Not blown away with the news

Sorry mate just letting you know.

Same here.

To the Giants Griffin is just another squad player and to Leeds he’ll probably become one of our main prop forwards in years to come. It’s the most miserable time I’ve endured as a Rhinos fan. Even Dean Lance was more tolerable than this!

I am sure I must have endured worse times but it all feels a bit flat at the moment.

how good is this news about Griffin? Why would he move from Huddersfield who appear to be on the up and up. Are they getting rid to bring someone better in? If so we should be competing to sign that guy, not Griffin,good solid steady player that he is.

Money.

cannot see anything on the Giants board about this done deal with Leeds??

My opinion reflects most who have posted on here;

Burgess – a little surprised, he was showing some good form and even though he wants to head down-under I would have thought that we’d keep him on until at least the end of the season. Makes me think we’re clearing cap space for someone.

Cross – underwhelmed when he signed, underwhelmed when I saw him play and not really bothered to see him go.

Given that GH is a very experienced chairman and very used to dealing with the press I think it safe to assume that if his public statement is [i"the coaching staff are very disappointed with Luke’s reaction to being left out and, as a result, this is how we are prepared to deal with it"[/i he's making it pretty clear that he's not impressed with Burgess.

Went to my first origin! It was awesome. Fans are a lot quieter than in the uk(even on mass) but was still the dogs nuts.

No mate just asked to be released from his contract its as simple as that.

Big Earl int he contracted to 2015 ?cant see Gary forking out such a big transfer fee

Yes he is mixed up yav got the other fella.

Don't care re Cross - should never have been signed. Burgess is a bit sad - it would appear that for whatever reason he's leaving on poor terms, so if (big if) he does well in the NRL and wants to return you'd have to guess it won't be with Leeds. Not a huge loss for this year, but may come back to haunt us.

Apologies - should add that when I say I don't care re Ben Cross, I mean purely from a Leeds viewpoint. I hope he gets an offer from somewhere else and enjoys the rest of his time in England.

Well thats 2 average forwards down, 4 to go.

Quality not quantity for me. Which other club can have 2 props on loan and still afford to offload 2 more?

Although I'm all for promoting from the academy, at the moment our pack needs quality proven players. Sadly (in my opinion) Griffin is no improvement at all on whats already available.

As an employer you have a duty of care to your employees - these are young immature people in a unique working environment. If you look at the performances of some our props that have been selected before Burgess it could be seen as constructive dismissal. Given the relative quality of their performances Burgess has every right to a reasoned explanation as to why the likes of Kirke/Bailey/Kylie are getting selected before him - and he has every justification to be agreived.

On Cross - his treatment is simply embarassing for a top club. You cannot sign someone on a 3 year contract, fly them and their family half way round the world and then after 3 months discard them. He hasn't done a Wendall or a Mullins or behaved in any way that doesn't bring credit to the club. This is bad for business - what message does this send out to other NRL players, why would they come here?

I expect the likes of Kylie and Peacock to get a contract extension - this is simply madness.

This is yet another example of CEO who looks increasingly out of his depth - the shambles that is the RU, the scaling back of the southstand, falling crowds and a team in free fall!! It is time for change at the top.

Absolute spot on in everything there.

Graham is, and Ellis was, integral to the teams success. Burgess isn't.

Why are people so adamant to try and run the clubs affairs for them!? Just support the team and leave them to get on with what they think is best. If it turns out to be a mistake, or you strongly disagree with something they've done, then just don't buy a ticket next year. Simple.

I think people are forgetting that we're talking about LUKE Burgess here. Yes, his form has been OK, and he's been one of the best of a very bad lot, but it's LUKE BURGESS. If we're ever in a WCC against the Bunnies and Luke Burgess is the difference between us winning or losing I'll eat my hat. He won't even be bloody playing never mind making any difference!

Excellent post.

The bigger picture is the message this shambles is sending out far and wide, not just to players in the NRL, but also possible targets within super-league, current rhinos players including the academy lads.

The difference is the team isn't successful is it - it is getting spanked by the better sides, this is a side in free fall.

If we take your view we might as well not have a forum - you might want to kneel, bow and grovel everytime GH walks by, I don't - simples!!

It's not that I want to kneel, bow & grovel. It's that I want to spend my money on things that I derive pleasure from. It's a difficult concept to grasp I know but you do know that supporting a team is optional don't you? I don't know about you but I don't really want to spend well over £1000 per year just to constantly moan and criticise something.

What you describe as "kneeling, bowing and grovelling" I describe as supporting the decisions of a club that I'm CHOOSING TO PAY to support. If you want to work hard all week to buy tickets for games, then spend all weekend angry about it, who's the mug?

It's nice to win, of course, but win or lose I'm determined to enjoy supporting Leeds. The day I don't enjoy it, and the day that it is making me as angry as it seems to make some of you, is the day I'll stop paying my hard earned cash and spending my valuable time doing it.

Life is too short mate, either get on board and enjoy the ride, or don't buy a ticket.

Sal ,I can see the point to most of your post but to say the club is in free-fall is way OTT and this CEO is far from out of his depth.
Cross signed a 2 yr deal under "Bluey" that coach left and unfortunately it's not worked out.
As for Burgess yes he can go and ask why he isn't selected and to be fair he has a very valid point going by his early season form BUT it's how you react to these calls that make the difference and Burgess' toys out of pram approach and stomping feet isn't the way ANY Pro sports man should react imo.
As for "bad for business" not at all look at Robbie Mears departure he was scathing about the club and that did no harm at all.
Players come and go all the time whether voluntry or otherwise it's a fact of life in sport and whilst it is dissapointing re-Burgess he made clear he was off and Cross simply wasn't this coaches choice.

We must agree to differ - champions to also rans in 2 years I would call freefall what would you call it?

As for RU - would you say GH has made a huge success of that too?

Crowds are falling - does that suggest Hetherington is doing a top job?

We don't know how Burgess has reacted - the rumour I hear is he was offered a new contract after 2 days he hadn't signed and the club then said "His heart wasn't in it" - maybe this is what they call disappointing? None of us have details of what was offered so we are not in a position to say whether the contract was generous or an insult?

The only person who signs players is Hetherington not the coach - IMO Cross has hardly been given a chance to show what he can do, 10 games is hardly adequate - he has been treated appallingly. As far as I can see he produced on the pitch exactly what was expected and what he had shown at his other clubs. If that wasn't what Hetherington wanted why did he sign him? - he was never suddenly going to metamophisise into Matt Scott. If the team was top of the table and the forwards dominanting I could see a point for him being unable to break into the team - we both know that is not the case. Could he possible offer less than the props we have?

The cap is in the NRL is going up so it will become increasingly difficult to get the better players - like us when we are changing jobs they are interested in moving to an employer with the correct culture. Instances such as Cross will not help.