Make that 4/29

Yorkshire have lost less games in the last 3 years than the Rhinos have lost in the last month - make you cheap jibes but Gillespie's record is pretty impressive. Don't hear him moaning when England take his best players!!

Gotcha I am with you on McDermott but it would not difficult to pull out your posts that say Hardaker is one of Leeds' best players this season, Watkins' performances are hindered by the amount of defending he has to do and Phil Hassan was a much better player than Keinhorst.

Who was Leeds other centre in 1996?

Carl Hall?

There isn't one Sal, so fire away and try and pull one. Leeds best player this season IMO is the one player for me who weakens the team, and needs to be sacrificed. But it doesn't stop him being the best player.

Definitely said Watkins defence is much better than the nonsense posted. But that is much different to best player than Juan put.

Hardaker? At the begining of the season I would have had more empathy with this..more recently he has been a pale shadow of his former self.

One of his strengths last year was his fearless safe near guaranteed diffusing of opposition bombs ..now it is more than noticeable he is more than happy to leave that job to his two hapless wingers. There might be mitigating circumstances behind the scenes...and of course he is not the only one shirking his duties....but it is pretty inexcusable.
As for Watkins again I do have sympathy in that he is being asked to defend like a forward, but he does look as though he is going through the motions on attack and getting back in the defensive line.

The bottom line is I agree this present coach has lost whatever respect he might have commanded from his playing staff. They are treating him with contempt on match day....and ever more so on each and every successive week.

Watkins isn't the only centre who is having to make more tackles as we don't always stack/hide the 2 "halves" on the same side. Keinhorst is doing plenty and Moon in previous years has been the one to have McGuire & Burrow outside him.

I was talking about Burrow.

Ah right....yes he can go for me. Plenty of effort and ineffectiveness in equal measures. Better DH than scrum half but fooling nobody enough these days on attack. The problems defensively have been well documented.

Because the way cricket is organised teams will always lose their best players to internationals. Different to an big extended injury list.

See he still hasn't sorted the problem of last year of a disappointing top order and without Bairstow in middle order there to do the rescue act it's left to the spinner and bowlers to yet again do the heavy lifting with the bat

Burrow has been just about our only attacking threat and for me is the first name on the teamsheet at the moment .

Last year he lost his opening batsman to England so no sure how you compare the two?

Cricket like rugby is a team game - I didn't realise the middle order and the bowlers weren't allowed to score runs!! Perhaps if coach at Leeds could get the team spirit Yorkshire have i.e. Yorkshire lose a few wickets the other players get stuck in, Leeds concede a try and the whole team capitulates then they wouldn't currently be bottom of the table!!

Yorkshire have played the last 3 seasons without their best player - Root - could you image Leeds playing without their best player Sinfield - oh yes we can

Because in cricket you know which players are likely to be with England and plan accordingly....injuries are an X factor, you don't know who or for how long.

Root hasn't been captain and on field leader for over a decade.

Not sure about that...yes he always looks 'busy' but can't think what threat he poses exactly. Making a killer pass certainly doesn't spring to mind; nor any sort of decent kick, high or long. The last (ducking under tackles) clean break I cannot remember either.

He had a good 3 game spell, Hull, Saints, Hudds. Apart from that not much to write home about.

So you and me are in agreement then?

Those players likely to be selected for internationals are your very best players - because of their quality the hardest players to replace? Yorkshire lost 7 players to international calls in 2015

Cricket is immune from injuries - 2015 saw a number of injuries to key players - add to that Gale's suspension

Great coaches deal with adversity they don't throw the towel in the minute they hit a bit of hardship - they get on with it and maintain standards given the options they have.

A typical reply from you I will ignore half the points raised because they make me look bad - you are a joke.

Bang on ....Powell is a brilliant coach best signing Cas have made in recent years

Shhh

why would powell want to move to an ailing club heading for the championship when he's riding high competing for trophies at cas?

Please tell me that's sarcasm. A great year for Cas would be top 4 - they'll never win anything, they'll struggle even to fluke a Challenge Cup win. We're having a shocker this year but we'll be back near/at the top in a couple of seasons, so if Powell wants silverware there aren't many better places to go.

On this subject (and seeing as we've been stopped from talking about one rumour tonight...

) has anyone else heard talk of Dave Furner coming to us as head coach?

Is your arrogance not tempered just a little by the sorry scary plummeting state of our predicament?

Confidence, not arrogance. We'll be Middle 8's this season but we can stay up, and then we'll build over the next couple of seasons. I reserve my right to be a 'glass half full' type of chap...

Good luck with that two year forecast.

Nothing worthwhile coming through the academy, at least a dozen players that will need replacing along with a tiny salary cap still set at 1999 levels.

It'll be a cakewalk for the best run club in SL