: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:42 am  

the flying biscuit wrote:

is that a bad thing though Rob?

if it means Wires get a Nat wood instead of a Matt King then thats fine by me.

who would Leeds fans rather have Andrew Dunneman or Danny Buderus Willie Poching or Brett Mullins ...best (only) examples I could think of...!!

Si, i know where your coming from ........ When your bringing over so many NRL players to SL you are bound to get your flops that either don`t settle, arn`t suited by the type of game in SL or simply can`t be bothered lifting a finger for the massive wages they are picking up.

But to me our game will be a lot worse if it lost the Brent Webb`s of this world along with the likes of Matt Gidley, Jamie Lyon (the past version), Adam Mogg, Clint Greenshields, Shaun Berrigan, Scott Donald, Lesley Vainikolo, both the Paul`s in the past etc etc just to name a few.

Those above are just a few that have made SL great to watch in recent times, if we went back to just british players and the foriegners in the over 30 club that are just here for a last pay day then our game will become a lot worse spectacle, yeh you have to give british talent a chance but we will never get anywhere near to the standard of the Aussies simply because our youngsters don`t grow up in a naturally athletic enviroment where they are doing fitness things from a very early age.

A lot of the time of which you know yourself from experience a lot of people can`t be @ssed to turn up for training when it starts to rain or its snow and cold weather in December and Jan etc, in Australia from the things you read and pick up the kids out there can`t wait to go to the sporting acadmies and work out etc.

I just think the mentallity in this country with the likes of RL and football isn`t professional enough and it never will be in my lifetime, too many distractions come first wih our budding sportsmen.

: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:44 am  

sally cinnamon wrote:

snip

Wasn't Kirke Rhino's academy.

: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:45 am  

~ No1 Saints Fan ~ wrote:

Wasn't Kirke Rhino's academy.

York I think

: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:46 am  

~ No1 Saints Fan ~ wrote:

Wasn't Kirke Rhino's academy.

No, think he came from York or somewhere like that, isn't he a lot older than you think, like 27/28.

: Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:46 am  

We desperately need a catalyst, an inspirational player. It probably won't be an obvious choice either. Any ideas?

: Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:54 am  

Dunemann was at Leeds the year before Smith arrived, and Marcus Bai had agreed a deal with Leeds for 2004 before they hired Smith as coach.

On the question about the young players who were brought through, these are guys who were given their debuts by Smith and went onto be first teamers:

Huddersfield:

Eorl Crabtree
Hefin O'Hare
Matt Whitaker
Jon Grayshon
Paul White

Leeds:

Carl Ablett
Ashley Gibson
Lee Smith
Ian Kirke
Jordan Tansey
Danny Williams
Ryan Hall
Scott Murrell debuted under Smith at Leeds, but went onto be a first team regular with Hull KR

as well as those there were a few players who had made a handful of appearances before he arrived, but became regulars under Smith - Ben Cooper and Chris Langley at Hudds, and Liam Botham and Nick Scruton at Leeds. Smith have Botham (London) and Scruton (Hull) a loan spell to get some first team games under their belt before they established themselves at Leeds.

Most of the young backline Leeds have now came through under Smith. When he arrived at Leeds, there were already a lot of forwards and halves in their early 20s who were quite experienced in SL, but the backline had a lot of senior players. One by one Smith moved out Connolly, McKenna, Bai and Cummins - then Calderwood and Chev Walker left for bigger deals elsewhere. He brought in Donald and Webb to give some experience but he filled the rest of the spaces with the guys named above.

The one who he missed was Peter Fox, who was at Leeds Academy when he was there, but Smith rated him behind Smith, Gibson, Tansey etc in the pecking order. He was a couple of years older than them and Smith let him move on to Wakey.

: Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:33 pm  

mark_m wrote:

We desperately need a catalyst, an inspirational player. It probably won't be an obvious choice either. Any ideas?

Luke Robinson.