Back on topic, it appears that we are saving the super league money for later in the season. Is this good strategy?

Well I hope you are right , we do seem short on fit guys at the moment , and hopefully a couple of quality signings in mind , I have faith in Derek and Duffs , but as you say is leaving it late a good thing , I’m not sure .

How do, been following for a while but this is first comment. Firstly would like to say in the 2 SL games and the 2 pre-season friendlies the pack has fronted up well and whilst it contains mainly solid, hard working forwards I don't see them getting bullied by many teams this year. Obviously Hood has something a bit special and wouldn't swap him for many 9s in SL.
Our issue is in the backline. Our halves don't have anything to worry any SL defence. No urgency, slow in speed of thought and pass. Kicking game lacks imagination and execution making us easy to defend against.
Warrington have twice shown up our weakness on our right edge. Every try they scored at the weekend came down that channel. Currie offload to King/Ratchford then on to support. All the same. We have injuries to two big name centres in Sau and Elliott and Brand has been exposed. Hopefully the returning centres will tighten that right edge defensively.
Brierley is a 3 times failed SL player and should be nowhere near our starting 13, particularly not at full back. He is a liability in defence and i have not seen a full back duck out of making a challenge like he did on Hardaker for Wigan's last try since i was about 12. Kids don't duck challenges like that. We may have nicked the win if he made the challenge on Hardaker at the break rather than backing off allowing him to wait for support.
I know Ellis has problems defensively but he at least offers something going forward and his kicking game is inventive and solid and he should be straight in for Wallace when fit and may give us something but i agree that a quality half back is obviously needed. However i think our priority should be a specialist full back who will tighten us defensively and offer something going forward.
Anyhow, thanks for listening and lets hope things pick up for us. I think we have the makings of a competitive team and with some injury returnees and one maybe two more signings in key areas we should be ok this year.

$450k = £250k.. He’s a marquee. Also a millionaire in his own currency.

That’s a fair assumption. We desperately need a kicking game to take the pressure off the forwards. The pack isn’t beaten it just needs two organiser to keep work from them. Good cover with Peats for Hood. Wallace not there yet, but played with the best. Reynolds hopefully more training this week and Brierley showing if needs must back to halfback.

Players coming back at the right point of the season is detrimental to Leigh’s survival in SL.

We start with new debutants Flower and Peats.. Here we go.

So we’re paying him £250k

where you got that info from - best be flipping good if true

You questioned him not being a Marquee! I said he was.. Prove me wrong..

Edit: $450k was his Titans contract. You still think hes here for peanuts?

Not sure I need to prove anything to anybody on here TBH & his previous contact proves nothing - he has been available for a while and no-one took him so likely his demands have reduced

Neither me nor thee know his salary, but it’s not surprising I have a different opinion to you - most others seem to be the same on any subject you try to be argumentative over

Fine by me. If you can’t back your opinion up, then no point making it.

Going back to the OP, I too can't help but feel underwhelmed by our half back options. I sincerely hope that we haven't settled with what we have as I fear that that could be our downfall when it comes to survival.

On the subject of full back, Brendan Elliot takes that role when fit and would be a significant improvement to our team IMO.

There should be enough cap space to sign some quality UK based non quota players
how about Leigh lad Dom Manfredi?
Do Transfer fees count towards the cap?

Any updates on return dates for Ellis, Mellor, Elliot, Sau and Russell

Mellor and Russell are in Sundays squad , so should be fit .

Looks like anyone carrying an injury is not being risked. Backs look very stretched in first half. Hopefully Mellor and Russel back for next SL game.

Can't see them being risked at Cas either. We still need to sort our halfbacks out too. Even Riddy wouldn't have been this bad today, even at his age.

Nowhere near good enough today, lacklustre, slow , pedestrian, all very apt words. We have the worst edge defence I have ever seen and if any clubs watch the video of the last 2 games we are easy pickings, consistently can’t defend simple shapes and opposition attack constantly has an overlap.

There isn’t another team in the league that would persist with Keenan Brand or Lewis Tierney, I’m not one for calling for a coach but the majority of what I see everyone can see and if he doesn’t fix it the blame lays squarely on him.

Our recruitment in the backs has been so pathetic it’s scary.

You are right on the money Binosh.
It is already time for us all to take off our rose tinted glasses. As much as it pains me to say it, this squad doesn’t have a hope in hell of staying in SL. If I am wrong then no-one will be more pleased than me to hold my hand up.
We have a very long hard season ahead. It is difficult to imagine who we are capable of beating.
We have in all honesty made some very poor signings - I don’t even think we would have broken any pots in the Championship based on what we have seen so far. To make matters worse, squads so short on quality tend to be much more injury prone, which simply exacerbates the problem.
I would however have some sympathy for John Duffy - he can only play the hand he has been dealt. Having said that I do assume he has had some say in the recruitment.

Have to agree. Apart from Hood, and Peats (I thought he did well today) , our spine is,well, spineless. Brand, Tierney, Wallace, Brierley, and Reynolds should be playing in the Championship. We get rid of McNally,(Riddy (I know he's getting older now), Higson, and get worse. Beaumont needs to wake up quickly and smell the coffee. This team is nowhere near the quality of the 2017 team.

Unfortunately our small squad is suffering from a lot of iinjuries, another today with Wallace. With all our first choice players in we would be competitive. Ellis and Mellor looked a good potential partnership in the St Helens game but we have not managed to get them on the park together since. Easy to criticise recruitment but you can only sign people that are available and we had to switch from building a championship team to trying to morph that into a SL team. With Mellor, Ellis, Bell, Russell, Sau and Elliot in the squad how much better would we perform? Was always going be tough ask this season, keep the faith Leythers.

With the exception of Peats and Sidlow the quality of signings has been distinctly underwhelming which unless the club already know that there will be no relegation or that a particular club is struggling to survive, is difficult to understand. To be blunt, the quality of signings shows a lack of ambition and is disrespectful to the fans who donated their season ticket money.
Having put so much effort and quality into the Super League application and with the squad already assembled, I was expecting that the million pounds to be spent on the addition of some top level, quality signings (which need not necessarily been quota players). Once again we seam to have blown our big chance.

Can we please sign a winger with positional sense.

[:1uflr0wiquote="Leyther14"Unfortunately our small squad is suffering from a lot of iinjuries, another today with Wallace.

In my view, this could be a blessing.

I think 10 or 12 points will be required to achieve 11th place. I cannot see this squad, as it is, winning more than three games. Action is required sooner rather than later. It would be folly to save cap for later in the season.
How can we expect to compete against teams who have spent full cap week in week out? This would require the players to play above themselves in every game, which is unrealistic.
With the extra million pounds we could have signed five players of real quality to ensure survival. It matters not if these players were ‘available.’ ‘Money talks!’
We need to spend to survive. which has been evident, and was the expectation of many (not only Leigh fans) since the successful Super League application. The response since has been a ‘damp squib’ to say the least, and has ramped up the expectation that we will be a championship side next season. Overtaken by Toulouse or Fev, and would their signings be so poor if that were to happen?
The squad of 2016 who achieved 11th place with six wins and 12 points was significantly superior in quality to the current crop.
Doc Koukash I think we need you!

Our edge defence hasn’t just become a problem, it has been an issue for a long time. It is now more exposed than ever because we have wingers (with the exception of Matty Russell) whose ability to make one-on-one tackles is very limited. This weakness is further exposed by playing such a condensed defence to prevent the forwards being overrun through the middle.
It isn’t just a matter of weak wing defence. If the whole back line is not capable of sliding quickly when the ball is moved wide there will be overlaps out wide every time, leaving our edges very exposed to exploitation by SL quality wide players.
Let’s not pretend Huddersfield are a top quality team, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what is happening and let’s not pretend that our problems can be solved by a few coaching tips delivered in a training session.

Will we win a league game this season ? I'm not so sure, sadly.