By "competent to well" you mean dream team type stuff?

please go back and read me 1st post, at no point have i ever mentioned that i think he is poor!

it seems your constructing fiction to prove your point

i said that in his 1st season he didnt break the line and run the length of the field much and then went on to congratulate him on year by year improvements and that i expect great things from him with delaney inside him

its all there just read it! if you find anything ive said on here anti-donald then please enlighten me

PEACE!

I don't think selection in the Superleague dream team and a season that starts competently and finishes well are mutually exclusive. Kevin Penny was the other winger selected that year IIRC.

I remember plenty on here touching themselves over Penny when he scored that try at HQ that year.

There you go being selective again.

Why limit it to your first post?

Bewildered posted this



Within his post he indicated he thought Donald was poor in his first season as highlighted above.

You agreed.





It would seem not as it's all there in black and white.



I've highlighted it in the quoted text. You agreed donald was poor in his first year then went on to give reasoning as to why.

HTH

he wrote alot of things in that statement, i was actually agreeing with the latter part of his post but you were not to know that, and I now see why you thought otherwise.

PEACE!

while les was good the fact he had a top class centre in hape inside helped him a great deal

I'd say Vainikolo didn't really need a good centre to carve out chances (although that's always useful) he just needed the ball in his hand.

Donald is all about finishing the chances created by others.

I think that "awesome" is somewhat overstating the case.
He's been good, but I for one would like to see a local lad (Watkins, BJB or another academy product such as Ryan Hall was) take up his slot if the coaching team believe that they are ready to do that.
I sense from what I've read that Donald himself, or his partner, are now thinking of this being his last season. In which case he'll want (& need) to go out with a bang to ensure that he gets offered a contact back home in Oz. So we'll win allround.
A good season from him & a local replacement ready to step into his boots in 2011.

Its' great that the fans prefer the local lad to get the shirt ahead of an overseas player.

Unless, of course, its' Ashley Gibson or Matt Diskin.

Does this apply to coaches as well? The love for Darryl Powell on here compared to Tony Smith and Brian Mclennan has always been overwhelming.

FWIW, I think BJB has always looked a class full back in his 1st team appearances but a poor winger.

Watkins has had some good games on the wing but I'd hope to see him more in the left centre this year.

Gibson had several opportunities over several seasons. Not all Academy products will go on to secure a permanent spot in the Leeds squad, just the outstanding ones. Gibson (post knee reconstruction) wasn't outstanding and understandably he chose to move on to find an opportunity elsewhere rather than being a bit part player at Leeds. Hopefully he will do a good job for Salford in the lower reaches of Super League.

A fully fit Danny Buderus would walk into any side in SL including Leeds', where Matt Diskin will perform admirably either in tandem or as eighty minute cover should Buderus be unavailable.

I expect Leeds to make the best use of all the players they have on their register without giving preferential treatment to any individual, irrespective of their origin/background.



As you say FWIW, which wouldn't be a great deal based on such limited gametime in the position.

Would you care to mention the games you saw Jones-Bishop being 'a poor winger' in his 1st grade career?

He's alright at rugby I suppose, I just wanted to use the term 'bell-end'.

Its a very underused term especially with so many bell ends about nowadays

All of them.

He's looked very ordinary in the two or three 1st team games he's played on the wing.

he's looked exceptional at full back.

All as in both of them then. One in 2008 and one in 2009. Ample opportunity for an Academy prospect to fit straight in and yet he was allegedly 'a poor winger' in both.

Anybody else making such vague assessments on such scarce gametime would, I suspect, be taken to task.

Anybody suggesting that on the basis of those two performances he should replace two time dream team winger Scott Donald as first choice wing man would, quite rightly, be taken to task by me.

Someone who has said BJB is a class full back and they hope our first choice full back within a season or so would be talking great sense.

Watkins seems to be first reserve for 1-5, which should mean he'll get a few games this year, but eventually he'll need a decent run in the centres.

My point about Donald vs Vainakolo is just a matter of taste - Vainakolo was the better winger in the sense of being a danger when he got the ball, but for me the sight of a fast winger in full flight on the outside and beating the full back is one of the best sights in the game. One of the reasons for all his faults that I loved watching Offiah. Even as an old crock, his try against us at Wembley for the Broncos was a joy to watch IMO.

Would that be in any way similar to someone calling for Kallum Watkins to be retained on the wing at the expense of two time dream team winger Scott Donald, after a single performance V Huddersfield last season? (Watkins was in the team because Hall was away on International duty)

Should you and did you take that poster to task?

i recall another try by scott donald in 2008 against hull at hq howmany players did he beat without any assists from anyone ?
he scored quite a few that year that were his own.

To the people who slagged him off in his first season, I will point in the direction of his walk about centre that year (unless someone already has) Chev Walker. You have to remember that Donald was trying to do the defending of two men that year because Walker was nearly always rushing out of the line to try and do an awesome hit, but more times than not missing, leaving poor Donald to mark 2 men.

I don't buy that about it all being Chev's fault.

He'd always had weaknesses in his game and I'm not convinced they got notably worse in 2006 but many chose to only see/comment on them once he announced he was leaving that year. A convenient scapegoat for an underperforming side.

Besides which things like being chased down by allegedly slower players when put into space or hesitating when given a tight chance to go in at the corner are nothing to do with his centre's defensive positioning and all to do with fitness, confidence and familiarity with the position.

Donald's first season problems were unsurprising in my view - he was seemingly already low on confidence after a torrid time at the start of the previous NRL season and then being dropped to reserve grade for the remainder of the year; he joined a new team the other side of the world; was asked to play on an unfamiliar flank in a slightly different role; had a virus just before the season (IIRC?) and was playing in an underperforming side. For mine he tried hard and worked hard but it just didn't 'click'.

I think you will find that particular poster was suggesting Watkins be rewarded for a fine performance on the wing (something not yet seen from BJB) rather than Donald be penalised.

What that does show is that, unlike some posters on here, that poster is prepared to give an unbaised appraisal of any player, even if its' a player that particular poster likes and has praised before.

We need more posters like that. That poster makes this board a better, more informed place. That poster is a wonderful person.

Have you ever slept with that poster?

I stand by that original opinion!!

It's the only person.