It has been a long, tough season, not least for the YEP’s Leeds Rhinos Jury.
, Saints and Catalans showed what we could do and there were games we lost by a point or two - against St Helens, Castleford and Hull KR - which we could have won with a few less errors.
If we’d done that we would be in the playoffs, but big losses to Wigan and Catalans away at the end of the season showed the dark side of this team and an early exit from the Challenge Cup was another disappointment. There’s no doubt injuries and players leaving has been an issue; from the team that beat St Helens at the beginning of the season, seven players have either left or ended the year injured. No team can cope with that sort of upheaval.
We now have a closed-season to rebuild and restart. I am sure Rohan Smith is the man for the job of building a team of mainly local lads, plus the odd signing who will add experience. All our winning teams, the late 60s 77-78, the golden generation, have been built around local youngsters and if we do that I’m sure we can get back to winning ways. We have had some good youngsters coming through and hopefully this year’s experience will serve them well.
James McDonnell was Rhinos' best signing of 2023, according to Jury member Sam Brocksom. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.