I'd rather have the feeling that the squad is picked on fitness and form (rather than out and out reputation) and that no-one is dropped after a good performance in the shirt.



Of course players returning from injury also need an opportunity to step up once they become available.

Kirke's a bit of an enigma to me. At 6 foot 4 and nearly 18 stones, he should be causing a lot more damage to the opposition than he does. That said he's certainly shown willing this season, and on Friday really stepped up his game.



Bailley may have to up his game as well, if he's going to be in contention for a spot. Which means of course, there's some healthy competition at Headingley.

Along with 2 wins against 2 poor sides who are just making up the SL numbers.

I mentioned this on Friday night, I honestly cant see McDermott dropping a player who is on form, to me he doesnt seem that sort of coach

I certainly don't disagree with your comments about Friday's game but "this season" presumably includes his 4 carry display last Sunday?

I suspect that Kirke continues to offer pretty good value for money. You can't fill your whole squad with world beaters. He comes in, covers two positions and does a decent job, rarely lets anyone down (Wembley "tackle" on Atkins being an exception). I think that makes him a valuable squad player.



As for Leeds' prospects this season, it's very early days, but 2 wins in the bank at this stage, out of what could have been 2 fairly tricky games, isn't a bad return. We don't look weak in any position and have a couple of big names to come back. Lots of improving to do, but I'd rather do that improving with points in the bag. Hard to look much beyond Wigan and Saints for the top 2 at the moment, but it's a long season. I seem to recall it being quite hard to look past Leeds until mid July in 2005, for example. I think a top 3 finish is realistic, and I wouldn't rule us out of the silverware at the moment.

Agree with all that El Diablo, except perhaps Saints being an obvious choice for top 2. I'm not sure they look as strong as in previous years, especially in the backs. In fact they are probably at a similar stage of transition to us, ie. Integrating some younger players but still with plenty of quality to be competitive and challenge for silverware.

Wigan looked impressive from what i saw on the SL show last night, some cracking tries with the ball going through lots of hands

Following last years success, with the same coaching structure, similar player and some high quality additions I think they will hard to beat. I don't think they're unbeatable but they are as solid as anyone defensively and have some great ball players going forwards.

indeed.

To be fair, it did look more like the Bradford side from the last 20 minutes at Cardiff than the one from the opening hour of that game.



Going to be a long old season for the Bulls fans IMO - be interesting to see how many of the "new" season ticket holders stick it out.

I dont think Kirke is ever gonna be an England Int (but then again i never though Darrell Griffin would be either) but he puts in the effort like against Bratford and Cas away last season chasing back especially Cas game we had won and there were no real need for him to chase that far but to defend the points against tally. I think every team needs the hard working players!