of this year. He seems to constantly injured or average at best and with Ablett,ferres,Ward,Delaney,JJB and keinhorst we don't need him.
His cap space should easily improve deals for Ferres,Falloon and Lilley if needed.