Hmm...not really news...the Head Coach fully accepts (and the fans fully appreciate) that we are running lighter than ideal in some areas, wing threequarters especially, and the squad is a bit leaner than he would prefer. But he is completely happy that within the resources available he has the best balance in the squad that he possibly could have. Wing was in his view the area where, if we had to run light, this was the safest area to do so.

The thing is too, we have a great crop of youngsters coming through, a number of whom are further up the career ladder than most outside of the club and the more knowledgeable fans seem to appreciate. They may not be household names in the competition right now, and so their places in the squad may not impress those not in the know, but there is a very good chance that it will not be long before a number of them may well be. And, for one or two, that may come a lot earlier than many people expect.

This club is planning and building for the years to come, even if that means we have to be a bit patient still before we see a full return to the heights of the past.

Players like these are far from unknown.

It is possibe the poster was refering to the squad having Burgess x 2, Tate, Crookes, Wardle , O'Brien, Olbison, Hide, Crossley along withe 2 guys you name. They are a good bunch of players and several will be SL regulars in years to come. The Bulls deserve credit for bringing them through. However a couple more injuries and very inexperinced players (who may / may not rise to the mark) will be selected.

Wasn't the same thing said about St. Helens last year? That their 17 was fine, but a couple of injuries and they'd have to play youngsters that can't handle it.

I'd settle for 2nd place, runners up in the Final and Cup Semi.

I think Whitehead and Donaldson especially will step up this year. The others I'm not sure about or haven't seen enough of.

I agree, I know of a few of the young bulls like donaldson and the burgess bros but not much of the others. I'm just going on what's on the team sheet. I just think quite a few clubs are a lot stronger of the bench. But we all know game arnt won on paper.

We need to avoid injuries to key players, but that is the same for any team in SL. If Leeds lost a couple of key players they would no doubt drop points they otherwise maybe wouldn't have. We certainly do not have the strength in depth as some clubs but our starting 17 has enough quality to cause a few problems. We won't top the league ladder but if we can sneak into the top 4/5 then once knock out football begins it's a whole new comp.

I suspect we may still be a year or two off competing for trophies but until we see the team gelled it is difficult to predict. I'm just looking forward to seeing a much different Bulls outfit this year.

I don't think we have a big problem if injuries hit in the second row, fullback or even in the centres. We have cover that isn't really that much lower in standard to the first choice.

The problems do hit if we start getting injuries on the wing or in the props. The cover for those positions is (arguably) not quite as up to standard. The halfbacks also to a lesser extent (since Sykes proved last year he makes a good stand off).

Is Whitehead really that well known in SL? I don't think he is, perhaps more will recognise the name but I doubt very few know much if anything about him as a player.

I've seen him play but don't know what to expect from him. Less so than donaldson who got a bit of coverage with his form at the back end of last season

TBH he probably got more game time than Donno. He's a good worker who looks like he wants to do well, support play good too

Our lack of real impact players on the bench is a bit of a worry when compared with some other sides. Last year we really saw how we could be made to suffer in this area when we were at home to Saints and they brought on Faasavalu and Puletua after 20mins. They immediately took the game away from us.

Leeds will be able to do the same with Lauitiiti and Eastwood this year and the year before we got chucked out of the play offs at Wigan thanks to there impact players of Paleassina and Hock.

We won't crack the top 5 until we can match other sides in this area. There's a need for our younger forwards to make a name for themselves this year to give us that chance as at present Worrincy and Kopczak don't offer the go forward or the impact of rival sides subs.

When Kopzcak and Scully are fully fit I don't think we'll have too much problem with impact, and atm I think we'll see Hall start in the second row, have some time on the bench, then be put on at prop for impact, and he does have the size for that role.

Fraid I have to disagree. Koppy may assume this role as he develops hopefully but I'll take some convincing about Sculthorpe given his previous performances for other clubs included a lot of needless handling errors, slack passes and indiscipline. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt but my head tells me not to rely on him for great things.

Hall for me is a good second row but he's not going to be coming off the bench to change the game by skittling players out of the way and getting us a roll on in the fashion of Puletua or Faasavalu or Lauitiiti or Eastwood. He's more of a solid sort of forward who'll be utterly reliable in defence and not get pushed arouind too much on attack.

I'm with Bullseye on this, it is an area of concern for me too. I thought at times we struggled against Hull KR for go forward and we could have done with an impact type player off the bench.

Hopefully Koppy may mature and improve again this year but we do perhaps lack an aggressive Prop. Scruton is probably our 'enforcer' and he isn't exceptionally big for a front row forward. Fortunately we have two massive Props in our squad for the future but I think this year may prove a little too soon.

Why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why oh why is the game still over 24 hours away? IT'S NOT FAIR!!!

Hopefully it'll stop raining a little before Friday, I'm never very confident of us winning in wet conditions!

I liked what I saw of Donaldson a lot last year, looks to have a very good controlled aggression, hope he continues like that.

In most SL clubs the 18s and reserves coaches speak to the head coach about up and coming players in all sides. Many head coaches go to a fair few 18s and reserve games.

infact the process starts earlier when several clubs try to sign the same scholarship kids.

If the player is an international the awareness will be even higher.

Trust me, Whitehead will be known to many clubs - all the more credit to the Bulls for signing him.

Yeah I'm wasted on here

Whitehead is just as promising as Donno IMO.

Conventional wisdom is that heavy conditions suit teams with a big pack, such as the Giants. But I'm not sure that it works that way these days. Even in the days of the awesome foursome we seemed to struggle in the wet. These sort of games often seem to be decided by a couple of breaks by small nippy players, perhaps we might be better suited than in the past?

I think the wet weather could bring many advantages.

Orfords short kicking game may see the opposition stuggle to control the ball.

Kearneys illusiveness will open gaps especially if a player slips also Sheriffe with his running across the line may open up gaps in the sluggish weather. Not to mention the same with Readon and Halley.

The negative areas could be the new Aussies may struggle with these unfamiliar conditions. Also the game may see less passing to reduce mistakes therefore making it a forwards game.

I predict Bulls by 7 and Kearney MOTM, a drop goal seperating the teams for most of the game then a late Bulls try as the Giants throw the ball around in an attempt to win the game.

God, why do people do these obvious predictions?



Us by 10. Rikki Sheriffe MoM

, or maybe Matty Orford

Bulls by 16.

Reardon first try.
Orford MOTM.

Possibly, we will certainly need to keep our mistakes to a bare minimum and hopefully Orford will keep the Giants pegged back with some clever kicks.

Can't wait now..