Stats are a useful indicative tool however they may not paint a true picture. Maybe Austin receives more penalties because in recent weeks he seems to be in the thick of the action. Credit to him he always seems committed. Abdul is a superbly talented kicker, his running game seems limited.
Watched the first half of wire and hull, Williams produced a master class of rugby, everything was on view, strong running plus tactical kicking. He absolutely controlled the game. As for tackling the union boys have come up with the phrase dominant tackle, which I think is a useful stat.

Wonder what the reason is for the down turn in performance with some players Bentley usually dose a ton of tackling.

For mine some of these stats only tell part of the story.
I reckon Austin has given away at least 4 of his 8 penalties not kicking it 10 yards from kick offs or drop outs.

Smith and O’Connor do a lot of work but it’s largely passive defence. Bentley is doing a different job at times. He’s trying to get off the line fast and nail people to change the momentum. It did not really work on Friday in the wet but he gets a missed tackle against him when the ball carrier my have to change direction etc and I can’t recall them making a decent break because he missed one.

As for Smith and 24 carries, I reckon at least 6 of them would be a negative for me, where he takes a pace or 2 and does not pass wide fast enough, then comes inside aimlessly and gets tackled, still classed as a carry. I don’t want a ball playing loose forward getting tackled 24 times a game.

Austin has given a few away for high tackles, a few times he has shot out the line aggressively and got the tackle wrong, fair play to him as a half back trying to make a difference in defence.

Think that's a bit unfair on O'Connor, he is often the on leading the line in defence.

Spot on re Austin. I'd also add he throws in the odd very good tackle where he spots play opening up and nips it in the bud.

The golden era was based on the progression of academy players through into the first team squad not filling the squad with average Championship players. Most of those academy players played in the first team by the time they were 20. Broadbent is a utility back who could play wing and centre and as such is better player than either Hooley or Ruan. Walker is on a different planet to Hooley - why he can't stay fit needs to better understood. McDonald is an average centre who has significant defensive issues. Both Ruan and Roberts starting at Bradford says it all - what was the score at Keighley? Even the coach said picking Ruan&Tindall was a mistake. The best signing for me is McDonnell who came from Wigan - no suprise there a SL youngster progressing

Walker is not a great player even when fit. He's not quick and can't pass. He runs some good lines every now and then. He's also, sadly, an utter crock which is a disaster in a salary cap world. Broadbent took his bat home when Smith arrived after not playing well and getting dropped in Smith's first game in charge. I'd rather he stayed but he clearly cracked the whatsits and left. He's not exactly the greatest centre ever and he's 22, not 19.

Your argument about Championship players doesn't make any sense because in terms of experience McDonnell was a championship player, and had played just 6 SL games in 3 years for Wigan. Sangare also played most of his rugby there.

The whole point of these signings - just to reiterate AGAIN - is that we have sweet FA quality players in their early 20s that the club has produced. Last season we were one injury away from picking 17 year-olds in the backs. Not because they were ready but because we had nobody else. Smith wants his backup players to be full grown men, not kids. He made that point very early in his stay last year.

The club is now focused again on bringing through kids. Fantastic. About time. But look at the quality of former Leeds juniors playing elsewhere who are under 25. Talk about mainly championship players...

The games changed from when the goldens came through. Throwing kids out to play every week at 18 is (rightly in my opinion) seen as the wrong way to go. And even back then the likes of McGuire and Burrow didn’t play every game. In reality there was always plenty of ‘squad’ players. Whether you’re talking Dunneman or Millard, or later on with the likes of Kirke, Worrall, Ambler. Our best squads have always had depth, some of which is from the academy but some were from other clubs or the championship.

For me this squad is the closest we’ve come in a while to getting the balance right. Some of the overseas quota just needs addressing now.

Quite correct, as I mentioned previously the stats are a useful tool but don’t paint the whole picture. For me one of the benefits is how much yardage the forwards are making. If you have a dominant pack you usually win your match. The stats will give you a rough idea as per the pack’s performances or lack of.

I disagree with just about all of that, and not surprisingly, just about everything else you post. No matter. It's all about opinions, as they say.

My goal was not to bag O’Connor or Smith, I like them both but just to point out that these simplistic statistics are not all RL is about.

On another note Ryan Hall is stronger than any of our props, can still finish and is safe under high ball. Looks 3-4 more years left to me …….would we for next season?

That would be good we can finish up with a 39 year old winger

Likewise, on the stats, I presume it doesn't count as an error when Olphert's runs away from the high balls so that he doesn't have to drop them.

To disagree agreeably is a good thing - it is good that there is a divergence of opinions - it would be a very dull board if everyone had the same view.

The club is the best run, highest revenue generating club in SL - outside of the golden generation it has struggled to deliver on the field - it was 32 before 2004 that it last won the Championship - why do you think a club with such resources cannot deliver in the most important area i.e. on the field.

Management.

And that, not because he spilled a couple in a gale, is why he should be dropped.

Good posting, think that’s were the frustration comes from. Fans see the off field efforts of the club with new stands plus excellent corporate facilities.
Yet we seem to struggle to create a decent team,. We have no god given right to silverware success but since the golden generation we have been below par. Few months ago we all had a long dialogue of verbal fisticuffs regarding our playing demise.. Maybe the slow decline started at the back end of Brian Macs spell. For me the giants game is interesting ,more so in how we perform than the result, obviously I would prefer a win but with some semblance of creativity and teamwork needs to be on display.

At the end of the day we are not far off where we thought we would be in the league.
In my mind we should have got points against Cas, Hull and Wakefield and a 50/50 call for 2 points against KR. I didn`t think we would beat Warrington, Saints and Catalan.
So 6 points maybe 8 is where I thought we would be after 7 games.
What is disappointing is the manner we have lost to teams we should be beating.
On the flip side the way we played against Saints and Catalans shows it`s in there, it`s consistency we lack and not enough good quality depth in our squad yet.

Let us not fool ourselves , we played Saints at a good time and a fair bit of the game they only had twelve men .
A good half against Catalan hardly makes up for the poor performances against Cas, H.K.R , Warrington, Wakey and Hull

I think we must win two of our next three games(all three would be great) to have any credibility in the league this season. If we don't then unfortunately the knives will be out

Talk about looking at the positives….!!

the referee was appalling last week and has carried on in the same vein tonight at cas...

I think the stand redevelopments have taken a focus away from the team. They were a massive financial and operational undertaking. It is the right choice to focus on the long term needs of the team, but understandably we may not have had the chequebook out as much in recent seasons.

Leeds always spend near to the cap - but I think recruitment especially overseas has been below par for whatever reason. It is the lack of quality youth in key positions that appears to be holding matters back. When did we last produce a quality half back?