Does anyone know who's out of contract next year ? A little bird tells me one of our potentially good young forwards who might make his debut this weekend is been courted by Warrington and already has an offer on the table from West TIgers in the NRL.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=540697&tsmp=1370388445 Have a look on here, am I right to assume you are talking about Jordan Baldwinson?

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=540697&tsmp=1370388445 Have a look on here, am I right to assume you are talking about Jordan Baldwinson?

Is Jordan any relation to Billy Baldwinson, who was a decent forward for Hunslet at the old parkside ground many years ago.

I have no doubt that Vickery will be shown the door, but that Bailey will nab himself a new deal and continue to ride on the coat-tails of his colleagues.

How does he get away with it?

You really should have informed all the previous coaches and current coach along with GH. Just to make them aware. You have a moral obligation.

Andy Gilder seems to know more than the Leeds Rhinos infrastructure.

I wouldn't worry some posters appeared to be impressed by Vickery in pre-season friendlies and probably now think like Gilder that he'll be shown the door so such opinions should probably be taken with a pinch of salt.

Vickery was impressive in the friendlies. Very impressive in the boxing day game.

Very below average since mind.

2 year contract at Auckland warriors for Baldwinson and his mate mason Tonks a little bird tells me !

If we have lost Tonks as well, then the top management at this club need to be asking serious questions. Really poor management.

Hull did the same when they lost Briscoe, and questions really need asking at Leeds.

The question I'm guessing being 6 grand final wins, 7grand finals, 3 Wcc, 4 cc finals, with a team of home grown stars, who have then slowly but surely been replaced, now blooding more top quality youngsters in Sutcliffe, Ward, foster and minns to join The like is Watkins and hardaker McShane and Clarkson, what on earth do we need to do to earn the trust of our fan base so that every time a decent youngster leaves our judgement isn't 'seriously questioned'?

If true it speaks volumes about how poor the Warriors' junior development is, given that they are consistently amongst the best at junior level and essentially have the pick of junior RL in NZ.

It says absolutely nothing about Leeds' retention strategy if an overseas team is willing and able to play untried juniors signigifcantly more than SL rates for teenagers with virtually no experience, especially when other lads have remained - presumably on similar amounts of money to what Leeds have offered them. It would similarly say nothing at all if another SL club was willing to use a significant chunk of cap money to lure them away.

As far as Baldwinson is concerned, it seems a bit 'Luke Burgess' to me - he got a game, was ahead of Foster etc in the pecking order, and all set to be the next forward brought into the first team after Ward. The timing of the Warriors rumours would suggest that he's basically set to go, so Leeds - rightly IMO - aren't going to waste any more first team time on a lad who's not up to SL standard yet and will not be here next season.

Try and seperate the things then you might understand.

Put the trophy success aside, you have to because the academy is future, not 2004,2007,2008,2009, or even 2011 and 2012. The academy is going forward.

Baldwinson is a blow to lose. To add Tonks is massive. They even sent Tonks over to Australia the other year to aid his development, he was that highly thought of. He might well never have made it, but he was part of there strategy.

If you are losing your future identified stars due to not tying them up, then you need to ask serious questions about how these things happen. Hull did the exact thing after losing Briscoe,

It doesn't matter about previous or current success. If you set out a strategy to promote from within and maintain success, if you lose parts of that strategy you hit a problem going forward.

At end of last season, I posted that Baldwinson, Tonks, Foster, and Minchella should be what our future pack is built with, and should be introduced this year and build development. As far as I am aware the club was also looking that way. To lose half of those players now is surely a blow to them. Therefore any self respecting business would ask questions of themselves and put things in place to ensure it doesn't happen again. Remember the academy is a seperate side to the business from the first team. It's job is to provide a pool of players equipped for 1st team, and usually that is built up over a few years.