www.therhinos.co.uk/news/21990.php#.UqmF0icSAy4 No doubt this thread will kick up the usual Testimonial game dated 31st Jan, opponents TBC.

www.therhinos.co.uk/news/21990.php#.UqmF0icSAy4 No doubt this thread will kick up the usual Testimonial game dated 31st Jan, opponents TBC.

I hope he has a better year than the last one because tbf he started off ok then poor performances ,stupidty and injury curtailed it.
I look forward to the 31st though he's earned it overall imo.

Well he's getting plenty of publicity on the social media.I wonder if all the haters realise they really are helping him.

He was much better in 2012 when he got more starts under his belt with his run of being selected as starting Loose (extra prop really). His best game this year was probably Saints at home - a game he started (at prop in the absence of JP) - and one which we were cruising in and the wheels fell off shortly after he was replaced. When he starts as a sub he does have the tendency to get involved in the niggly way when introduced and their does seem to be a marked difference in his attitude and application when he's a starter compared to when he begins as sub.

If 2014 proves to be yet another sub standard year for Bailey GH should contribute the one way bus fare to London to his testimonial fund. Has been a waste of the salary cap for all bar 2 of his 10 year tenure. Lets hope that he can justify being given a testimonial in 2014 because he didn't justify his shirt in 2013.

You word that as though he's been done a favour.

He's on the eve of his 13th year in blue and amber. He's earnt it.

I presume you'll be buying his testimonial shirt.

He as been well worth is salary IMO. If he was such a waste of salary cap he'd have been shipped out years ago.

Too right he's been done a favour! In any other walk of life someone that had put in the minimum amount of effort over 13 years would be getting their P45 never mind a testimonial!!

As for buying a shirt, I'll leave that to those that have stupid avators, refer to him as TMFMISL & are daft enough to promote his pantomime villian persona. However, I will donate a single ticket to Barnet.

...and this just about sums up someone with a very two dimensional view of the game.

Bailey may have a 'pantomime villain persona' but he (and our coach) use this to our advantage.

How many times have we seen Bailey wind up an opponent? How many times have we seen opposition players go in extra hard/high/late on Bailey? How many times do we get awarded a penalty because of this?

He attracts attention when he's on the pitch, and while he's attracting attention he's detracting attention from somewhere else.

13 years playing top flight RL, international representation and more than a fist full of tacky gold rings suggests that this man does not exert the 'minimum amount of effort', quite the opposite in fact.

I used to fall for this argument aswell. And to an extent it was actually true for the most time. But times have changed. When even Barrie McDermott on national television was embarrassed by Bailey's actions on the field, then you really have to take notice of it. Look at the comments of other coaches and players alike, they don't seem to fit in any longer with this view of Bailey offering something.

I hold my hands up, personally I won't be giving a single penny to his testimonial. Not because of him personally, but as I have constantly posted on here, testimonials are too easy to come by these days. Peacock earned it, Sinfield earned it. Some others haven't IMO.

Gotcha-Given that the RL Testimonials are normally granted after 10yrs+ of service playing one of if not the most brutal and toughest sports in the world how have testimonials ever been granted to some who have "not earned it"?
Now i'm sure there are many many different views on RB but he's played for Leeds since he was kid won GF's with the Acadamy + 6 with the 1st team etc etc and whilst i accept last year especially he was pretty average at best does that really point to someone who "hasn't earned it"?

Rhinobucs--If you seriously believe he's put in "minimum effort" for the 13yrs he's been here then you haven't been watching enough ,long enough or even understood what you have watched.
Last year aside he's earned it whether you like him or not.

I can't agree that testimonials are given away too easily. THe fact that we've had so many lately is part and parcel of the privilege of the golden generation we've been watching.

There is nothing at all "easy" about holding down a place in a squad (and indeed the first team) consistently for over a decade in professional sport, and the feat is more impressive when accomplished at a club that has challenged for trophies consistently through that time.

Other clubs don't give away so many testimonials. The kind of mutual loyalty Leeds have built wityh this generation of players is still not commonplace, and I think we should be celebrating it.

Only if it has "TMFMISL" on the back and a big target drawn on the front.

I suppose some other posters are entitled to their opinions its just a shame for them they don't stand up to such close examination of the relevant facts

Take your argument up with Daryl Powell, Tony Smith, Bluey, Brian Mac and the various international coaches that have selected him over the years.

They all must be wrong and you must be right.

I don't believe that 10 yrs playing at one club should be the benchmark of a testimonial. How much time is spent on the treatment table? How much time spent in disciplinaries?

Like I said my view isn't at all about Bailey, it's about how easy Leeds have handed out these. Sinfield earned his big time. Peacock hasn't done 10 yrs at Leeds, but he earned his anyway with what he has done. Testimonials shouldn't just be based on time at a one club.

With regards the Leeds players, some have been very lucky to play with very good players which has resulted in winners medals, that far better players out there have never had the opportunity to achieve. The fact that we have a salary capped sport means that players will stay within the confounds of one club much more often, whilst they are doing a specific role, and earning good money for their part. That part is not the same role that a Sinfield or Peacock brings to the club, and hence why their testimonials are more than earned.

Your first sentence states "Given that the RL Testimonials are normally granted after 10yrs+ of service playing one of if not the most brutal and toughest sports in the world". So if that was the case why are not all rugby players who play 10 yrs full stop given testimonials? Because it isn't about that, it is about being at one club only for 10yrs, regardless of what service you have given in that 10yrs, and that is where I have the difference of opinion.

Bailey has played 291 first team matches for Leeds. Which averages at 24 a season, including his little spell at her majesty's pleasure. Which I think it would be fair to consign to the past now.

Opinions always differ, but for me, as with Sinfield, Burrow, McGuire, JJB, we're talking about rewarding loyalty of people who spend their entire professional career with one employer. Analogues with "real life" are a bit problematic in my opinion because most of the rest of us don't tend to have quite such short, intense career paths. But just comparing with their peers, although you say this "will happen more often" there are not actually all that many examples trotting around the league at the moment. If the level of service he'd given was as low as some people on here are trying to suggest, then it seems implausible to me that an organisation with what has proved to be a very winning-oriented culture would have kept him on. Indeed a number of players have been fairly ruthlessly moved on during that time, under a succession of good coaches.

Granted there is a two-way thing between club and player, in that the club provides opportunity. But I'm sure each of those players, including Bailey, had the option to leave and earn more or the same salary more than once during that period. And the club has had opportunities to move them out. Neither has happened. That's what we're talking about in terms of mutual loyalty.

And how many of those has he started? how many of those did he pick up a MOM in?




Had Ian Kirke been here two years earlier, he too will be enjoying a testimonial next year. I am sure that would have been welcomed with glee.


People have there own opinions, that is for them. For me having someting like this, you earn it. And being lucky enough to be part of a squad for years, paid a decent pay, and given the opportunity to win honours, is not enough on it's own to warrant that.

You can not compare the careers of a Sinfield, a Peacock, a Briers, a Sculthorpe, a Joynt, a Cunningham, with the likes of a Bailey, a JJB, or an Ian Kirke, no matter where winners rings come into it, and that is why I have a difference of opinion when it comes to testimonials.

I see your point. I still think you're over-stating the role pure luck plays here, but that's opinion for you.

I also, on a slightly different point, think JJB was the beating heart (where Sinfield was the brains) of the Leeds team for several of those years. While I acknowledge differences of the sort you're getting at, I'd have JJB firmly in the first list rather than the 2nd.

I think both deserve their testimonials if they are good enough and committed enough to persuade their employers to keep them in the front line of the business for so long. That is why I think the club should grant them for long service (a purely quantitative judgement). The good people of Leeds and it's diaspora will determine the extent to which they want to support those testimonials, which is where I believe the sort of qualitative distinctions you're making should come into effect.

Are you saying JJB didn't deserve his testimonial?

He's started more games than bench spots. True story. Someone may have the stats on it.

Wait!! have I missed something?!

In British sports a player is given a testimonial after playing for a club for 10 years +

This was a way to say thank-you for the service they have done for the club but also to give a "golden handshake" as the proceeds would be given as a retirement fund.

Why should this tradition be only for players who have been the greatest to play the game.

Now due to an almost unseen circumstance(can only think of Man Utds class of 93) that nearly a whole team have players have stuck together at Leeds from youth team to veterans.we seem to be having a plethora of testimonials. but it shouldn't dilute the awesomeness of the achievement.

It's not an awseomness, that's the point. How many other sports are salary capped, where there is an incentive of that cap to have own club developed players in the team?

As the salary cap and incentive has only been around the same period of Leeds success era, as more years go by you will see more and more of it from other clubs having players staying at one club.

You also have to ask from the other side, how many would have stayed had Leeds not had the successfull period? Even Sinfield has stated many times that he could have gone for more money, but success was important to him. Where has someone like Diskin jumps ship as soon as testimonial granted, wtih a preference for money.

My view on it is this. Whilst Bailey has not been a top drawer player, he has contributed to the period of outstanding success. He has always been in the first 17 when fit, and has been selected for all the big matches I can remember.

Sinfield said after 2009 that each member of the squad could earn more elsewhere. THis is how we repay a squad that has acheieved greatness through togetherness and being greater than the sum of their parts.

Their respective salaries and testimonial incomes will reflect this. Those doing the less flashy stuff should still get a testimonial IMO.