Is there a little known salary cap rule on how much the first 17 team cost? Because why does his contract have anything to do with him being picked?

When fit Bailey has been member of Leeds first choice 17 for what 7 years(?) whilst he's rarely been starting prop he has been consistently picked ahead of other and as a result has won 5 Grand finals - the likes of Scruton, Burgess, Cross, Adamson etc have not won Grand finals because Bailey was ahead of them in the pecking order.

His selection has come as a result of some terrific form for the Rhinos this season.

He's still way behind the likes of Peacock, Morley, Graham, Carvell in terms of selection but defo deserves a place in the squad of the back of this season.

Mcnamara might throw him into the fray to mix it up abit alongside the more respected frames of Peacock and Morley.

Its irrelevent in terms of England how much he gets at club level but the fact is, hes done a decent turn this year without breaking our bank.

Infact, Bailey, Leuluai, Kirke, Griffin and Moore are probably some of the cheapest props in SL

Surprisingly it should be Baileys Testimonial season in 2012. 2002 He made his first team debut.

Bet they won't give him one though. Says it all about his character.

Calm down love. A lot of successful Leeds coaches have selected Ian Kirke too and I see nothing in his game to suggest he would be effective either.

You might not be but others are for example:



No Leeds fan has said he's "international class" (he's clearly completely unproven at that level). But what is undeniable is that he is a valued member of Leeds' greatest ever side. He's also been in the best form of his life in the last 3-4 months and so is worthy of a place in the England squad (not necessarily the team but the squad ahead of the likes of Coley etc)

I've no doubt that they will actually (although he may have to wait as I think there's a few players ahead of him in the queue)

Doubt it



Why wouldnt he get one? Should be sharing with Danny Mcguire aswell. A couple of Leeds Legends.

If he's not international class then it follows that he shouldn't be picked for internationals - fairly obvious that. Why should he be ahead of Coley who has better performance stats across the board? If we are going down the dirty player route I'd rather have one who had above average playing ability as well.

Only if you were under the idiotic assumption that we had enough international class players to choose from - fairly obvious that. two reasons, firstly anybody who knows the game to any decent level will tell you there a many more, much more important "intangibles" which make up a game of RL than the stats tell you. Secondly, considering the higher amount of gametime coley had, how much more impressive are his stats? not very.

Hasn't Coley retired anyway?

If there's a shortage of international class players then at least pick those closest to it - which would still rule out Bailey. The "intangibles" with Bailey must be huge because he is so far behind. The truth is though they barely exist and are the last desperate excuse of blinkered Leeds fans bereft of any concrete evidence of Bailey's talents. And I suppose Coley got more game time in a better team because he wasn't any good?



Its harder work and more of an achievement staying on the field grinding it out rather than making cheap shots and running off and needs recognising as such.

I think the nice new super league WINNERS ring that he has. His 4th in 5 yes would argue against the point of coley being in a better team

So not quite how you tried to patronise then eh?
So what are these massive stats differences then? Is it that yards per run which is pretty similar? Is it missed tackles/penalties per tackle which are slightly in Baileys favour? Is it the one more run per game that Coley makes? Is it the offloads per run which is massively in Baileys favour? The tackle busts per run which is also massively in Baileys favour? Im guessing you judge your props on attacking kicks then yeah?

WTF are you on - it's not Leeds fans that picked the England squad





All players start out as not being "international class" they have to be tried out and prove themselves at that level - some flourish some don't (even excellent club players like Long)

He run a lot further, tackled more, carried the ball more - all props jobs. Meanwhile you invent dubious statistics like tackle bust per run, this favours players who don't run much (ie Bailey when he goes hiding). Using your made up style of statistics then Coley is literally infinitely better when it come to clean breaks per game/run/season or whatever. Your cherry picking is why stats get discredited.

And the other thing is there are far better candidates than Coley who have missed out. You will have real trouble inventing stats that show Bailey is better than Lynch, LMS, Wood, etc. In fact he is worse than Scott Wheeldon in everything but offloads and there aren't many people saying he deserves an England spot.

Ahh, so what you were relying on is that we would all ignore the fact that Coley played five more games than Bailey and the obvious effect that would have on his statistics, and not use a like for like comparison. Fair enough.

Really? and you are relying on the fact that you have studiously ignored every other point made. Fair enough.

my thoughts exactly, does that make us both tools as well?

You havent made any other points, just the same flawed point again using different examples.

Bailey wont make the 17 if he does he will be on the bench Wilkin and Bailey likely not to be in the same 17 if either gets in plenty of other good players in the squad who play their postition

Bailey not as good as Morley,Peacock,Carvell etc.
Wilkin might make the bench

16 pages of Wilkin v Bailey around 14 pages of content arguing the justification of Baileys behaviour and credibility of being a decent prop. Whilst Wilkin has almost being forgotten on commenting on baileys behaviour AFTER the final whistle of the match.
Can we assume Baileys antics is the acceptable norm for Bailey himself, and the RFL will always adjudge that he has a good disciplinary record. I reckon we should have a Bailey Weekend and every player behaves in the same manner, knowing that we wo'nt expect to see much rugby.

more interestingly after 16 pages we still havent got to the bottom of what Wilkin was actually bitching about.

according to a leeds player i spoke to this week he said " ryan doesn't help himself at times, indeed its sometimes hard to defend him but on this occasion he did nothing but celebrate and certainly never confronted anyone"

Lets face it. Neither of them are worth 16 words, never mind 16 pages.