Congrats on completely missing the point & not understanding how having 2 extra first choice props would have improved our efforts not only in performance but sharing the workload.

Grasping at straws really?
Just stating the obvious in terms of how they'd have added more to us it's not hard to see or understabd that.
Also your happy to dismiss those 2 as average yet make out the serial plodder would have had an impact for them.

I was relatively pleased with the performance. Some people are looking too much at the score line which shows a bigger gap between the teams than is the reality in my opinion.

I don’t just think that about this game by the way I think it’s true of the sport as a whole, certainly at the SL/NRL/International level. The way modern game is in terms of dominating the play the ball and how one team can get a roll on means that a team doesn’t have to be THAT much better in order to rack a couple of tries up.
Personally I’ve thought for a while it’s something we need to look at (though I’m not sure what the answer is) as, especially at international level, it makes it very difficult for smaller nations to compete against the big 3 who often rack up high score lines.

Going back to this game, I thought we were the best team for the first 15/20 mins and were a match for them for the rest of the half. The injuries before the game had an impact, with the likes of Garbutt etc in there we would have had more punch upfront and maybe wouldn’t have played quite as laterally.
The injuries during the game also played a part. Losing Ward would be a blow anyway but even more so with a weakened pack. Losing Walker was massive in my opinion. Looking back at some of the tries Melbourne scored after Walker went off, there were at least 2, possibly 3 tries where a big factor in the try being scored was that we hadn’t numbered up correctly.

So overall I’m not too downheartened. We showed some great stuff with the ball and showed we can trouble the best side in the world.

So Mullally is more than a serial plodder? as I said grasping at straws if you think a player who most would describe a squad player at best is going to change the face of the game against the best club side in the world!!

I think you are missing the point. I think Mullally is pretty much a SL plodder too but he would have made a difference here...Garbutt a significant one gives us 100m plus every game.look at our bench, crikey a championship rookie ormondroyd only prop option and make shift crock Delaney that was it. It was always going to take its toll against the best grinding team on the planet.also meant Cuthbertson had to play battering ram all game which took another dimension away from our play.

BTW, i still don't think we would have won but having Peteru,Garbutt and Mullally in the team think we could have stayed with them longer and made it pretty close.

Completely missing both points here.
A.Garbutt in particular & Mullally offer us more size go forward & rotation against a huge pack.
B.You contradicted yourself offering up Kasiano as some kind of loss for the Storm especially when he hasn't even played for them plus showing no sign of the impact he had 4/5 years ago during his best spells at the Doggies then dismissing our absentees.

Let's look at it this way in regards pecking order

PROPS - Cuthbertson, Singleton, Garbutt, Mullally, Peteru, Galloway, Oledzki, Ormondroyd, Delaney

BACK ROW - Ward, JJB, Ablett, Delaney, Ferres, Ormondroyd, Keinhorst

You honestly think having 8th/9th choice props and a 7th choice back rower (who we didn't get to use in the forwards as he had to fill in at centre) are the exact same as having your top choices.

This assumes that the gains in the Leeds side were not offset by an improved effort from Melbourne. It assumes that Melbourne were playing at their absolute best - something not covered in your scant analysis.

So Delanney was in the 17 for both of the opening games in SL and some on here were suggesting Keinhorst as the starting left centre so suggesting he is a back row forward is spurious and only there to support your argument. Galloway hasn't played for months who is to say he is now an improvement? Peteru has played 20 minutes on what basis is he being judged as a better player than Ormondroyd? Last season Mullally was an average squad player how he has suddenly morfed into James Graham is beyond me.

To suggest Kasiano is less of a miss than either Galloway or Peteru doesn't really stand up to any scrutiny at all.

Leeds were well beaten by a side on a different planet - accept it and move on to a softer competition where Leeds will be there or there abouts come the end of the season.

I have been, and will continue to be, a critic of anything I see which (IMO) does not live up to the expectations we have recently (15 years) become accustomed to.

However, your precis is just knitting fog. If you cannot see that Garbutt (especially) & Mullally, Galloway, Ferris & Oledski wouldn't have made a difference (not to mention the loss of Ward during the game) in how we shared the workload better after a 24 hour flight, going from 0c to 30c (or whatever it was) then I don't know how you judge RL performance. Then, to allege that the absence of Casiano was just as debilitating to Storm, is weird in the extreme.

I haven't seen anyone on here claim that Leeds are the better side, but Storm are NOT 3 times better (the level of multiplication needed for difference in salary cap), nor is that the biggest margin of victory that Storm will enjoy this NRL season - how do those vanquished supporters justify their near-£6M salary outlay?

I think Leeds did remarkably well in the circumstances (& I really enjoyed the game). We will have learned a lot from the game & the younger players will learn a lot from it

Delaney does usually make the 17 when fit but not as your 1st sub prop interchange which he was against Melbourne. Keinhorst surely would've been on the bench to play 2nd row for this game.

You can argue that Kasiano is as much of a Miss as any ONE individual prop for us, but we weren't missing one prop. If just Singleton was missing then you've still have Cuthbertson, Garbutt, Mullally, Peteru/Galloway.

Also people haven't argued that Melbourne weren't the better team, deserved to win and wouldn't still win if we had our strongest 17. We've argued a very weak point that some have jumped on this game to support their preconceived ideas on players whether that be thoughts of Myler & Moon as a partnership or your criticism of Cuthbertson & Parcell who I recall early last season you called respectively a one season wonder and nothing but an average workhorse. See it took all of one defeat in very testing circumstances for it to start this season.

By a very small number of posters and in a very limited way.

To even compete for 80 minutes with Melbourne Storm we had to have pretty much a full squad of players to select, we don't have near the depth of player quality to pick from that they have so saying they had one or two missing as well means nothing in this case as it is my belief they could have had 4 or 5 regulars missing from their pack and replaced them with players good enough to mix it against us where we were left scraping the barrel, no disrespect intended to the lad but Ormondroyd would be seen as a part time club player over in Australia at this point.

Anyway, we didn't disgrace ourselves. For me i'm of the view we are not close enough to the Aussie clubs to go over and take them on head to head like this as i watch enough NRL to know we are a fair way away in standards but fair play to the lads for having a go, time to move on.

Good post Biff. SL squads are much smaller than NRL ones, so missing 4/5 players has a bigger impact on us, particularly when they are mainly bigger forwards. Most NRL sides have a reserve team plus U20s and access to other feeder teams if required.

Basically the game showed that the Storm are a very good side and Leeds are not at that level, even taking into account players missing. The Storm have shown in the past two years that their strategy in the NRL is to get a fast start to the season and rack up points early. They get hit hard in Origin period and like a buffer to take into the back end of the year. So they'll be closer to full match readiness than some NRL sides.

I also thought BM's comments were very true - Leeds won't play more than 2/3 games against teams anywhere near that good all year. If the Leeds squad was exposed to that higher standard week in week out we'd be a much better team after half a season. That's not to say we could beat the Storm by then, but that I'd expect we'd see most of our players playing at NRL level at least in terms of intensity if not class.

Good points made there BR.
Out of interest how did the Australian press report the game?
Did they take into account we had some of our bigger forwards missing and that we lost Walker and Ward who were making a difference?
Or did they do their usual pommie bashing and say we were crap?

Storm are acknowledged as the best side in world RL and its interesting because they are an expansion club . I wonder have they got a decent crowd average compared with the clubs in the traditional RL areas ?

And on the expansion point, this is something I've mentioned a few times to those who question expansion teams relying on imports and not adding value because there are no hometown players.... In Melbourne's entire history, they've only had 1 player from the entire Victoria State, let alone Melbourne as a city to play for them. It's not about new players coming from that area (though that should happen in time).

Just home. Absolutely fantastic occasion.

I want to go back.

The press here didn't mention Leeds having players out at all as far as I could see, OTOH there does seem to be the view that as far as NRL sides go, the Storm are top class ATM. There's little commentary that Leeds did much worse than an average NRL side would.

Me too. Absolutely amazing experience and what a fantastic credit to our club the players are both on and off the field. Leeds were superb all week in promotung the game. The stmosphere was superb and i just thought the whole week was sensational. Ive watched Leeds for 37 years and i never dreamed i would get to watch them play in Australia.

Loved the city of Melbourne. Great to meet past players like Matt Adamson and Martin Masella who genuinely remembered me from his time at Leeds which was a real highlight for me.

After the game all the players attended an evenr at a pub in the City centre with the fans and spent as much time as they could with everyone and the Toronto Wolfpack owner made it a free bar for every Leeds fan due to being the best fans in world rugby. A great night had by everyone.

I will say tho the prices in Aus are ridiculous. What a bloody expensive place!!! Jeez.

Only downside to whole week was losing my phone in Brunei airport on way back so thats gone forever now ffs.

All in all an amazing experience. One i can see being repeated by the club on a regular occassion. Brisbane would do me nicely next year Mr Hetherington!!

Yeah, the price of stuff is quite alarming. Even in supermarkets it's expensive.

All hail the god of Happy hour!

www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... kable-club Food for thought.

www.skysports.com/rugby-league/n ... kable-club Food for thought.

Wow. Interesting thing for me is how much of that work is on the mental strength.

Seems to be on another level.

Like a day at school in Donny.

Just to go back to the game a little.

I don't actually think on the telly you got a true reflection of just how good a side Melbourne are. They speed at which the try to play the game is absolutely frightening. And comparing them to SGI and Souths at ANZ the night after they were a couple of yards quicker than them. Yeah, it's only pre-season for them as well but Melbourne were more than ready for the game and were well drilled.

It was a great event to be at, well worth the trip over. I wasn't in the Leeds specific bay as I bought $60 tickets on half way but the noise coming from down there was absolutely fantastic for all those who travelled over. The fact the fans were able to mingle with the players at the Duke of Wellington afterwards was great as well. I wasn't actually there when they arrived as I had to get back to the hotel because of an early flight back to Sydney the morning after.

The full 10 day trip has been absolutely fantastic. If you've read this month's 40-20 I was lucky enough to be down in Wollongong as well for the Wigan v Hull game as well so I won't elaborate on that part of it. Sydney is a wonderful city with lots to do, after a day up in the Blue Mountains called at Penrith on the way back to see the Leagues Club. What a place, never seen anything like it. So many poker machines, restaurants and a real community hub for the people of the town. I can't wait to go back!