Not really. Its clear that Burgess will only be used for injury cover as he is going out on loan. He desperately wants first team rugby to earn an NRL contract, going out on loan suits both parties.

Cross hasn't been any where near the side since the Cas win just after Easter. He might aswell go.

Lets be honest our coach has treated both like sh#*.

There's been many below par performances that warranted changes and both got over-looked and both offer more than Kirke imo.

The more concerning thing for me is who has made this call ,Brian Mc therefore indicating he's staying beyond the end of the season and will take charge of our re-structure (God Help Us) or was t it GH making space for new arrivals.

I know the players are credited with the requests but it's obvious they were'nt in favour.

Burgess wanting to leave for the NRL is not surprising and losing Cross isn't gonna decimate the squad but i think he deserved better lets hope this "ruthless streak" continues onto Senior ,kirke and Ali.

I'm not buying that. Leeds aren't short of cash. Having senior players as backup to the first team squad would be welcomed at any Super League club. Loaning senior players out is a very rare occurance and releasing quota players early is almost unheard of.



I reckon you've agreed a deal to sign someone and need the cap room to bring them into the squad this season.

Which quality players would want to come to a club with 2 clowns in charge?

Burgess and Cross appear to have been treated terribly. I feel even more pessimistic about the next few years now.

To be fair, all that Cross has shown us that he is a Penalty Machine

Yep, all of them were a massive dissapointment on Friday night.

I hope GH is not basing his opinions on 1 out 10 decent performances by Bailey.

I know I'm dozy at this time of day and missed this thread earlier but Cross has not been treated shabbily. It was clear very early on that he was reluctant to put his reputation to the test and work hard. When he was in the team he always looked pedestrian and lacking in passion. If that came across on the terraces so loud and clear then it must have been even more obvious to the insiders and wage payers.

We were in no position to "release Burgess", he was out of contract and had told us he was off to Aus. That has been widely predicted on here for about 18 months. It's a shame but no surprise.



As for Cross, meh.

Maybe there's more to it than we know... I've been wondering if given the form of some of the players that have been left out recently (Burgess, Clarkson) if there's been some discipline problems, and while Cross hasn't been amazing for us I was really surprised we wasn't in the 19 for last Sundays match given that our 2 main props were playing on Friday in the international.



Something else I noticed at the game on Sunday but didn't think too much of it at the time was that Burgess was named in the 19 man squad and Clarkson wasn't, yet Clarkson was warming up with the squad so I assume he was 18th man? Was that just a change once McDermott knew all the players had come through the Exiles game, or is there a bit more to it?

This suggests to me that they may be looking at recruiting elsewhere. Centre springs to mind.

The players are probably going at the end of the season and it may be worthwhile loaning/ bringing in a centre

Yup. That is what disappoints me. That our coach thinks that Kirke is a better option at prop than Burgess.



BTW, I will disagree with your comment about what is the primary reason we lose to the big sides. I think the primary reason is busy blowing up a rubber glove somewhere.