I tipped a move to the NRL, I hope he goes, if he went to the Roosters a back 3 of Tupou, RTS and BJB would be pretty special.

Ah.

I can't believe anyone would rate Calderwood as better than Hall. Or even close TBH.

Sad if BJB leaves. If its because Leeds signed Briscoe then I'd be a tad upset. if as suggested he was always looking to leave at the end of this year, then sobeit. I hope he stays in RL. The NRL would require him to improve his defenceand particularly the high ball - but who knows perhaps he can make it. That may be more likely than RU - if someone wanted him for the World Cup they'd rather have him this year.

It's a shame such a good player is leaving. I don't think we signed Briscoe because we knew BJB was leaving, I think we signed Briscoe because he's a top quality player who was available. That doesn't happen very often.
I think our rotation of the backs and earlier in the season making him available for loan (Wakey being the most likely place) was an attempt to keep him "happy" and to get him to stay.

If, as seems likely, our signing of Briscoe (and him becoming first choice winger quickly) was the catalyst for BJB's leaving then that's a shame but if I had to choose between Briscoe and BJB I'd pick Briscoe, so in that sense it's still a good signing.
It also makes me think the club are pretty confident in keeping both Watkins & Hardaker.

Agre re the latter - if Hardaker was leaving in the near future I'd assume Leeds would do their best to keep BJB for fullback. I like Watkins at Leeds but wonder how good he could become if he played in the NRL. Hardaker would probably make it as well BTW, and if it was a choice between NRL and RU I'd pick NRL every time.

Calderwood was an excellent defender - for a winger. His ability to trap opposing players often in one on one situations in-goal was exceptional. His kick chase to get there in the first instance was second to no other winger I've seen play the game before or since.

Donald has been mentioned but I always found him to be a lazy chaser preferring to hold the line rather than using his speed to trap an opponent in-goal. Very much back to the Cummins approach before him.

Jones-Bishop is a good player and should not have had to play second fiddle to Ward at centre in Moon's absence. That decision may have proved to be the final straw.

Without any clue as to where he'll end up I'm going to say Huddersfield.

It's a shameto lose such a talented player and I wish him well, unless he is going to Wigan that is

Spot on tvoc. I am pretty sure that had Calderwood not left and had done more than the two great years with us, that the view from many other posters would be completely different. It's purely the fact of how long that effects peoples perception and memory. This is where the word fickle is best used.

I don't necessarily agree Him. The press release says BJB turned down a new contract last year. It could quite as easily be that the club signed Briscoe as they knew BJB had turned down their offer.

I can just see GH sitting down at the table with agents called showmethemoney. Yuk!

I'm not overly confident we will retain Hardaker beyond his deal but obviously hope we do.

I think some posters on this thread are judging Calderwood by his post-Leeds decline rather than his actual time at Leeds. I wouldn't put him ahead of Hall or Bai, but 2005 Calderwood was easily better than Donald and BJB (IMO).

Unfortunately Calderwood didn't kick on with his career, a bit like Lee Smith who once looked like turning into England's full back after the 2008 GF.

Don't take b*ll*cks. They're many players who had only a few years with Leeds that are highly thought (David Furner ring a bell?), and it's not even a case of Calderwood not being rated, he was but just because they don't think he was as good as you thought it must be some time related altered perspective, grow up.

Quite frankly, he was a very good player for us but he was a part of the quite dominate '04/'05 whereas someone like BJB, his two main years were '11 & '12 in a team that struggled and finished 5th in table.

Calderwood (given his position) was given a much greater platform on in which to look good compared to someone like BJB. If you swapped both players so that they played in each other's 'era's' then it would've looked fairly similar.

That's quite a statement, from someone who said the player could not tackle for sh*t, and since being show up to know nothing of what he is talking about on the subject.

Now goes on to say he was a very good player.

Don't try and turn something into me not being happy, when I have being clear all along that people are entitled to their own opinion. Even my first comment on Calderwood, clearly said the best that I had seen, i.e. my own opinion.

You were the one taking exception to my opinion.

I highlighted one area of his game (players have many different areas to their game just so you know), this doesn't disqualify them from being a good player still. Sinfield's speed and elusiveness for a halfback is poor but he's a great player. Burrow's passing from dummy half is far from great yet he's a quality player. You understand?



I didn't take exception, I offered my own opinion on Calderwood, you've couldn't stand that.

Also it's a bit rich saying people are entitled to their opinions and then turning around and saying things like they only think that because he didn't play for Leeds long enough, or try downplay by saying you clearly haven't been supporting very long otherwise you'd see things correctly/differently.

Really? well we only need to go back a few pages to remind ourselves.

In response to my opinion of saying best I have seen, you said.



I can't have my opinion was what you stated. I can't have.

In response to me then just simply showint the stats of Calderwoods last season to show you he was a great defender, you then proceeded to post;



I was reaching new depths, reaching new depths just for showing why I stated he was an excellent defender, and gave proof of this. Again you couldn't accept myopinion.


Now you are then going off on a tangent and saying I am having a go at people for a different opinion. Yet it's only a few post up what I said which is:



Not they do, or they are, but I am pretty sure. In other words I think, again an opinion.


I am unsure to what aim you are trying to create a little girly argument to be honest. Opinions are opinions, only you are taking it further, with incorrect statements, and then trying to say something else.

Yes, "you can't".....

.......as in you can't be serious, not you can't say that it's not allowed (I'm not a mod that was on the verge of banning you). I thought that would be fairly obvious, but seems you've taken it as me trying to ban free speech.



I could accept your opinion, just didn't think much of it. You trying to claim you've not criticised ANYBODIES view on players? Wasn't you calling G1 cowardly and using terms like handbags to him just the other day? Hmmmm.



You also said "it's purely the FACT of how long (Calderwood stayed) that effects people's perception and memory".

Is this a FACT?

How this any different if not worst than my "you can't say that", psycho analysing peoples views making out that their opinion is based on poor judgment, bias and memory?

Do you?

That figure for Calderwood came from 27 SL Regular Round appearances and represents an average of 5.7 per game. This season Hall, Briscoe and Jones-Bishop are averaging 4.2, 3.9 and 5.2 respectively in the Regular Rounds and none of those possess anything close to the kick-chase ability and or enthusiasm of Calderwood, IMO.

Oh dear. I wouldn't want to bore people any more with Printers stubborn little boy impressions

I'll leave him to it, for everyone else's benefit. Even when shown the errors of his way, he still spits his dummy out.

So at those averages Hall and Briscoe would end up with totals of 113 & 105 respectively IF they played 27 games. A gap of 40-50 over a year is massive for a winger.

And as good as his kick chase was did every kick go to his side to chase, did he always get the tackle in or did the receiver not sometimes run back towards the middle to be tackles by others? Wasn't that 2005 team very dominate for most of the year thus the field position and possession they had to withstand not exactly in sync with wingers setting huge numbers for tackles? Do you believe that 8th placed Salford only missed 389 tackles in 2005 yet last years GF winners Wigan with a well known structured and tight defence missed 607?

It's like trying to debate with a child with you.

Always liked Calderwood. To be honest I know his kick-chase was good - as was his centre partner, but what made him special for me was his pace. He was one of the genuine speedsters we have ever seen - him, Phil Ford and a couple of others. He scored some special solo tries (as did Scott Donald to give him credit), the one against Wigan has already been mentioned and he was a great close in finisher as well. I have his signed 2004 playing shirt and I'm keeping it.
Funnily enough another great winger who was slated at times for his ability (or lack of) to deal with high attacking kicks under pressure.
In the pantheon of recent Leeds wingers I think he was not as good as Hall, slightly better than Bai and on a par with Donald (I think we got a better service out of Donald over time). Shame he left the club, but difficult to say if he wouldn't have been the same at Leeds as he was elsewhere. In which case he would ultimately have been a dissapointment.

One negative, if he had dropped on the ball properly at the end of the 2005 CC final we would have lifted the cup that year.

Salford have just confirmed on Twitter that they have signed BJB to start with them in 2015.

I wonder how he will go with Kevin Locke?!

The good Dr has just announced on twitter that Salford have signed BJB for next season

Good move for him as he's joining a team that will get better and better over the next few years. Not so good for his desire to play FB.

If Locke ends up on these shores........

yawn...........................