Is Oli the 9 mate?

There used to be a rule where only 25 players could earn over £30k p.a. But not sure if still exists

I’m really struggling with losing some of the young talent and at the same time bringing in older players like Ferres and Thompson, when this season there is nothing to lose by playing the kids.

Yea, he's the worst of the lot IMO

Hes been kept due to lack of options at the position we only have Jonah Parsons other than Oli as a 9 and for some unknown reason they keep wanting to play Jonah at 7.

Well I can kindof see the logic there Marty: we have good prospect forwards coming out of our ears at the moment; aside from the ones around first grade already, Edwards, Gannon, Gibbons, Wallace have good shouts (I'm sure there are others in the same bracket). Good problem to have IMO because I've been so frustrated with our first grade pack for years and years. Oledski, Holroyd, Walters, Smith, Mustapha are already floating about and O'Connor - who I'm not sure about yet. In fact I was surprised O'Connor was lined up for an appearance before Muizz, who seems to have shown significantly more so far.

At hooker, since we lost Johnson/signed Leeming, between he and Dwyer we seem to have reasonable cover for a number of years.

Centres, IF Broadbent makes it (and there are another couple of good prospects coming through), we're good there for a while too. With Alfie (is Sam Little still with us too?) and Walker then FB seems alright.

Where we look weak is succession planning at half, where McLelland will hopefully make it, but both Gale and Lui are "back-endish". Can't see any standout talent coming through the youth system here, and that's been the case for a while. Parsons has some pace and evasion about him so maybe they are thinking "Rob Burrow 2"...? Perhaps similar role with some cover between 7 and 9, I don't know.

Weve got a good half coming thru system Jimbo but far too early to say at thr moment.

Edwards and Gannon are the 2 forwards coming thru that the club like at 17 year old. Gannon has put a lot of size on during lockdown which is seen as a positive.

Kids have lost an entire year of development unfortunately though have to see what impact that has on some.

Personally speaking i wouldnt have released Iwan Stephens but its done now.

I see the scholorship ofrers have been sent out by the pro clubs and are starting to be accepted, any info on any lads who are joining our scholorship? Seen at least 1 of the very talented East Leeds u14's have chosen Warrington over us.

Edwards and Gannon have been given full time contracts and will be in the first team squad next season.

Brilliant news...two very good prospects.

Any knowledge of our new scholorship intake? So far all i can find out is that we'v given a scholorship to a lad from birkenshaw u14s. Some exceptional talent in the East Leeds, Hunslet parkside, kippax and a couple more u14s teams, hope we can keep most of them in Yorkshire with us.

I would be very surprised if the majority don’t come to Leeds these days.

Wigan and Warrington get a lot of very good players from yorkshire these days. Stavely and balmforth are two from stanningley in Gannon and Edwards age group that chose warrington and are both very, very good, Green from Leeds Irish picked warrington and the lad i mentioned from East Leeds aswel...Obviously Morgan Smithies went to wigan from Siddal as did matty nicholson who again, is a very good player.

Edit. Just seen a lad from hunslet parkside whos probably the best u14 player in yorkshire has also joined Warrington

I’ve no idea of who we may want to sign or who is good at U14 level but given JJB and Peacock are both involved at the club and ex- stanningley you would hope they could get stanningley lads to sign for Leeds not wire or Wigan.

You would hope so but warrington and wigan do get a lot of very good players from yorkshire these days, the two from stanningley at the Wolves arnt far off Levi Edwards in terms of potential imo, theyr very good. Pete Riding at warrington will have very good links in yorkshire so that could be one reason the lads go there, other than that, im not sure why theyd do all the travel to a club not renowned for bringing youth through when theyr Leeds lads. Wigans a bit different because theyr exceptional at getting lads through the system so can see why lads would go there.

Each to there own though, we got quite a few from saddleworth in our last batch with the sinfield link.

Are Wanky still offering parents new cars & brand new kitchens etc??

I wish we had got the 2 centres from Saddleworth but one went to Wigan and other to Warrington. The kid who went to Warrington is very talented.

It's a shame whenever we miss out on local talent, but I think we have enough in the tank with the intake over the last 3-4 years to make a very competitive side (if we get the right quality of senior signings in the mix).

Maybe if you were a young specialist centre already facing the prospect of getting past Newman (probably future England international), Broadbent, Hall, (Hurrell), and the likes of Andrew Stewart and others - you might feel your path to first grade is better served elsewhere? If you're really good you'd want to be breaking in to first grade at around 18 wouldn't you?

One of the worst things about COVID has been the impact on the youth/reserve leagues, it's a real shame. Hopefully, over the next 12 months or so things will normalise and we won't lose too many lads to the ether.

Yeah they looked good players from the little i seen of them.

Heard yesterday that warrington have also signed the East Leeds u14 fullback who looks sensational at that age group, so thats arguably the best 2 u14's in the Yorkshire league going over to Warrington, real shame.

Heard we'd got the big back rower from East Leeds though, Easily the best out and out forward iv seen in that age group.

Kippax u14's halfback, another of the best u14's players in Yorkshire going to Cas

Cas will always get Kippax players now, same as Oulton going same way. We don’t have the same reputation currently, and youngsters are advised quite a lot to keep away from us for now. The ones we will get is where we have the tie ups to the junior club, where they are advised to give us first opportunity.

Thought we had good links with Kippax,Has something changed recently? We got 5 or 6 from kippax each of the last two times they had a decen u14's team.

Edgell, Simpson, Wroe, Spear, Dakeyne and think Lynch are all kippax u16s

Burtons x 2, Barton, Adamson, Anderson were alk kippax and signed in the same intake not too long ago.

The Half going to Cas looks very good.

Do you know why youngsters are being advised to stay away from us now? thought we'd addressed a lot of the issues we had a few years ago, though a lot of the very best do seem to go across the Pennines these days.

I've watched a fair bit of Scholarship and Academy the last few years and I'm surprised at a few of your releases, especially Stephens.

You're not the only club though, not by a long way. A family member who's represented England at Academy level whilst in year one has been released by Warrington at the end of year two and he's not the only one.

Someone on the Cas forum mentioned Danny Orr was joining our youth set up...Strange move for him , if true.

Anybody heard anything?

Not happening.

Cheers, thought it would be a strange career move for him.