Although I, as well as many others, am finding this season with little to no enjoyment I am not going to blast management about what they haven't done for next year until all is revealed. Ask me again in December and if there has been no to little excitement added then I believe we will be in a position to have a moan but here in August complaining about 2024 doesn't sit well with me.
I'm hoping RS & GH have an ace (or three) yet to play.

RS has convinced GH that he is an expert at polishing turds. All I see is his ability to attract and sign turds.

Are you deliberately forgetting about McDonell and Macdonald

And the moving of Walters and O’Conner into positions where they have got better.

Add in Ruane, Warren, Hooley, Roberts, 3 of those late teens early 20’s. See how they go in second season as full time pro’s

Clearly we haven't played as well as we could for most of this season. But its quite possible that by the start of next season there might only be Myler, Fusitu'a, Newman, Handley, Oledzki, Martin and Smith remaining out of the first choice 17 when he arrived. That means we will have moved on the vast majority of the senior players that were here just over a year ago. Which is exactly what a lot of us suggested needed to happen.

No doubt some of the guys would have been toxic to a sporting team once they knew they were/are leaving. Even if not, they most likely are good friends with other players. Would it be a huge surprise if morale amongst the squad wasn't brilliant during this process?

I'm not saying Smith hasn't made mistakes, but assuming we bring in some real quality this season, the shake-up of the squad in a year and a half will have been enormous. I'm not sure many coaches could have kept everyone playing to their best in that situation, and I assume GH brought him in to do exactly this.

We are down to 5th now, so no.

Exactly

Many if not most fans wanted a clearcut of dead wood and wasted Salary cap, if anyone thinks that can happen A. Quickly and B. without some upheaval and unrest they are kidding themselves.

Smiths Biggest test is when he has got rid of those players and brought new ones in, he will live and die by that a bit like Powell has at Warrington. The biggest difference between Powell and Smith is that Smith is at least looking to the future with the younger players, can't say the same with Powell and Warrington as a club either.

That is my point - if the opposition are a better side all you can expect is the team to play to its potential - I don't expect them to win every week I hope they will play as well as they can. Not sure that is happening TBH

Double Mac one is just plain burger the other more a veggie not enough beef.

When we mathematically can't get into the playoffs then I'm hoping some of the academy players are put into the side to test their arms a bit. Give them a sample of what they're aiming for.

Good job Leeds are a grade A club or they could be struggling to stay in SL given the recent performances when the IMG reconfig happens.

Not sure there are many academy players who have a long term future at the club in SL. Who are you suggesting? Don't forget even if this year is a write off for us it wont be for the teams we are playing so the intensity and physicality will not drop off.

Upheaval and unrest, we have had several seasons of upheaval and unrest. I rather not experience anymore of that thank you very much.

Keep buying season tickets people it will get better next season........or maybe the one after or whatever

You do what you like but don't tell me what I should be doing. I'm sorry if I'm not a whinging fairweather supporter that can only get behind my team when they are winning.
I dispair reading on here these days, think I'm going to take a break from this forum

No need to do that. I'd say 98% of the posting on here is pretty polite even if it encapsulates many different viewpoints. The other 2% (mentioning no names) is downright juvenile. There's an ignore button at the top right of every post. I've only ever used it once but I found it pretty effective in reducing the craziness.

There's so many guises people will hide behind and those same posters use the same dialect,good for you take a break because the truth is too painful for you, this is a forum and is inclusive to everyone and their opinion is as valuable as the next or are you the doyen?

Given how the club has gone since 2017 it is hardly surprising there is a down beat feel to this board at present. A club the size of Leeds with the resources available to it should not be turning out the quality of rugby it is and has been for a number of years.

There are obvious issues on the rugby side of the business that cannot be swept under the carpet - poor recruitment, lack of development in the academy, poor coaching options etc. Even the most positive of posters - like Chris - cannot ignore the tangible evidence presented before them.

I think most posters on here mean well ,myself included. The club’s situation is dismal at the moment ,but nothing like the time half the south stand after one game marched over the pitch to hurl abuse at the bemused occupants of the north stand. The directors at that time had steered the club into virtual bankruptcy. Fortunately they managed to give way to Caddick who eventually brought in Hethrington the rest as they say is history. So I am always loathed to put the boot into the club management. However we are in a downward spiral with no signs of a halt to this situation.
I will always support the team but another couple of seasons of the current garbage ,could potentially cause some major financial problems.
As for Smith reluctantly I would let him continue next season, if no improvement is shown then fire him. That may well be even three or four games into the new season. Obviously we urgently need to strengthen the team in key areas, easier said than done. Remember the good old days when you could pick up decent players relatively easy , Moon from Salford a classic example.

That’s a pretty fair and reasonable assessment of the current situation. Probably the frustration is compounded by the excellent finish last season.
Then we followed up this season with utter garbage, added to the fact no decent players were brought into the club.

To be fair, it's all been a bit disappointing with Smith.
We literally scraped into the top 6 in the last game last year.
Then, granted, we had 2 very good away wins at Cats and Wigan.
But in all honesty, we were never in the GF. It was comfortable for Saints.
This got everyone excited about a new era, but really papered over the cracks.

This year has been a total disaster.
We've had our near full strength squad available for a lot of games, but have been absolutely dreadful most of the time.
Yeh a couple of decent wins along the way, but pretty much dreadful.
Smith has been exposed at times as unable to get the best out of a team.

FWIW, there's no point sacking him now.
I think we'll do what Warrington did with Powell.
He'll be given the chance to bring in some of his own signings in the off season to mould his team.
Then, he'll be given until July next season.
If we're doing well and have progressed, he'll stay.
If we're still struggling, he'll be sacked.

Having said all that, can't see our board splashing the cash the way Wire have done, but we'll see....

I think he is brilliant at bringing young players on but I'm not convinced his a coach at this level

Personally, I'm still undecided if hes the right person for the job but I just don't think hes had enough time to be completely judged on whether he is a good or bad coach.

Back end of last season we were great and managed to get to the grand final, this season we have been very inconsistent, sometimes great, sometimes shocking but like has been mentioned before, its not like we're getting hammered every week, just losing by small margins.

Like was mentioned above, i think he has half a season to prove himself and get the team playing consistently.

I also dont believe its right to put all the blame on Smith, some of the players performances, especially senior players, have been shocking.

Generally with a coach its difficult to judge until the team is really 'theirs'. That's certainly not the case with Smith. He signed mainly project players, with only a few of the first 17 having joined under him, and none in the really important positions, unless you count O'Connor as his pick.

Smith has overseen the departure of some of the players responsible for multiple years of dross. Players who were rubbish under multiple coaches but somehow stayed around as coaches came and went. This clear-out had to happen if we were to really move forward. Hard choices on moving players on had been avoided for far too long, and what could have been managed in a gradual way over multiple seasons has had to happen fast. This has undoubtedly affected morale and while I really don't like results this year, we've not been drawn into the relegation battle and should be in position to move forward next season.

I think its unfair to judge Smith too harshly on this year. He was brought in to turn the club around. The real test will be who he brings in, and how the team performs with his picks in key roles. It will be perfectly fair to judge him on how we go next year. Unless we sign another bunch of squad fillers....