Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:01 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

I'd liken Smithies to a younger version of Micky Mac for us. He is not going to stand out in the stats charts for anything other than the amount of tackling he does but there are no stats for what he brings. He looks like the team leader when it comes to the effort areas. He leads our line speed, constantly pressures the opposition in all areas of the field and brings aggression and intensity in everything that he does. I think he's improving the skill elements of his game as well and I would have him down as a big loss tbh. I wouldn't put him in the braket of a Sam Tomkins or George Williams loss but I'd rank his loss above guys like Sarginson, Sutton and Mossop without any shadow of a doubt.

Fingers crossed there is nothing in it. I've seen nobody who is usually in the know suggest it's a definite, so I'm hopeful.

Absolutely humongous loss if he goes.

His tackling, his marker tackles, his work rate, aggression, attitude.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:01 pm  

If Smithies were to go then O'Neill would be a possible option at 13, which would make sense as he has been spelling there recently. That would also fit Leeming in to 9 as well without dropping O'Neill who deserves a place in the team on his performances.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:12 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

No disrespect to Ian Lenagan and I say this as somebody who thinks Lenagan is a legend of this club but I hope that won’t have to be the approach going forward. There will always be exits you’d like to avoid but there has been more than enough good news to not have to have that approach of trying to dull down the noise from any bad news.

I couldn't agree more. It's sport after all and players will come and go and as you say we have had quite a lot of good news recently to offset anything.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 3:34 pm  

exiled Warrior wrote:

If Smithies were to go then O'Neill would be a possible option at 13, which would make sense as he has been spelling there recently. That would also fit Leeming in to 9 as well without dropping O'Neill who deserves a place in the team on his performances.

I think O'Neill playing significant minutes at 13 is a near certainty in any event. I don't see how we can be happy having Leeming or O'Neill playing less than 40 minutes every game.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 4:56 pm  

Cherry_&_White wrote:

I think O'Neill playing significant minutes at 13 is a near certainty in any event. I don't see how we can be happy having Leeming or O'Neill playing less than 40 minutes every game.

Even if Smithies goes we have Thompson and Ellis over O’Neil at 13.

I think our 9s will be asked to do very intense spells high energy and work rate next year. Literally gas themselves out in 20-30 minute spells before rotating them.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 5:08 pm  

jonh wrote:

Even if Smithies goes we have Thompson and Ellis over O’Neil at 13.

I think our 9s will be asked to do very intense spells high energy and work rate next year. Literally gas themselves out in 20-30 minute spells before rotating them.

We will have Radley who will replace Smithies, Field going to Catalans will make room for Radley and Hampshire will go to fullback

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 5:31 pm  

jonh wrote:

Even if Smithies goes we have Thompson and Ellis over O’Neil at 13.

I think our 9s will be asked to do very intense spells high energy and work rate next year. Literally gas themselves out in 20-30 minute spells before rotating them.

Time will tell. But wasn't one of the reasons Leeming kicked off at Leeds because he either wasn't starting games or was used more as an impact player for short bursts? (I could be wrong about that). O'Neill has great engine too, so it would be a waste not to get decent minutes from him.

I think Ellis/Thompson will be the obvious candidates for starting at 13, but I'd be surprised if O'Neill isn't spelled there similarly to Josh Hodgson has been for England from time to time.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 6:51 pm  

Did someone say we have one more signing incoming. Got to be another second rower. Maybe another project signing with the cap I imagine we have left.

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 6:59 pm  

WWste wrote:

Did someone say we have one more signing incoming. Got to be another second rower. Maybe another project signing with the cap I imagine we have left.

Nope. Its either Owen Farrell or Nathan Cleary. Just not sure which!

Re: Rumours and signings v9 : Thu Oct 05, 2023 7:14 pm  

Cherry_&_White wrote:

Time will tell. But wasn't one of the reasons Leeming kicked off at Leeds because he either wasn't starting games or was used more as an impact player for short bursts? (I could be wrong about that). O'Neill has great engine too, so it would be a waste not to get decent minutes from him.

I think Ellis/Thompson will be the obvious candidates for starting at 13, but I'd be surprised if O'Neill isn't spelled there similarly to Josh Hodgson has been for England from time to time.

Hard to say what goes on at Leeds between the players and the coach. On the face of it, it looked like Leeming wasn’t happy at losing his starting spot to O’Connor but then you’ve had Walters chhosimg to leave, Austin leaving mid season, Nene MacDonald hid in Australia and now seems destined for Salford and other guys like Newman and Holroyd have been rumoured to be unhappy.

In the right environment I think there’s a more than decent chance Leeming just gets his head down. I’m sure they’ve spoke to him about what his role will be. I do think the suggestion above that Leeming plays solely at hooker, Smithies (or somebody else) plays solely at loose forward and O’Neill shifts between the two spots is how we’ll go. The back end of this season has been a little look in to the future IMO.