Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:44 am  

For me, it books down to two things. We took our eye off the ball with the junior setup. We have produced some ok players in that period, but no real established internationals in that period. Looking at the England vs team, we don't really have anyone regularly in there.
Secondly, our transition from the golden generation was woeful, and we've been on the backfoot ever since, and our signings have been generally poor.

Without the solid base of great youngsters coming through, more emphasis has been on signings, and we havent been able to get played of the right calibre to come and stay to help build a team around

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:59 am  

Another brief mitigating factor has been injuries: right back to Ward who had to retire early (was a cracking player), Jack Walker was looking a real prospect at FB and then we’ve had other key players like Newman injured for long periods. All clubs get this but ai do think it’s effected Leeds.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:02 am  

One wonders how well the club managed some of those injuries.

Walker was thrown in early as a teenager and made an impact. But I wonder if he had been introduced a bit more slowly (Gannon-style) then the toil on his body could have been reduced.

Stevie Ward's issues with concussion sound horrific. Another player who seemed a bit too small for the position he was played in. It always baffled me why Ward wasn't brought through as a stand-off, which would have protected him from a lot of the collisions he was routinely subjected to. Imagine if we had the option of Ward as a half - it couldn't be any worse than Cameron Smith, who has the skills but not the speed of awareness or body to make the most of them.

Jury is still out on whether we can get on top of Newman's recurrent injury woes. I wonder if playing him at full-back might get the best out of him, and perhaps create fewer opportunities for him to have to suddenly put the foot on the gas which seems to come with extra risk of hamstring aggravations (???).

Another player with injury issues we didn't get the most out of was Kallum Watkins. With a bit more foresight we could have kept him as a useful squad player, even if he had lost confidence at centre.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 9:14 am  

all clubs have injuries. that's not a valid excuse imo

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 11:20 am  

All teams have them. But we do seem to have been disproportionately hit when it comes to our best young players. No idea why. Some of it is luck, but it certainly hasn’t helped.

Not entirely linked but interesting that Warrington have recalled Riley Dean now that Powell has gone.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:26 pm  

If we are saying injuries are to blame for our current woes then lack of quality in the squad to cover is also a factor, is the club actively doing it's best to rectify these issues?

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:42 pm  

RAPIDO wrote:

If we are saying injuries are to blame for our current woes then lack of quality in the squad to cover is also a factor, is the club actively doing it's best to rectify these issues?

I don’t think anyone’s saying it’s to blame, just that it’s a contributing factor.

To your other point, I think the signings of Mcdonell, Roberts, Hooley, Olpherts and Ruan were made with that in mind. Didn’t Smith last year say he was shocked that he was 1/2 injuries from throwing 17 year olds in. I’d say that’s been rectified. Granted Olpherts (and maybe Hooley) don’t look to have worked out but the other three are/look like they could be handy squad players at a minimum.

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:55 pm  

Some really interesting points - with a club of our size and financial muscle we shouldn't be struggling as we are. Is there some deeper undercurrent in the culture of the club that is holding back progress. We now the over reliance on the golden generation was an issue - thankfully this has passed. Having heard rumours as to how the club treated certain players plus the treatment of Furner is Leeds considered a toxic environment that stops the recruitment of the best youngsters and overseas players?

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 3:21 pm  

Listening to a part of a podcast Blake Austin was on that was posted on Twitter today seems like GH might be part of the problem?

Was talking about the NZ game after the Grand Final last year and despite 10 players been away on the mickey after the GF for several days they were all told that they had to play the NZ World Cup friendly and if they didn’t they would be in breach of contract. Was saying Martin asked GH if he could withdraw on basis that if he he got injured in a friendly he’d miss representing PNG at the World Cup but was told he had to play

Re: Have Leeds lost hunger, as a club? : Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:44 pm  

cheekydiddles wrote:

Listening to a part of a podcast Blake Austin was on that was posted on Twitter today seems like GH might be part of the problem?

Was talking about the NZ game after the Grand Final last year and despite 10 players been away on the mickey after the GF for several days they were all told that they had to play the NZ World Cup friendly and if they didn’t they would be in breach of contract. Was saying Martin asked GH if he could withdraw on basis that if he he got injured in a friendly he’d miss representing PNG at the World Cup but was told he had to play

That’s if he’s not embellishing things a little, I don’t think he’s doing his contract negotiations any good, don’t think current players should be slagging off the club like that in my opinion.

The NZ game was announced in may, Austin makes it sound like it was planned within a week.