Seem to remember plenty of criticism about a young Kallum Watkins defence at 17 year old and things turned out fine and dandy.

Newman is a tremendous prospect, sheer class in my opinion having watched most of his games in 16s and 19s.

He had a tough time against Cas, mainly because he had no protection on high kicks. Our wingers got no blockers at all last year and the Cas game was just the same and also the players inside him left him isolated 2 on 1 by jumping the line or missing tackles.

He is a kid and a very talented one and he will be very good for Leeds in the future. He just needs to settle into team gradually.

Agree Marty.

Agreed but Watkins was playing every week when he was Newman's age - so he was learning with the proper players. Newman is a prospect Watkins was a once in a generation player. It was approx. 20 years between Chev making his debut and Kallum - the two outstanding centres Leeds have produced in the SL era.

You mean 10 years, not 20?

I don't know if the club can take too much credit for producing players in some cases. Watkins would probably have performed equally well had Wigan, Saints or Wire signed him. Luck of the draw sometimes - although I do think Leeds current academy system is superb.
Newman has lots of potential, but I also like the look of Broadbent and Joe Burton too. We could do with an out-and-out winger coming through.
The only Academy player I think is in the "early breakthrough" bracket in the current system might be Holroyd, although Oledzski came through early too.
Lads who can play open age competitively at 16/17 are few and far between (although they often make it). Cas have built some success on players Leeds lost patience with.
Looking ahead to the game, I really haven't a clue how well Leeds are going to match up. A more conservative option on the wing would be Golding, who can take a high ball and defend.

I have no problem with the trys from Kicks, the first one must give credit to Clare who jumped and catched the ball superbly. The ones where he simply marked up nobody and attempted to tackle nobody are the ones of concern, the last try by Mcshane he almost seemed to move out of his way, that does not look good, if he plays on the wing against Warrington they will target him and run riot, that will be no good for him and the fans will soon get on his back, the worry is he is to good for academy and probabley had it all his own way throughout his junior career, playing with the big boys now and it may take time to adjyst and get used to defending against powerfull skilled players rather than academy fodder, lots of work to do and it should not be in super league agaist title favourites. Playing on dual reg at Fev is still a huge step up.

The physical step from academy to first grade is huge to be fair. I still believe a proper reserves team would have been better for Leeds rather than dual reg - unless you really get into the infrastructure of the Championship club and partner with them. Too many stories currently of abandoned players and struggles adapting to different systems etc.
I'm not sure Newman will get the nod at wing anyway. Powell is a smart coach, he knew Newman is a young centre rather than wing, and he knew Watkins was in first game back from a bad injury, so it made sense to target that side.

Newman is a centre not winger. Watkins nor any other player offered any support to Newman under the high balls. I think Hall would have struggled to take the kicks with the lack of support Newman got from his team mates.

Likewise, in defence, Watkins, Sutcliffe and Lolohea were all equally to blame for the overlaps on the edge.

Newman is not a winger and it would probably be better to play safe against Warrington and put Golding on the wing although I suspect he would likely have similar struggles if there are no blockers for kicks or if he has to defend similar overlaps to what Newman had to defend against Cas.

I still believe Newman will be a very, very, good centre for Leeds in the future.

More advanced and cutting-edge wit. Perhaps you haven't noticed that Wigan have just been fined ( for the third time) for breaching the salary cap, Warrington have never breached the cap. Still, you need material for your ground-breaking comedy, I suppose.

perhaps you should tell one of your west Yorkshire based players to stop boasting about his extras then

Hmm only Cuthbo, Singleton and Oledzki in the squad as props with no Peteru or Crosby.
Interesting.

Hmm we look so so light upfront. I do wonder if Furner doesn't like the look of Peteru.

I read somewhere that Crosby was still recovering from off-season surgery, but agree Peteru absence seems strange. I know we're down to 8 interchanges from 10, but I'm not convinced that means the death of the wrecking ball prop.
We've heard a lot about the backrowers being able to play a bit under Furner - but who is going to take us forward first, other than young Oledzki…?

From the 19 we've named i reckon it'll be

Walker
T.Briscoe
Watkins
Hurrell
Handley
Lolohea
Myler
Oledzki
Parcell
Singleton
Ward
Sutcliffe
Merrin

Subs
Cuthbertson
Dwyer
Ferres
JJB

I'd like Smith to be in 17 but i feel JJB will get in because we only have 3 props so JJB will probably do a stint at prop for us, I think we are gonna need the likes of Hurrell, Watkins and Briscoe to be good for us coming out of yardage as our pack looks pretty small against a bigger Warrington pack, we've got a chance of at least competing with the team we've got now and hopefully we start season off with a good solid Away win at Warrington.

I'd be tempted to have Smith instead of Sutcliffe in the back row, maybe Sutcliffe on the bench as he can cover some back line positions.
I suppose Furner has to play to whatever strengths the current squad has.
I reckon our pack will be able to lift for the odd game but I don't think adding Merrin solves the issues we had last year when Garbutt didn't play.

Think Crosby still out injured. Don’t know about Peteru fitness wise, however I think he is quite suspect defensively. He appears to me to try and grab the ball carrier up high quite often which is not much use at top level, as will get shrugged off or carried for a lot of yardage.

Well I guess his future will be set over the course of 2019, along with many others as the rebuilding continues. Really if any overseas signing doesn't add more than a home-grown talent could, we've got it wrong. I would like him to do well this year though, he's a big thing and seems a good character.

We clearly lack grunt up front. No doubt about it. It's going to take time to bring in the right players though.

Although he has had bad luck with injuries Peteru has done nothing to warrant a place in the 17 imo. Oledzki, Cuthbertson and Singleton along with Crosby when fit are all in front of him. Not replacing Garbutt for whatever reason is going to be a struggle most weeks. If Oledzki can stay fit and carry on his improvement it will help but we are too lightweight up front imo.

Sorry my maths was out - man flu

Quire right he is a great prospect but nowhere near ready for SL as his defence is awful.

Strange decision on the kick off time IMO as it clashes with the biggest rugby game of this years 6 Nations so floating rugby fans will be watching Ireland v England on ITV

JJB is playing a role as a prop, he will be too slow and easy to commit in a wider 2nd row role, saw it last season, gives his all, gets knackered and then taken advantage of for shooting and being tired.

Still can add value, but needs to condense his chase a little and at prop that will work better than chasing out wide.

Saints are looking very good first 20 mins v Wigan. Walmsley drive, Thompson drive, play at pace off the platform. We just don’t have that ability at the moment.

Blimey, we haven’t even played yet why don’t we actually see how we go before getting all negative