Im still confident Smith is the right man for us, you can see a clear change in how he wants us to play we’re obviously short in the prop department

Both those things aren't mutually exclusive, zane is sht and sangare isn't going to lead our pack, he's young and does short stints of the bench.

We won’t get a vocal pack leader until both Prior and Tetevano leave. They will be taking up serious cap and are experienced players. Prior just looks shot he can only manage short bursts and against top props he isn’t that effective. Zane just doesn’t look like he wants to be here and I would offer him the chance to leave and go back to the NRL where he would still easily get snapped up by somebody.

It needs to be Sangare + at least one more. Preferably someone Paasi/Walmsley/Mago sized/style as we just don’t have that in our nal and find it really difficult to deal with defensively. Clearly throwing smaller bodies at big bodies isn’t working.

A real pack leader would be nice too but they’re arguably even harder to come by.

How would zane easily get snapped up by an NRL side on his form the last 2 years?!

I appreciate they aren’t mutually exclusive.
However, Zane was signed for lead our pack, that was his role and he was signed with that in mine. I think the point is that he hasn’t done that and we all agree he doesn’t look good enough. The prop issue is not simply we need a leader, it is we need a leader, we need more numbers and we need more size. Sangare solves two of those three requirements doesn’t he?

Sangare has potential to be part of a solution but if its just him with the rest staying the same, we're not moving forward anytime soon.

I doubt Hull Dockers would take Tetevano for 10 bob and a bag of conkers.

Because I don’t think they pay that much attention to what is going on in super league. He hasn’t played that much in the last two years and Leeds have been awful in those two years. Prior to coming to Leeds he played Roosters and panthers as a Bench impact prop, he is 31 so if he goes back end of the year he gets picked up as a prop option in the NRL no problem

The size of their cap helps, plus the new side in Brisbane, I reckon someone gives him a bench spot.

Well I hope you're right as I can't wait to see the back of him.

But it’s not Smith’s fault is it (which was been claimed)

That should be the club’s top priority in making that happen, needs telling we don’t want him here next year, find a new club.

Me too. I'll remember Prior fondly should he go home, even though he's on the slide. I've really given Tetavano every chance, but he's been a disaster.

Whose claiming that? Smith has overseen a couple of bad performances in the last couple of weeks and there's some areas that are very concerning. Results I can see through, but the performances have been poor. That's not me writing him off by the way.

There is definite improvement in the attack, we are switching play and asking questions of the opposition. That wasn't happening earlier in the season. I thought we had a dig tonight and although we didn't get the rub of the green from the ref and were always second best, we managed to stay in the contest for an hour or so, against the best team in the competition.
Tetevano has been a massive disappointment since he arrived and his discipline lets him down again. I can't see anyone taking him tbh, but if there is any chance to offload him we should do everything to make that happen. When Hurrell left you always thought he could come back to bite us, but I would have no such worries about Tetevano.
I think Smith will get it right but it will take time. Apart from the obvious question marks about the front row I've yet to be convinced either of the half backs have enough to get us challenging at the top.
Great to see Newman getting back to his best. A real genuine threat in the three quarters.

Flyingscottydonald.

Our squad isn’t good enough, we’ve had a couple of poor results against two of the top sides in the comp.

We are where we are, Smith needs time

Smith needs to be given another year before judging much. People hoped he would be great , mainly because he’s a Smith. He has zero first grade experience, and is working with some garbage in the playing squad. Think he may come good but we went for the long term approach, and any improvement will indeed be long term……

Absolute shocker of a ref. Been in charge of our last two home games. Complete pancake juggler

Our front row is laughable really. So many other problems come from there - we're backpedalling in defence as we cannot handle big guys running up the middle, and when we have the ball can't create momentum for ourselves. I include Oledzi in here as well - he's not going to be a genuine top prop unless he starts to impose himself against the better teams.

The Warrington game showed Smith will make our attack function far better. The subsequent games have shown that this will make no difference against the top sides because we'll be on the back foot the entire game.

If anything these games coming after Warrington are good in the sense that it means nobody can kid themselves about how far off the pace our squad is. While selection is Smith's responsibility, the squad is not his. Its going to be 2024 at the earliest before we can say this is 'Smith's team'.

Lost easily. Who could have possibly seen that coming?



It’ll be 2040 at the earliest before Smith can be judged.

20 year plan.

The stats make grim reading for Leeds’ props (Prior 41, Oledski 44, Tetevano 47, Walters 59). Bentley was also a real standout with 5 carries for 13 metres.

The scoreline IMO doesn't reflect the whole game.

The ref was appalling and he needs to be looked at and reviewed.

However how long have we said our forward pack is weak? It's beyond a joke now.

Absolutely. We all know this squad is well off saints, Smith has improved us but needs time to shape the squad. It’s not a quick fix. Tetevano needs to go end of the season no ifs no buts he has to go. Complete liability.

The score line was harsh on us imo. There were a huge amount of calls that went against us that were plainly wrong. That had an effect on the score line no doubt about it.

I thought Bentley was keeping his discipline well as the game went on in difficult circumstances for him. Was willing him to get to the end still on the pitch and hoping it could be a pivotal point where he starts to turn a corner so really disappointing to see him walk for such a stupid, petulant moment. Think it would have done him the world of good to get through that game. Tet's was just infuriating. Absolutely stupid especially given the game was long gone by that point.

Best team won and no complaints about the outcome but was absolutely blown away with how bad the referee was from the very start - heavily weighted in Saints favour (was it 4/5 questionable tries?) but I think it was coincidence - he was equally poor for both I thought (Zak's high tackle anyone?). It's a shame because if you take away the scores coming as a direct result of clear refereeing mistakes there could have been a really good game in this. Newman looked fantastic and hungry and how good was that passage of play where they made 80 metres with the off the cuff play? Some positives in there if you dig deep enough. Ultimately another disappointing night for lots of reasons.