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Leeds fans have been singing "when the Leeds go marching in" since at least the 1980s.

The Aussie touch stuff is possibly a good place to start - https://touchfootball.com.au/coaching-resources/ https://touchfootball.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Foundation-Schools-Resource-Version-7.pdf https://touchfootball.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Touch-Football-Play-for-Life.pdf

As a replacement I've stated I'm a fan of Richard Stead; but George Riley's not up to anything nowadays...

He's the second choice full back and should be used if the alternative is playing a second row at stand off.

Surprised he's flying out to Brisbane for his swansong. I thought it was reported he was doing a local game that's being payed in a football stadium.

Walker was injured. I'm talking about Ash Golding who it looks like will never be selected again despite being only a year or so into a 5 year contract. Leeds clearly want to force him out (this bit is Sinfield's job) by not selecting him but he's being paid, is in the salary cap and has a squad number. I don't think he is as good as Walker but he'd certainly have been effective out there compared to shuffling players all over the place and making Cam Smith play stand off.

Eddie has been the voice of Rugby League over a period of tremendous change and has been the voice behind some of our most memorable, epic moments. I'm genuinely a bit sad that he's going - it's the end of a notable era when everything changed. As for who next, I would very much like to see Richard Stead from Radio Humberside/Super League Show given a go - he's a great commentator, quick on his feet (mentally, not I fear literally) and can be relatively humorous whilst still being able to focus on the action.

Well that was, pretty poor from Leeds. Hetherington and Furner were engaged in a very long, frowny-faced conversation in the Long Bar afterwards (excuse my blurry papparazzi efforts) - this went on long past 11pm; the only bit I overheard was Furner saying something (or someone) was "just not good enough". Ash Golding was there at the game, fully dressed in Leeds suit and looking utterly despondent. The mind games Leeds are playing with a young player who never gave less than 100% and who less than two years ago they gave the number 1 shirt and a five year contract to are appalling and give the lie to Sinfield's repeated bulls**t about Leeds always "doing the right thing" and "treating people right". Shifting Cam Smith to halfback to enable someone other than our reserve full back to play full back is an absolute joke.

We gave you Barnoldswick in 1974. What more do you barbarians want?

More timelapse fun from the Emerald Stadium. According to League Express there will be 1,000 people (presumably mostly corporates) in the North Stand for tonight's game. The South Stand is sold out.

To me the ground has to be appropriate to the club, in size, location and identity. A modern ground isn't inherently good or bad, it's more complex and depends on how it has been implemented. Looking at the current SL stadia - The Jungle. OK as a Leeds fan I get to see this place at its best, when it's typically packed and noisy. But it's by far and away my favourite away ground; if they could stay there and redevelop that would be ideal. As a stadium it's clearly not up to much in terms of standards but as a place that is well located and in tune with the club and what it represents it's perfect. Halliwell Jones - the best of the flat packs. Atmospheric, appropriately sized, great location. Great. Craven Park - the Zeebrugge end is a bit of a shame but it's amazing how this place has come on since I first visited in the '90s. That's partly because Rovers' crowds have increased but also the ground is now pretty tidy, on three sides at least. And it's a noisy place when they put their minds to it. Gilbert Brutus - a bit of an ugly ground in some ways but it's exotic, well located with decent facilities and it's got a pretty wild atmosphere, especially when the English referees are giving everything against the home team. KCOM - was pretty good until they closed the away end. The battles with Chav Corner were always entertaining. It's lost something now that one end is totally empty for most games. Langtree Park - sorry it's fine but it's just not configured properly: if they'd put standing down the side like at Warrington it would be a lot better. All my experiences there so far, even in pretty compelling games, have left me feeling it's lacking something somehow. DW - I've been there when this place is full for Ashes tests and the atmosphere is amazing. Even in the away end the acoustics seem pretty good. But it's just too big for the club and at regular league games it is a bit dispiriting. Belle Vue - it just doesn't do anything for me; whereas the Jungle is falling apart but enchanting, Belle Vue is falling apart and repellant. John Smiths - 18,000 empty seats and a cowbell do not a great experience make. Now when it is/was full for test matches it can be good and the three Leeds vs Bradford cup semis in the 1990s were amazing events. But it's just inherently unsuitable for Hudds games. On the plus side the location is good. A J Bell - I've skipped going there for the past three years now; the Willows had a certain retro charm. This place is just horrible. I've not been to Trailfinders yet but have happy memories of the Stoop and Griffin Park, less so the Valley. At the Stoop it just seemed to be a nice family atmosphere and a good venue with a decent ability to wander around. My favourite experiences at historic stadia were Knowsley Road, Wilderspool, Pie Park, old Post Office Road and Watersheddings. They were all falling down but were all bearpits at times and were all fully tuned into the identities of the clubs which played there, something a patina of age and memories might add but which is difficult to manufacture.

I fancy Wakey in this - Leeds have improved but they are operating in bursts of 15 minutes or so, not 80. It will be good to be finally back home, banishing memories of the utterly terrible last home game of the ill-starred Sinfield regime. I'll be watching my first Leeds game from the south side of the ground in about 15 years - looks like around 14,000 tickets sold for this one so far based on availability and what has been said about some corporates being in the North Stand so could push 15k with walkups.

Well in this case I mean properly - as it is the Competition Commission waves through mergers and acquisitions which never should be allowed, the sort of aggressive behaviour of the likes of Amazon is just ignored and they fail to intervene in industries which are clear oligopolies who indirectly if not directly collude. I believe one of, if not the biggest, problem we have in our economy is free market failure - free markets shouldn't mean the richest and most hard nosed survive and come to dominate their industries. In loads of cases demand and supply are corrupted by companies who have become impossibly large who put pressure down on suppliers of labour and raw materials and who pulverise small competitors because of their size and anti-competitive behaviour. Properly regulating our free markets in banking etc would be a much better approach than leaving things like that nationalised where there is no inherent need for the state to play a role.

Do you understand what I meant by "fiendishly well regulated" and "antitrust"?

Errr no. The inverse being some people (let's call them some conservatives) see a well publicised story that involves apparent hate against minorities and if it unravels, as it does occasionally, they get fantastically excited. Because it then gives them an excuse to ignore every other story because if one is fake they may as well all be fake. And under the rug go the issues and the Fox News tendency retreat behind their tedious and transparent snowflake "we're the persecuted ones" barriers.

I'm gonna say the woman who works her ass off but never has a chance to get close to being a CEO. But you feel free to carry on complaining about people supposedly claiming victim status whilst claiming victim status for others.

Isn't the inverse completely true as well - people with certain agendas totally overlook most crimes but take huge interest in the occasional case which turns out to be a fake? And not surprisingly some of the most egregious and attention-grabbing ones turn out to be the dubious ones. People jump out of bed if it looks like a story is fitting a preconceived notion, supporting their own claims to victimhood or their own view of victimhood. America isn't riddled with lynchings anymore. Hate crime operates at a typically lower level than that. Using fake stories to undermine the whole is frustrating and delights the Fox News obsessives who, in turn, now somehow claim that they are the victims and that minorities are somehow part of a priviliged elite.

With respect this is rubbish. These clubs aren't "holding the sport back". They are the sport. I'm all for bringing new teams in and if they are well funded and backed find a pathway for them to get to the top of the sport. But there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for this to be simultaneous with kicking the existing smaller clubs and communities which support them in the teeth. That's what I don't get with some people - hating established Rugby League clubs just for being small and just for existing and just for surviving. Clubs whose same story of backs to the wall, hand to mouth community engagement they would revel in if the location was somewhere other than the north of England.

Robert Hicks had a poor and influential game.

I've no idea how things will pan out for Leeds this season, we've had one really decent regular season out of the past eight. It's much easier though to see how desperately badly fans of poorly supported mid ranking Yorkshire clubs want it to go.

So sponsorship doesn't matter? You're all over the place on this one.

I've genuinely never heard of this bloke. Is Atkins retiring?

6-18 now. Cuthbertson, Walker & Hurrell ?

It was 2001. I think that was my favourite WCC apart from the ones involving Leeds. I remember the Aussies just looking up at the skies wondering what the hell was going on. Look at the state of the pitch though ?

Is that the one where it started snowing/hailing/something? If so that was a gift from the Gods. The Aussies didn't know what was going on.