Re: 2024 l Academy, Scholarship & Reserves News : Sat May 11, 2024 7:29 am  

KaeruJim wrote:

Good result again there Matts - Brown came across well on his interview as well.

I have to say been increasingly impressed with Zak Lloyd, I really like the look of him in the back row.

Zak Lloyd is very good, always been regarded as a special talent, that can obviously change Plenty from u13's etc, but so far, he's progressing as expected, the position the club chose for him was always going to be interesting, he was the best player in Yorkshire playing centre, fullback and 6 coming through at Siddal.

As good as some of the talents are in the first year Academy group, and they are very good and very deep, Lloyd and Jacob Hardy, from our second year scholarship group, could very well be 2 of the best 3 talents in the whole system, along with Cassell, Harvey Butterworth is the third in the same intake as Hardy and Lloyd who's a top talent

Brown played his community rugby with Harley Thomas at Dewsbury Celtic, always had as good a show and go as you'l see, great talent to get back into the club and RL, and like you say, came across very well in his interview, mature beyond his years

Re: 2024 l Academy, Scholarship & Reserves News : Sat May 11, 2024 10:07 am  

mattsrhinos1978 wrote:

Zak Lloyd is very good, always been regarded as a special talent, that can obviously change Plenty from u13's etc, but so far, he's progressing as expected, the position the club chose for him was always going to be interesting, he was the best player in Yorkshire playing centre, fullback and 6 coming through at Siddal.

As good as some of the talents are in the first year Academy group, and they are very good and very deep, Lloyd and Jacob Hardy, from our second year scholarship group, could very well be 2 of the best 3 talents in the whole system, along with Cassell, Harvey Butterworth is the third in the same intake as Hardy and Lloyd who's a top talent

Brown played his community rugby with Harley Thomas at Dewsbury Celtic, always had as good a show and go as you'l see, great talent to get back into the club and RL, and like you say, came across very well in his interview, mature beyond his years

Lloyd seems to have everything, is he still 16 do you know?

Cassell is another obvious potential first grader as you say; we have a clutch of talented but slightly small outside backs too.

We aren’t going to struggle at back row or centre for a good while. I quite like Brown and Wade White too. Stelfox has some potential as well from the one time I’ve seen him play.

I’d like to see better defensive technique from some; I think at junior grades everyone gets excited about good runners but it’s only half the game. It’s one reason you can sense Cassell will make it because he has aggression and technique in D already. Interesting times.

Re: 2024 l Academy, Scholarship & Reserves News : Sat May 11, 2024 2:48 pm  

Harry Smith is an interesting one at Half Back, watching him for West Bowling, he was the number 1 target in the whole country i hoped the club would secure in his age group, ahead of Cassell, Marcus QQ, Thomas etc...He hasnt quite hit my expectations as yet in a Leeds shirt, but he's someone Mark Butterill rates as one the best halfs he's ever had in the scholarship.

Re: 2024 l Academy, Scholarship & Reserves News : Tue May 14, 2024 10:19 am  

mattsrhinos1978 wrote:

Harry Smith is an interesting one at Half Back, watching him for West Bowling, he was the number 1 target in the whole country i hoped the club would secure in his age group, ahead of Cassell, Marcus QQ, Thomas etc...He hasnt quite hit my expectations as yet in a Leeds shirt, but he's someone Mark Butterill rates as one the best halfs he's ever had in the scholarship.

Just seen the highlights drop of us v Wakey and Brown looks very smart, impressive.

Thomas I'm not convinced about yet, he looks good going forward but I don't see much in his D currently.

Cassell is developing nicely, looks pretty physical now and he's a handful for any opposition. I could actually see him making the first team squad next year and getting a couple of appearances too if he continues. With the likes of him and Lloyd coming through, Gannon fingers crossed to recover from his head knock issues, that's a very decent amount of talent for the back row. Actually think Cam Smith will need to raise his game because these young lads have so much potential.