Sika Manu and jared waerea Hargreaves. Job done. Next!

I can't believe all the clamour for signing a replacement for McGuire after his injury. Danny will recover from this injury, he has already said publically that he expects to beat the "return to work date", so we are looking at somewhere between 6 - 9 months out. Given that we will have 4 months of off-season, he will miss (upto) 5 months of the season, which is around half of it.



We have at least two very capably players to fill in for Danny in Webb and Sinfield, who both have equally competent replacements for the positions that they would vacate to fill in for Danny, in BJB and Clarkson, so it's ridiculous to start claiming that we simply have to replace Danny.



One of the best things about this team is its spirit and character, which in the main is created by local players being looked after by the club, and this starts with when they are injured.



The only position we need to really need to strengthen is Prop as already indicated by some on here, anything else is pure folly, including those who seem to believe that Benji Marshall would suddenly have improved everyone else in the team by 15%. Only Danny Buderus could do that...

Who said anything about " replacing " him ?? I didn't



Some might wish to compliment our existing half backs..... I would prefer to complement them.



( actually I would like to do both )



Seems some on here ....more in the know.....know the club is covering the bases with young uns....and more astute signings. That will do me.

I really hope Danny does beat the medicals predicted date but he equally could take longer and some just never recover fully from this injury. I am not suggesting to replace Danny but for such a key position we do need some cover either a youngster (prefered) for the long term or a proven 6 on a short term contract. In the course of DM's absence its sods law that one or other of our playmakers will also get injured so its just good management to provide an umbrella in case it rains.

Genau ! It does appear that has been done. Good management Buderus excepted continues to prevail.

For mine Mcguire has never regained his electryfying pace of 2004.



At the start of 05 he picked up some sort of hamstring injury and ever since then he's not been as fast and his game has been evolving ever since.

I can only assume you have had your eyes closed this season.



Batley Rhino, finally you're starting to talk some sense.

Acceleration not what it was in 04. In 04 he was [iblistering[/i. Watch that try he scored against bradford in the first 40 seconds at headingly. He can't accelerate like that now. He picked up an injury at the start of 05 which was when burrow finally became the regular 7 and not an impact sub.

McGuire's still pretty quick. Even if he comes back permanently a bit slower I'd hope and expect his game to change to compensate as it would have had to do anyway through age.



The only interesting thing about the Marshall comparison is that Marshall on his day is the best in the world creatively, and probably shows something like what McGuire would have turned into had he gone to the NRL 5 years ago. However, Marshall's genius is quite temperamental. A lot of games Wests lose he gets a lot of stick for.



I've no idea why anyone would actually contemplate signing anyone other than possibly a kid from another club to backup halfback. At this stage all we know is McGuire can come back next season, and as Batley said, a huge part of Leeds' recent success is down to team spirit, which comes in part from the club showing loyalty to players.

A short term aussie signing is unlikely, due to logistics etc. Certainly not at the start of the season. Best hope would be to get someone from another SL side, though I can't see there being too many halfbacks who would come on short term loan from another SL side.



For me, we need to make do with an academy product in the scenario that one of Danny's replacements also gets injured. I don;t see that any of the other options would yield a decent solution

Any academy prospect will have a full preseason to work with Burrow (it's not like he will be going on tour), which gives plenty of time to get some things sorted. Then they can put it into practice with the preseason games. If it doesn't work we then go back to plan B of Sinfield or Webb.

Are you suggesting that Sinfield to stand off won't be Plan A for the start of 2011, assuming McGuire doesn't make a quicker than expected recovery?