Bet Nathan Brown was not too happy either

Like you say, IF. Great chase fro mthe defenders. I had Hodgson an odds on scorer.

He bombed a similar one against Cas in the cup quarters. Richard Owen turned from a standing start, and caught Hodgson who was at full tilt, after giving him about 5 yards. He's slow, and thinks he's even slower than he is. On a similar note, nice to see Watkins running away from Wild, who is very quick. N.B. Wild had probably made 40-odd tackles at this point, but still.

tvoc - the squad size as an explanation for everything is full of holes. Have Leeds played 'well' at any point this year for the full 80 minutes? I've only seen televised games plus Wigan live, and if they've played well for more than 40 minutes in a game I've yet to see it. Nothing to do with squad size, just basically not playing very well. Not arguing that squad size can have an impact (it will over the course of the year) but the form of a lot of key players has been poor. We are obviously one forward down on where we expected to be due to Eastwood, but otherwise not sure where else we lack depth.

The difference to next season is due to the fact that Leeds won the GF last year. Given that, virtually the squad deserved another go this year. If the players are cruising a bit too much, or a few are off-form for long periods for whatever reason, then at some stage you have to start looking to make changes. Not wholesale but one or two new players each year is generally a good thing IMO. I seem to remember the dominant Wigan sides being fairly ruthless over the years in terms of renewing the team.

I'm sure we won't be miles away and I'm equally sure there are merits in what you say in response.

2007 to 2008 Leeds retained all the squad - result - back to back Champions.

2008 to 2009 Leeds lose four, sign one (who isn't a replacement for any of the four departing) - result so far - you know the rest.

Wigan is a good example of the type of pro-active management (albeit in a un-restricted era which must never return) that I would like to see adopted at Leeds. Identify a weakness and solve it. Leeds have (I assume) cap space, quota space and money in the bank but a depleted squad compared to the two championship winning seasons. Not what I want to see as second best was never good enough in the past and I doubt it will be good enough in the future either.

I am sure that the management know there is a shortage in the forwards for the squad. I'm surprised there has not been any announcements for next season, given that last year there was a quote from GH saying that we needed to move fast to get players from down under, as they start being taken up quickly

Do you not answer your own question in that paragraph?

Perhaps the squad strength been down is the reason players are out of form, because of lack of competition. Certain players are been picked, regardless of form.

He possibly does. It's all linked. Leeds have failed to perform over a full 80 partly due to players not performing and Leeds not quite having the players to help the team perform for the full 80

Brisbane is replying to my post on the previous page where I suggest the squad depth is hurting the performance through the lack of competition for places. We agree D.

Isn't it the coach's responsibility to get the best out of the players and get them playing well?

It is, but it could be hampered if he doesn't have a decent enough squad to be able to make changes in the match day 17.

He has though Gareth says so........................

My mistake obviously.

We only have 17 contraced players at the club.

Come on Richie jump on that spelling mistake.

He'd need to be able to spell to spot it.

I wouldnt aim that low, clearly you do it to ramp up your posts, I generally prefer to post something more constructive.

McClennan has fewer of these contraced players available to him this season than last though.

By the 18th Leeds game of last season he had used a combination of thirty players as opposed to this season's twenty four at the same stage (which doesn't yet include the famous victory over Castleford, with fourteen players unavailable.)

If you took away the anomalies by imposing a three games or less qualifier the totals would be twenty eight (200icon_cool.gif to twenty one (2009)

You were trying to be clever and, as usually, failing abysmally.

You were trying to explain to me caveats and contract law.

You also referred to me as a plank.

Therefore, your inability to spell something you pretended to have a much more profound understanding of than I was very relevant.

Oh, and I do know a little bit about contract law by the way. In fact, I may not be considerably richer than yaw but I do know more about contract law than yaw.

How many contracted players did Mclennan have available last year compare to this?

i would have thought it was the quality of contracted players available rather than the number

Nibble Nibble CHOMP!!


Contract law, how do you switch off from the thrills of such a fast paced working envoroment!!

Contracted players throughout all grades?

Or the ones he might conceivably select at first grade level?

After eighteen games last season (this exact point) he found thirty as opposed to the current twenty four. Does that look like it equates to the same pool of 1st grade options available?

Is it more to do with the Coach not dropping the under performers? IMO we have plenty of options. Although 2nd Row and Props are a weakness and I presume this is what your eluding to?

You can only really drop a player if the player waiting for his chance is likely to be at least as good as the player he is replacing. The coach appears to have less options this season than he had last season.

Even if the CEO is happy with the overall squad he has assembled (previously stating it is capable of meeting the club's aspirations this year) the coach hasn't shown the same amount of faith in the fringe players this season over last to this point.

I'd say that's as much about the need/desperation to find consistency and form imo.
I think if we'd of done the job at odslum over easter he'd of shown confidence in a few of the fringe players for the salford match but he felt he needed to field as strong a side possible to get at least 1 win over easter which as we all know failed.