Injuries play a major part in both short term and long term performance of sports teams. Unfortunately for Rugby League players, any innate physical weakness will ultimately affect their wellbeing playing at the top level of our sport. The 5 year deal given to Delaney was one of the worst decisions made by our club management. We didn't need the benefit of hindsight to realise this, he was continually injured before the deal was on the table. Basing so many of our hopes on the likes of Magsy and JJB is also naive to say the least, their historical injury woes have been well documented. I personally think our club is struggling not just because of injuries, I have to say we are the slowest, least fit and physically weakest team in Superleague. This is not necessarily the fault of every player. They don't put themselves in the team, they are not offering themselves contracts, and they can't change their basic body shape, speed or resilience. They are playing for Leeds because they have been chosen, that is entirely a management issue. For me our back row forwards sum up our physical weakness perfectly, slow, lacking in agility and unfortunately injury prone. While most teams have back rowers that can bust a hole and go half the length of the field, we have a unit that would struggle to even run half the length of the field. While I have up to this point not singled out individuals, there is a lot of players in our team that individually and collectively do not fit the criteria as top Superleague players. Name me one back rower that could chase back 50 yards to save a try and I will present you with a large hold-all filled with gold sovereigns in the middle of the pitch before our next home game.
