Great opportunity to see how Handley goes at LC with Moon at SO



Hardaker, Hall, Peacock, Sinfield, Burrow, Ablett and Kylie must be rested IMO. They are critical for the chances of lifting the elusive CC.

Would agree re Hanley getting a chance, thought last week against Bradford was the ideal opportunity however we went for two back rowers!

Please, feel free to re-call those with us at London, they are abysmal, certainly without a future at Leeds.

Leeds would have to do something fairly spectacular to lose next weekend, playing with kids or not.

Final team will be same as yesterday barring injuries , i have no doubt that is our best 17

As for next week a whole host will be rested and the game will become an even money match as was the Bradford game, Cas play Thurs so can't see Mac giving them advantage of fresher players if they go through

There's no point putting the first teamers out. They've got a cup final next week and don't want to get an injury and miss it, so their intensity will drop off, as well as risking those with niggles we need fit for the final & playoffs.

Give the young lads a chance. They're not getting picked next weekend so they've nothing to lose and everything to gain from going out & giving it 110% to show the coach & the fans that they're ready for SL.

Only exception is those first teamers either can't be replaced or who need some game time to build up match fitness and be in contention for the final.

Zak Hardaker
Tom Briscoe
Ash Handley
Joel Moon
Ryan Hall
Liam Sutcliffe
Ben White
Brad Singleton
Paul Aiton
Ryan Bailey
Mitch Achurch
Chris Clarkson
Stevie Ward

Robbie Ward
Rob Mulhern
Ian Kirke
Josh Walters

By all accounts Handley was responsible for his own non-appearance in the Bulls game. If he's recovered favour with McDermott then he would be an obvious choice vs London.

And the reason ?

Id make minimal changes for the London game, create some momentum and make sure our game plan is up to scratch for the final

Id rest Kylie if he picked up a knock yesterday and id drop Kirke and Sutcliffe who made no impact off the bench yesterday, Id bring in Singleton Achurch and Walters to make a claim for a place in the final

Similarly, if you can't see the problems in Aiton's game then IMO you should start watching a simpler game.

His passing is awful at times. I can recognise that whilst also recognising the better elements of his game. Can I keep watching?

of course

last time leeds faced london before a cup final they lost. badly. we should only rest JP and kylie for me. dont want to see a whole new squad.

McDermott will probably leave this one down to the players. If they have a niggle or feel fatigued then they sit it out. He will be honest with the semi starting 13 - their places in the final are guaranteed. 1 or 2 others are to play for...

Peacock might benefit from a rest, especially if we want him to do another shift like Saturday. But then he's a machine, so maybe he doesn't care.

A lot of players have already had a break recently, so I'd keep Aiton, Sinfield, JJB etc. Leuluai may need to rest if he has a rib injury, depends how bad it is.

I think we can use our first team squad, and give people like Robbie Ward (for whom this year's final probably comes a bit son) a run. Let the forwards who missed out on Saturday (Achurch, Ward, Singleton) get a chance to play their way into the Wembley squad.

We could wrap our key players in cotton wool I suppose, but I've never been a big fan of doing that.

I didnt say he has no problems

but feel I can recognise certain attributes that will make a massive contribution to the side if he can commande a regular spot.

I had a bit of a fekwit weekend with over celebrating our success and frankly some of the more negative contributions on here leading up to the game I found where really starting to me off.

Peacock was telling us that it is taking his body longer to recover from the previous game. When he was younger, he had recovered by Sunday-Monday. But now he is only getting near right by the next match. This is a big reason for his retirement and he isn't going to play on next season. This I can't blame him for after hearing this explanation and he is an amazing athlete to be still playing at the level he plays at.

You can tell aswell. People seem to miss these things because of how damn good he is.

Peacock has not even played at 50% to what he was last season, although Saturday was a big step up. The fact he is so good, is that 50% is more than enough to be better than whom he is playing with and against.

Put people still expecting him to put it in week in week out, going forward and forward, are kidding themselves. I said it the other week, that each year that passes after mid 30's it gets harder and harder still.

If you put it into context from the little piece JP was involved in Pre-Match on the BBC. On average he is hitting it up 30+ times in a match with a impact of 16g. Like a Car Crash. He is a machine, but a machine that is very close to retirement.

Resting him would be a good idea to make sure he has recovered in time.

That's OK, I know how you feel. These experts have been telling me since 2006 how bad things are at Leeds.

I will freely accept that he may not have been quite as awesome this year as last, but I am curious, where is this "50%" figure coming from? How are you quantifying that, and what numbers back it up?

Less than half the minutes? Less than half the metres? Less than half the carries, tackles, offloads?

I get the point you're making, but the claim that his contribution is less than half of last season's is a bit exaggerated, surely? I've probably only seen half the games this year, so perhaps he has been absolute bilge in the other half, but he's been pretty close to being the best forward on the park in most of the games I have seen.

I've always found that 80% of the claims/statements that people make on here are incorrect: + or - 10% for statistical error.

What do you want me to say, he is half the player he was last season? out of interest, do you pick up on the coaches also when they say he is only playing at 60%, etc?

You did understand really, I am sure. Last season Peacock was so far ahead of others, including world rugby. He is still the top of this comp. But not to the level he was last season. He was producing performances last year like Saturday on most weeks. Saturdays performance was his best of the year by some distance. As I said, he is still the top player, but his level of performance is not as good as last season. And I can understand that.

I don't entirely disagree with you, but bad stats is a bit of a bugbear of mine (and to answer the first question, yes, that sort of thing irritates me, see also Clarke, P). Quantifying things, by it's nature, requires numbers to back it up.

In this instance, I doubt you would claim he is actually half as effective this year (woukld you?). But that is what 50% means, so the mis-use of "stats" actually vastly exaggerated (unless anyone can see any numbers that I'm missing) the problem.

And yes, I did understand. I even said so in my post. I not only understood, but I agreed with you. I would give the guy a week's recovery to be in a position to unleash him fresh and at full power at Wembley.

JP said he is going into RL Commentary when he retires, so I asked if he'd please replace Phil Clarke.....He just laughed. Looks like Clarkey isn't just a big hit with the Fans

He will be good at.

yesterday his brief analysis of the Leeds game was better than anything else knocking around. He speaks with belief and the context of what he says is noteworthy. For example he commented on the Carney ban and took the bull by the horns and just said 'there probably wasn't any malice but you can't go round doing that. Fair ban'.

Compare him to the likes of cringe worthy Clarke, Robbie Paul darting round the warm up which means nothing or Brian Noble going on about hurricanes called Brenda.