Murph is solid at the back, but never is our defence so disjointed as when Grix isn't at the back

You just can't get away from the (unseen) work he does

This.

There's no getting away from the fact that Grix's performances are becoming inconsistent at best and for me, he is our weak link.

He seems to come up with errors that do end up costing us points.

I think for us to push on and become real challengers next year, Grix is someone who would have to move aside. And this is not scapegoating as I think there are also a couple of other 'established' players that may have to do the same.

And I also hate the fact that when anyone expresses an opinion about Grix, the old 'scapegoat' retort comes out. An opinion is what it is, but surely the fact that more and more people are starting to share the same opinion says a lot.

I think the problem is that it's not so much the player that gets the blame as the position

Thorman at 1 was the cause of all woes previously, even Brett Hodgson copped it and now Grix

Fullback at the Giants is a bit of a poison chalice, unless we can clone Paul Reilly or Wally Gibson

If murphy moves to FB we finish further down the table as we will score fewer points per game. If we get rid of grix we need to replace him with someone with a bit of creativity - and much as I like Murphy he creates nothing. That's fine playing Bradford in a foot of mud but not on a hard clear pitch.

grix did ok for me yesterday, made a couple of errors but who doesn't? but as much he does a decent job on the whole, but for me,we need a bit of class at full back,something I don't think we have with grix,

anyway I heard he is free to leave at the end of the season, he is a decent player but just too inconsistent for me.

If we had to replace Grix i would love to see someone like Hanbury brought in, but apart from being a confidence player Grix is fine for us - yes i would like him to be a more attacking threat but he isn't and is at times a more than capable Full-Back. Saying that though i wont be disappointed if we let him go.

When Grix isnt at fullback, we arent as fluent in attack or organised in defence.

If he is to be replaced then it will need someone VERY good to replace him imo.

murphy by all accounts with broughton occupying murph's wing spot.

as good as murph has been this year, I stil think we need someone with that extra bit of class at full back, that young lad at HKR looks good sometimes

the stats on eden and grix make interesting reading.... to say eden was error prone just look at whos made the most errors this season...

def think murphy is the way to go next season at full back with broughton on the wing.

when you look at other teams full backs, tomkins, hardaker, hodgson, hanbury, escare, mcdonnell, eden, kearney, dorn, lomax

can you honestly rank grix in the same bracket as some of those? you kind of see where we can improve as a team. not scapegoating just think its part of where we can improve as a team

I agree with this and it was something I was going to raise earlier. If we were to release Grix, I don't think any of the top 8 would be rushing to sign him.

Regarding the fluency in attack, I must be really missing something here. For me, he gets caught too often with ball in hand. Yeah, he scores a few when backing up and that is one of the positives of his game, but we have other players who are arguably as good at this (brough, Patrick, even Eorl)

There are a lot of toddlers who have never seen Leeds beat Huddersfield.

there were plenty of adults not seen Huddersfield beat leeds until 2003! let em suffer

meh, to be honest I think your win at Headingley was much better and worthy of celebration.

For saying the side you beat a couple of days ago I reckon is at least 9 changes short of our best side, effectively 10 once you consider JJB left the field within 10 minutes.

Still, good win for you. Just hope we can meet you in the playoffs at full strength to inflict some revenge.

I agree with your first statement, not convinced you could make nine significant strengthening changes (not arguing you could make 9 changes just not convinced all would make a huge difference). Your real significant losses imo were Watkins, Sinfield and Bailey and there is no doubt those three would make a difference (you could argue Moon also, but he was suspended not injured, so no sympathy there).

It was a good win for the Giants as the team Leeds put out still had plenty of quality, enough quality to finish top six if that was your full team imo. I think the result impacts on the likely final order of the top 4. Despite losing to Wire, Wigan should be first, it is close 2/3 between Giants and Wire and Leeds will likely finish 4.

Of your youngsters, Sutcliffe looked good, Keinhorst and Singleton were ok but look like future squad guys. Minns struggled, but he had the most daunting task directly facing Leroy, good coaching and support and although no doubt a tough experience for him, it could prove invaluable in the long term.

Thought Leeds youngsters did themselves justice on Sunday despite the margin of the final score but Sutcliffe was the pick of the bunch. Twelve of the seventeen could be said to be named regularly in the 19 man squad so I believe on the performance they gave they will still beat a lot of teams. The Leeds youngsters would walk into a lot of Superleague sides.
The Giants weren't at their fluent best and I think will improve for Friday night hopefully.

Sutcliffe looked great, think it was Singleton's worst performance so far, but then again he played far more minutes and was given much more of the workload compared to the last few weeks. Keinhorst I'm not sure will make it at Leeds while Minns is more naturally a winger than a centre.

Of all the players missing (Watkins, Moon, McGuire, Leuluai, Jones-Buchanan, Sinfield, Ward, Delaney and Bailey) I suspect only McGuire & Ward would not have had a significant strengthening effect on the side.

That said, it's good to see we now have (in Liam Sutcliffe & Stevie Ward) replacements in place for Sinfield & McGuire when they do go. I suspect Burrow will prove much harder to replace.

As for League position, our game against Wire in two weeks now looks crucial as does the final game against Wigan. You boys keep it together and we could be there to hand you the LLS in September.

Murph is one of the 1st names on the team sheet for me these days. Safe under the high ball, strong in defence and a brave runner with ball in hand. Sounds like a pretty good FB to me.

And the points we lose by not playing Grix I think Broughton will more than make up for.

Broughton is to magically get the ball...... We need a link, other teams often use a ball playing FB or loose- we don't have the latter. I'm not saying grix is brilliant but we need him as we have a lack of creativity elsewhere in the side. Brough is already a target - but with no other options for the ball to go teams would just have to focus on brough and they've won the game. It frustrates me that people don't realise that the reason we are doing well is not because we have top players but because PA is a smart tactician who has put together a well BALANCED side.

That's all true Jools but we are strongly linked with Chris Bailey a loose forward who can play stand off. Could that indicate a bit of a change of system. Not all modern full backs are link players, Sam Tomkins can link but is most dangerous as a runner, same applies to Lomax from what IS have seen, Zak Hardaker is very much a runner.

Murph has shown he can read the game, pick a line and finish. If we have a ball playing loose that could still give us balance?

Tomkins is Wigan's top try assister. Lomax is 3rd for Saints, Hardaker 4th for Leeds. Every team has a full back in the top 5 for try assists except one. Most in the top 3. 4 teams have a full back as top try assister.

We are the only team whose full back isn't in the top 5. Grix is joint 6th, ironically with Murphy.

I still wouldn't play Murphy at full back nor play Broughton ahead of Murphy on the wing.

If Grix is moved from fullback it will be noticed immediately and not in a good way.

Murph is solid but he simply doesn't organise our defence as well, isn't as good a ball player

Grix is the best fullback we have, Broughton isn't an improvement over him either.

I agree, personally i wouldn't sign Broughton. We aren't short of wingers and he isn't better than either of our two starters. The cap money would be better spent elsewhere ie half back where we really need someone to help out Brough.

you are assuming we are keeping our two "starters".

Of course I'm assuming that but then again so is everyone else. Given the choice I'd keep Grix, Murphy, Mcgillevary as our back three. If one leaves then replace them but i wouldn't bring in Broughton to replace any of them if the option is to keep them. I'd be disapointed to see either Mcgillevary or Murphy go and I think we would struggle to replace Grix without paying money that would be better spent elsewhere in the team. The likes of Tomkins, Hodgson etc won't come cheap.

id like to see next season

murphy FB
mcgillvary wing
broughton wing

and bailey at loose



with ferres and chan..taai on the bench. and still have other options with lawrence etc