Give it a rest! Two tries, two assists and in the right place at the right time on several occassions today. For me he was man on the match. A young lad coming back from several injuries and finding some form. What sort of supporters do we have here!

Laithwaite was doing very well.
The severity of his injury and the actual level he was at was at meeting with our desire to win the GF and having a fit enough squad to do so, I think had an influence in his release.

A try and an assist again first half.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Wires71's list of "miss outs" on Smith's watch, puts a further black cloud, on Smith's legacy.

Yes, there were some poor achievers on that list, but still some with potential. Smith's eye was being cast elsewhere, on his little projects like Wheeler and Bailey. "I can rebuild them" was his mantra, rather than looking at what we already had, and cost us nowt.
Looking at how much Smith revitalised Briers' career, and getting the best out of Wood, Carvell in their latter years, as well as improving others, yet those lads mentioned just fell/falling away is another nail in Smith's coffin.
Unfortunately, it became [iall about him[/i in his last couple of seasons.

We've not had a decent crop of youngsters at the same time since Penny, Harris, Hilton, Wainwright, Roper and Sculthorpe. Now, I'm not comparing those names with 71's list, but, with proper attention, they could have been A LOT better.

Hope his hamstring hasn't gone yet again, his career has been so stop/start with injuries.

So which of our players failed to develop because of being kept out by Wheeler and Bailey?