People keep comparing Brierley to a young McGuire. He's inferior in every way to any version of McGuire.

Depends how young, I guess.

McGuire was playing in an all conquering SL team though.

Brierley in a championship team who constantly shoot themselves in the foot with daft penalties.

In our set up with this new attacking style I think he'd be more than fine.

Sure he would be fine. But nothing outstanding. IMO Sutcliffe has more of a running game than controlling game. Think next year Mags will have to replace sinfield as the controlling half

Leigh's other half back looks better.

I was working at v festival this weekend in the VIP section. In there I got chatting to Mickey Higham and Lee Briers (fair to say both had had a drink or two- though pretty friendly and wanted to chat rugby league for a good half hour)

I asked mickey about Brierly and he said there are/have deff been talks between us and him though obviously wouldn't say any more (he probably didn't even know any more). But what was more interesting is that he said he has next to no game management. He said he had flare and maybe learning off Mags for a season will bring his game on playing at a higher level but he's the kind of half that needs someone like Briers around him.

I think we all pretty much knew Leeds had made some contact with Brierly. And to be fair, players don't usually know much about other player's contacts or futures. Also why the hell would he tell me a stranger at a festival. And I think it was pretty clear for us all to see he wasn't the one pulling the strings for Leigh but the way the conversation ended was mickey and briers saying how much they rated Sutcliffe and how on field he is a real real talent.

Just found the conversation interesting to hear from an actual players point of view.

Actual players point of view that he has signed for Leeds next season if Leigh don't come up.

It will be interesting to see his game change when coming to Leeds and playing with McGuire / sutcliffe in the halves will maybe give him more management skills as you say above.

Don't particularly like Leigh was hoping they wouldn't get promoted. With the above news hoping they get promoted and we avoid signing Breirley

You may as well sign him you have all the other best players

I don't think anyone on here thinks he's a "best player" . You have to remember we are losing Sinfield, peacock , Kylie and we have two players out long term .one won't be back until middle of next year. On top of that McGuire and Burrow are ageing and we don't know how Sutcliffe will be after his long absence.
Makes signing a HB a useful acquisition ,though still not as important as our need for a hooker.

In fact, Hull KR will have our best RL player next season...

If we don't sign a HB or hooker then what odds on Sinfield doing what Lee Smith did.....left after the 2009 GF for RU, back with us because of our injury problems by Easter 2010.

I mean he'd still be around Headingley/Kirkstall everyday anyways.

I'd say zero. Every time he's been interviewed on the subject he's been at pains to stress that the union venture is always something he's wanted to do. And while that's fairly standard for players to make these kind of claims whenever a new contract's involved I think Sinfield is one who can certainly taken at his word.

More chance of another stalwart going the way of Sinfield once fit.

This ^^^

Also I don't think Sinny has a backward step in him. He's made his mind up to give Union a go and He won't back away from that.

The more I think about this, the greater the difficulty I have in seeing how this is going to work. Like many others, I think Brierley will be deficient at this level, at least until he gets more game time. But Sutcliffe needs the game time too. And the team needs McGuire, for one more season at the very least. If I wasn't being told different by posters like yourself who clearly have some inside info, I'd say that this was a deal that definitely wasn't about to happen, regardless of Leigh's progress (or lack of).

Not just that, Sinfield is 35 next month, this is the right time for him to go while he is still close to the top of his game.And there is every chance he will leave raising all 3 trophies, what an abiding memory that would be and very fitting.Sinfield is too smart to tarnish that imo.

I can not see how anyone can say he will be deficient at this level without seeing him there. The best to compare to would be Burrow, as he has the same sort of game as him. However, Brierley has a better pass in him, and a better kicking game. They are equally pacey, and both a running game. For me as a replacement for Burrow, which I think he will be, will be an excellent move.

Just to clarify, when you say "replacement for Burrow" do you actually mean "replacement for McGuire come 2017"?

Because the idea of playing Ryan Brierley as an interchange hooker scares the living bejesus out of me.

We've seen him play a few times at this level, i.e. against SL opposition. And while he was good against us in the CC last year and decent against Salford (I think) he's been a bystander to the point of being a liability in others. Now that in itself doesn't make him a bad player, it's what one would expect in a half making a big step up. But he's currently miles away from being the player Burrow is. IMO, of course.

It's also worth remembering that Sutcliffe is currently recovering from a very serious knee injury. There's no guarantee he'll come back the same player. With Sinfield leaving, Sutcliffe recovering from injury, and Jordan Lilley being a year or 2 away from being quite ready then signing someone like Brierley seems like the sensible option to me.

Yeah, obviously not an hooker. You are correct in your assumption, I was thinking more along the lines of a few years back, with Burrow at scrumhalf, McGuire at Stand off, and Sinfield at loose, and how this will be in the future, which I see Brierley taking the Burrow role.

And I don't accept Clearwings suggestion that he has been a bystander. When Leigh were on top, he was brilliant in the CC against Salford, Wakefield, and Warrington. He was brilliant the other week in the qualifers against Salford, and again against Wakefield this past weekend.

Whether he would be a success for Leeds, well only time will tell with that, but he is just the same sort of gamble as anyone else.

Agreed.
He's a young player who's already more than proved himself at Championship level for the best team at that level. IMO he's exactly the kind of player we should be looking at, as if we get him, we'll probably have him long term. The same can't be said for an NRL signing, other than maybe Widdop, and NRL signings, especially halves, have been notoriously hit and miss in SL.
If we're to take a risk (and I don't actually think he's a big risk at all) then I'd rather we took a punt on a young English lad like Brierley than an expensive NRL signing.

The only knock on Brierley I had was that I'd heard less than flattering things about his attitude and the people around him when he was at Cas.

If that's no longer the case, then the up side definitely outweighs the negatives.

A year or two ago I wouldn't have been sure as our attack was t suited. Now this season our attacking style is a great fit for a player of Brierley's style.

He hasn't got Sinfield's game management but if we sit around waiting for somebody who has then we'll be waiting a very long time for a HB.

Should remember he's playing for a different team in a different league. What he could learn and adapt to his game is capable of improving if he came here instead of a Leigh team who threw away a possible win vs Wakey with poor discipline. How much game management can a HB learn when his team stroll past most teams for the last few years. A 60-10 win doesn't require much game management now does it.