Leeds City Council staff have been offered a "unique opportunity to join players and staff from Yorkshire CCC and Leeds Rhinos at a special civic reception this Monday" through a ballot.

This includes the chance "to mingle with players" and "have a close up view of a special Q&A which will be hosted with players and staff by BBC Radio Leeds presenter Dave Callaghan."

Now, as a LCC employ (and thus entering the ballot) I was wondering if I get pulled out of the hat if there were any specific comments or questions that you wanted asking?

It is meant to last a couple of hours; I wonder how long it would last if you asked the questions that you really wanted to ask..?

The point is still valid - Arsenal have won one trophy in 6/7 years despite stability at the helm - lack of change hasn't proved to be that successful on the field. If you saying the lack of success on the field is because the club spent all the available cash on the stadium so there was no cash for players that could explain it. However that does't appear to be the case - it appears Wenger's reticence to splash out is more to do with the lack of quality on the field. Perhaps that is what Arsenal fans want, relative mediocrity played in a posh ground? Surely that is what the stability has delivered.

It's pointless because you'll never get a meaningful answer to anything. The only time you would ever get that is being close mates with a player or waiting for them to retire, release an autobiography and reading it for answers. Otherwise it's all just buzz words and towing the party line.

Aiton is nothing special. We looked a little better with him at hooker but other than that he seems a little weak in the tackle always seems to get bumped off. Had a long lay off, came back a worse player. Don't think his distribution is that brilliant and don't think he takes us around the park as well as some previous hookers. Maybe we have been spoiled Diskin, Buderus and Lunt but Aiton is a significant downgrade. Average hooker at best.

..............and yet hooker is one of the most important positions.

Agree with Exeter's comments. This year our two signings were Briscoe and Aiton. Briscoe was in many ways not needed (perhaps a marginal improvement in a position we were already strong in), and Aiton replaced Hood/McShane.

What I don't understand is why GH seems to target so many average forwards (Moore, Griffin, Hauraki, Aiton to a degree) despite the clear evidence that they hardly ever pay off.

It seems sometimes as though the aim is to have a big squad of forwards, despite the fact that the key men aren't genuinely rotated or challenged for a spot.

I'd have thought that we'd have been better both this year and last had we let go of several of our fringe forwards and recruited just one genuine first-teamer, leaving youngsters to fight it out for any gaps that injuries make.

Maybe he remembers the days when Tony Smith used to be able to get the likes of Wayne McDonald to score 70 metre tries against St Helens an Liam Botham could come on and do a job when we had injuries.

Wayne Mcdonald scored a 70metre try in 2003. Tony smith joined in 2004.

Wayne McDonald was outstanding in 2004, as was Danny Ward IIRC TS thought the Leeds front row should be selected for GB at the time. If you looked at the names in isolation You'd probably say we were weaker then than we are now. For me it's the difference in quality in the back row that's the most noticable. 2004 we had Furner, Ali, Sinfield, and Poching, McKenna, and a young JJB. IMO that pishes over what we have now.

Plus Senior at centre and McGuire and Burrow as support players par excellence. Simple fact is, a team like that doesn't come along too often.

I believe my use of the term "the likes of" covers me here. As in someone like Wayne McDonald that may or may not actually be Wayne McDonald.

Andy Yates?

Add Luke Ambler as well

More frustrating is a case like Amor. From the outside it is baffling why Leeds didn't or wouldn't find a space for him.

I agree, has looked a far better player since he left us, has had his injury problems but his coach has had faith in him and it now shows, and with signings like Moore, Griffin, Hauraki, Ambler, Pitts and the baffling sight of Kirke and Bailey still with us, its difficult to see how a place couldn't have been found for him to develop at Leeds

Coaches at clubs with a high demand for performance and silverware don't have the time to bed a player in and let him develop.

Amor was able to do that at Wakefield, because with the greatest respect to Wakefield if he had a stinker it wasn't jeopardising their chances of winning silverware.

Leeds couldn't allow him to do that. It's a major problem when signing players from outside SL - they have to be able to hit the ground running otherwise they're out the door.

But Leeds did let him do that...on loan at Wakefield. It was an elegant solution, and at the end of his loan season Amor twice played against Leeds and twice was one of the two outstanding props on the park (along with Peacock).

Mystifyingly, Leeds did not force their option on him and allowed him to stay at Wakefield when he was already fully-formed.

Cap space?

Still mystifying when any one of several clearly inferior forwards could have been offloaded to free up that space.

Amor is the ONLY youngster we've let go that we should have kept and perhaps maybe Jody Broughton at a push, but on the whole we tent to keep the wheat and discard the chaff.

Different reasons for leaving, but we could have done with keeping Luke Burgess as well.

Two young former Leeds props contesting grand finals over the next week gives lie to the idea often quoted on this board that on leaving Leeds the only way is down.

Luke Burgess has made a decent fist of it in the NRL but i don't think he is a regular in the Souths 17 these days and i dont believe he will be playing the GF at the weekend.I wouldn't be surprised with Sam leaving if he looked for a return to the UK.Maybe a return to us down the line?

agree Amor should have been brought back.One that really did get away but on the whole we don't have too many players who have been released to go onto greater things.

Maybe i keep making this point on other threads but we had a Grand final 17 when neither Adamson or Dunners could get in that to me means that was our best ever squad . Aiton , Briscoe , and Achurch are not up to the job in my opinion and the crop of youngsters coming through are less than average talents from what we have seen plus none of the youngsters on loan at London or Bulls have impressed. Oh for the days when we offloaded at will and players like Webby , Danny and Robbie were fighting amongst themselves to be backing up the breaks . The results are poor but even worse the entertainment value has rapidly gone down the last couple of years and that is just as much going to lose supporters . The last 11 years has been a pleasure and i for one will never forget and will be indebted to G.H and the Golden generation but they should not take us for fools , the next few years at least will be tough being a Rhino

GH would have been much further under the cap than the cost of Amour

Maybe those to be offloaded to accommodate Amor would have been on less than him or possibly already contracted in which case (a) it would have cost money to pay off the contracts & (b) that money would have counted against the cap.
But in all honesty unlike so many on here I'm not privy to the contract costs of all our players & therefore how close to or far away we are from the salary cap ceiling.