Reading the Ryan Hall thread Mark Calderwood's name was mentioned. I started thinking about how few players have left Leeds over my 30 years of watching whose careers have gone much better for them after leaving Leeds - Calderwood being a more common example of what has tended to happen.

If you exclude overseas players, juniors who have never played first grade (you have to expect your fair share of mistakes in picking winners amongst teenagers) and those going to the NRL, the list of players who have really done well is very small.

The only players I can think of would be Bobby Goulding, Paul Medley (although he wasn't the same kind of player for the Bulls) and James Lowes. Adding the NRL would only add Morley and Ellis to the list (so far).

In fact you could put a very good educational slideshow up of 'before and after' for any young player thinking of leaving for money alone. Lee Smith would of course be the presenter.

Paul Anderson left Leeds and went on to bigger and better things at Bradford

Didn't Crooksy win something with Cas when he was there ?

Adrian Morley ... Super League winners ring with Bradford and x2 Challenge Cup winners medals

Whilst an overseas player, Dean 'Judas' Bell ? Craig Innes with Manly and even Kevin Iro at Stains ?

Anderson I forgot about. Nick Fozzard as well. Morley was via the NRL - I think that's a bit different as he'd probably have stayed at Leeds rather than go elsewhere if he hadn't gone to Oz.

Lee Crooks I thought about, but I'm not sure. He won a Yorkshire Cup with Leeds.

Mike Forshaw though? Looked pretty useless for us IIRC but did very well for the Bulls.

You can't count overseas players or else you have a real problem as to where to draw the line, and the one-season types we used to have a lot of were more like guest players than anything else. I bet Eric Grothe hardly remembers playing for us - I know ET had to think about it when I met him (and nobody ever mentions his Leeds spells here).

Anyway, its just something to think about cos I'm bored.

Crooks won Regal Trophy with Cas, IIRC Yorkshire Cup as well. He was a magnificent captain & player during his time with Cas, though the earlier years of drinking had slowed him down a tad.
From the names mentioned, not counting those who were or went overseas, only Lowes & possibly Forshaw improved as a player.

When Calders left he was on top of his game and probably wanted that reflecting in his wage packet. Leeds made him an offer, he didnt take it moved to another of the "big four" and ended up with a coach who couldnt/wouldnt utilise him in the correct manner. A succesion of injuries, lack of confidence and good ol' fashioned drop in form has left him where he is now. Could happen to any player, therein lies the warning.

Going solely on a playing level rather than a personal one, Terry Newton.

Bending the rules slightly, Jason Robinson.

Carvell hasnt done too badly

Dowes forged a decent career whilst we pished about with the likes of Jamie Mathiou, Mark O'Neill and Ben Cross.

In the Super League era, there haven't been many errors of judgment on our part in terms of departing players.

Not too shabby.

Scruton has established himself at Bradford without setting the world on fire.

Karl Pratt seemed to show potential before getting some kind of career ending injury IIRC.

Don't think we have done too badly at all in SL era, Ellis in recent memory is the one that stands out to me as a big loss

I wonder what Greg Eastwood is up to these days?

About 19 stone I imagine

I bumped into Eastwood at Sydney airport before Xmas. We had a chat! He was getting a maccers! He didnt look out of shape but Looked like he could have skipped it.

Im a big easty fan, and was sad to see him go, i'm hoping he can stay injury free this year and have a big season with the doggs!! when fit hes great to watch

Luke burgess hasnt done too badly, played a few games for souths since going to the NRL

Leeds have certainly improved since the pre SL days in hanging onto promising players. Back then there was such a high turnover of players other teams, especially Bradford, did very well out of Leeds and unloaded plenty of dross in return.

Anderson was cut by Leeds pre SL. Lowes was, just. Forshaw was let go to union but came back and did very well indeed for us. Newton did well but didn't scale the heights he might have done had he stayed. Pratt won League and SL winners honours but finished due to injury.

Hey, there is always Erroll Johnson to redress the balance.

Gaz Raynor? Was the best British winger for years at Hull

I think the OP excluded academy players let go. I don't think Raynor was ever really part of the first team squad at Leeds. There were also certainly times (around 2005) when I would have liked Ewan Dowes back at Leeds.

Ah right ok, Dowes was awesome for Hull around that time he was so consistent and was hardly ever injured but I think too many minutes in a poor team over the last few years have taken their toll on him. Great servant for Hull though hope he goes well down under.

I think Raynor did make a handful of 1st team appearances, from the bench actually.

What about Matt Adamson?