I think Sutcliffe with retain the number 4 shirt, in fairness he did show promise in that position at the end of 2017.

Not saying he should keep the shirt but I think that's what will happen.

When you look at the team posted above it should be goof enough to be challenging top 4 IMO, if we can get walker fully fit and a full year out of Garbutt thats like 2 new signings. The overall squad is light though so I agree a prop and second row added to that and I'll be relatively happy.

Christopher in what way do you believe that squad should be good enough to challenge top 4? Just a question.

If you look down it and compare to the top four, i.e Saints, Wigan, Cas, Warrington, how many do you truely believe would get into their teams? Personally I would say probably, Watkins, Lolohea, Myler, Garbutt, Ward and Parcell, although not in all of the top four. Possibly there may be a spot for Cuthbertson, Peteru, and I would guess all before now would have developed Smith better.

But that is only 6 maximum certainties. And remember they would not all be in the same team, so would require good players around to back them up. What you have left in the Leeds squad is not that standard for that challenge.

Not the squad, but the first 17, mainly because I don't think they are playing to anywhere near their potential, remember the majority of that team won the GF and finished in 2nd place the year before this one.

Also flip the question around, do you think all of Wigan's, Was, Warrington's and Saints players would get in our first team? I'd say not but because they are playing well as a whole they look better than the sum of their parts, that happens in team sports.

Darryl Powell gets praise heaped onto him for getting what seem like below standard players playing like superstars, so just saying hardly any of our players would get into their teams seems a little simplistic to me.

Well

FB: barba(may leave) Tomkins (escare) Roberts, ratchford. I would take Walker over Roberts, Escare and possibly Tomkins. Ratchford is ahead of Walker IMO

WG: makinson and grace, Davis and burgess, minikin and Eden, linehan and Charnley. Would take T briscoe over grace, Davis, minikin and probably charnley, L briscoe however would be near bottom of a list of those players IMO.

CE: Percival and Morgan, sarginson and gildartt, Shelton and wardle( Webster is leaving) Atkins and Goodwin. I would take Watkins over anybody else in that list. I would take Sutcliffe over Morgan, probably over wardle, over sarginson, over Atkins. However it really depends how you play, the correct structure can make an average centre look great or a brilliant centre look average.

HB: lomax and Richardson (fages and smith), Powell and Williams, Ellis and gale (trueman) brown and Roberts (appreciate Roberts is leaving and Austin is coming in) I think it’s all pretty even here, as a combo I like myler and Lolohea.

BR: LMS taia and peyroux (Wilkin gone), o’loughlin Farrell and greenwood, Milner mcmeekin and Holmes, b currie, j Hughes and BM masilla. Don’t really rate the saint BR, Wigan has some age and injury issues now Bateman has gone, cas is a decent BR. Warrington BR is very impressive. If Ward and Cuthbertson stay fit and ferres can get even fitter then I think those 3 are decent.

HK: leuluai, Toby, mcshane and d Clark. Parcell is in that mix but it would be tight.

Prop unit: walmsley amor Thompson and Douglas, hill cooper akauola and g king, millington moors sene-lafao and Watts, club flower Sutton and tautai. I think Garbutt, Singleton, peteru and Oledzki isn’t a bad fit on that.

Long winded response but the 13 and 4 subs probably aren’t that different to the top 13 and subs for cas, wire, Wigan or saints. I thin kwhere we drop massively is fitness, structure and back up players. Now Furner could fix fitness and structure and a couple of young lads could step up with even further additions the year after

Someone has got very rose-tinted glasses on - Walker is a great prospect but to say he is a match for Sam Tomkins - really.

Parcell as good as Roby/Clark?

Myler/Lolohea how can you know at this stage one has never played in SL

Cuthbertson/Ferres/Ward - one never plays, one gets on the field and does nothing, one thinks he is a half back!!

Parcell is better than Roby. And he is about 2.6 million times better than Darryl Clark.

He really didn’t say any of the things you are saying though did he

All about opinions.

On Walker I think yes I would prefer him to ST. He has had numerous injuries, lost his pace and I wouldn’t say he was a super attaching threat, he isn’t anywhere near the England team. Put walker in the Wigan structure and I think he looks better than ST. I respect if you don’t share that view.

Parcell was better than both roby and Clark the season before this. Put him in either saints or wire and I think he gives the same, as I said it is tight. The point is you wouldn’t have a huge issue with either of those three being you starting 9.

Myler/Lolohae fair point one hasn’t played but neither had Roberts at wire or will Austin next year. My point was as a combo I think they could work and I don’t personally think any partnership is miles ahead. Powell at Wigan isn’t great imo, lomax isn’t a half, Richardson is developing and I don’t see him doing much when saints aren’t on top on the forwards.

Cutho/ferres/Ward I did mention the fitness issue. If Ward is fit he is in the England squad and possibly team, every time he has been fit and played games they have looked to include him. Cuthbertson as a 13 with a good structure looks good in super league, to be clear I don’t see him as a prop as he can’t do heavy hard work for sustained periods. Ferres I mentioned fitness, he was an England back rower. If he is injury free and fit in furners south Sydney structure could do well.

Main point was starting 17 wouldn’t be miles away from the other four teams mentioned. Point I made remains, fitness structure and squad depth are the issues. Furner should be able to improve two of those things

Yes he did - as he has just posted - perhaps you are once again struggling with the English language

Leeds starting 17 is way off being top 4, back row especially is dreadful. I can’t see a great deal of game management in Myler and Lolohea, they’ve 1 centre, Briscoe T is pretty average and Briscoe L is below that.

That Leeds starting 17 hasn’t played or been fit to play all year. Also we are looking at this with an unfit and unstructured team, with limited confidence who lost a coach mid season.

That backrow I mentioned, it fit as I mentioned is imo a match for the back row of saints, Wigan are reliant on oloughlin who is what 36 now? Cas I don’t think are a million miles ahead but I accepted wire were impressive in that area.

Myler/Lolohea, IMO myler can manage a game and would in that combo. Limited managing halves in the super league. Managing a game behind a pack on the front foot is different to doing it behind one on the back foot.

1 centre who is the best centre in the comp.

Briscoe might be average but so are most of the outside backs in the SL?

I honestly don’t think the 17 I mentioned earlier are a bad 17. A coach with some structure, game plan and a really fit team goes ok with that 17. The issue comes when that 17 have injuries and that is where I think we would and will have problems.

But as I said it’s all opinions

Cas with Holmes, Mcmeeken, Milner, plus JSL, Foster and Wardle are miles ahead. Wigan have Bateman and Farrell who are way better than leeds options plus Isa and Hamlin who’s going well.
Leeds have 1 average winger and 1 quality centre, that’s miles behind, there are more than a dozen outside backs better than Briscoe.

JSL i have down as a prop not a BR, wardle as a centre replacing Webster, if you want wardle as a BR they become very light in the centre. Foster as a back up is a decent player.

We were looking next year, Bateman won’t be at Wigan and neither will Sutton in the front row. So you have greenwood, Farrell and oloughlin. I think they rely on oloughlin heavily, Farrell has injury problems. Isa is on okay squad player, Hamlin has played similar games to c Smith so opinion on who will become the better player.

There are limited number of quality centres, so having a top one is important, we also have some decent young ones coming through such as Newman. Briscoe isn’t a bad winger, we did have hall. Maybe we will bring somebody in.

Yes the squad could be better, yes it has been better. But the quality of super league isn’t that high. Of course if we sign better players we would be better, but we aren’t going to sign 7 top players. So a fitness overhaul, a medical and rehab overhaul and a structure overhaul are probably going to give us some improvement next year. I agree with some people the year after may see some further quality additions and some further significant improvements

The most important positions are 1, 6, 7 and 9. Assuming Furner arrives with an open mind and picks on merit we could end up with a range of combinations being tried before we settle down. I personally don't think Walker is a top 4 fullback yet, Lolohea has played reserve grade this year, and McClelland hasn't played open age at all, so it would be a bit rash to make assumptions about any of them being top 4 standard. Obviously we hope so but who knows really, particularly in combination? Even Myler might be at risk if he doesn't fit well with Furner's views on what a scrum half should be.

Props look OK but more in number than quality, and the best backrow looks mid table to me, unless Ferres suddenly recaptures his form from 3 years ago or Smith really kicks on (again we don't know what furner will want from a 13 either).

I do agree though that improving fitness and setting up a playing style with structure so everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing will help immensely. But it really is time that all our players are judged based on how good they are individually and not that they can 'do a job' if surrounded by stars. We've got about ten forwards who fit in that category, who without quality around them are awful.

The Mole reporting he's set to become new South Sydney coach. https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/david-fune ... aef88ed638 Christ.

The Mole reporting he's set to become new South Sydney coach. https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/david-fune ... aef88ed638 Christ.

First of all, get out clause? WTF is that all about? Then, the article says it depends on Bennett finishing with the Broncos, well he is over here at the minute coaching us its highly unlikely he will not just see out his last year there imo.if he doesn't, and leaves then the article is still taking a wild stab in the dark that seibold is the replacement and that Souths indeed would have Furner as first choice.seems to be a lot of water to go under the bridge there for this to be 'imminent'. Either way, Hetherington needs to be on the blower to Furner ASAP, last thing this club needs is throwing in to more coaching turmoil over the next 6 weeks.

I'm sure Leeds will have it checked out already.
anyway, wanes available.

Why would it surprise anyone if Furner has a clause stating he can leave if an NRL head coach gig comes up? I'd bet all the Aussie head coaches in SL have the same.

The rest of that article is pure hype - Bennett won't leave the Broncos until the end of next season, which means Seibold won't move until then either. I'm frankly not sure Seibold would get the Broncos job anyway - there's a lot of support for Kev Walters or Demtriou to get a go. If we end up with Furner for just one year or even before then, sobeit - the focus should then be on getting someone at least as well qualified as a replacement.

Totally agree with the last few comments.

If you sat and believed all that's been written so far we would already have signed 38 players as well.

It may come true but right now there is a lot of its and buts. Also, don't forget the purpose of media is to get people to read it regardless of the level of truth in it.

A lot of mischievous rumour. Nonsense

We got burned by Segayaro ,Im sure after that GH will have a few clauses of his own written in when he gegs contracts prepared

There will not be an NRL that will sign a contract that doesn't have a clause in it that states they can leave if they get a head coach gig in the NRL. That is just a chance GH has to take if you want to choose from the best coaches. Look what happened to Graham Murray

Good job you recruited Agar....

You can rest assured he wont ha e a get out clause now he has reached the Promised Land

Lowes and Agar. Bring on 2019!