I'm sure they did. But whatever anyone thinks of the respective qualities of Dwyer or leeming, moving from a position of having four mid table standard hookers on our books to having two isn't really progress in the short term.

No disrespect to either O'Connor or Johnson btw. I'm commenting on the now, not on their potential.

I think it's a prime example of how the squad has been mismanaged in the last few years.

Having Leeming and Dwyer who both have similar downsides as first choice hookers was clearly never going to work - Smith obviously saw this hence Dwyer gone and OConner shifting positions(successfully IMO).

The Leeming situation is one I can't get my head around really - he's always seemed like a decent professional and one that puts the team first so this has come out of the blue, but I do think it's a bizarre thing to do, he's basically thrown his Leeds Career away without having something lined up, the only thing I can think is he has actually got something lined up, if that's the case I would have thought it would be in the NRL because clubs aren't allowed to talk to contracted players at this stage of the season are they?

Get an NRL gig, play in the lower grade for 6wks, get a SL offer and return home, is that the plan here?

If Smith ain't gonna pick him then it suits all parties to get him off the books asap. I'm guessing that we'll be encouraging club's to talk to him. Assuming he's on £10k a month it's barely worth holding out for the kind of fee he's likely to command if it means dragging out his departure for a few months.

So it looks like he's signing for Gold Coast. Fair play to him, I hope he does well

Yeah, really big and exciting move for him. We need to move quickly now, and get a quality player in……..

I doubt that is going to happen because the player will have to none quota.

The speed at which this has happened suggests something's been in the offing for a while. The Titans finally have a good coach, but its taking him a while to turn them around, as they were an utter basket case.

Gildart been mentioned. Would not be keen personally, but realistic option, as won’t be getting game time at Dolphins and reportedly missing a meat and potato pie!

If we signed Gildart it would just be for the sake of it. I don't think he's a guaranteed starter and he plays in a position we're ok in.

Agreed. Think we'd be well advised to keep our powder dry on this one. It's not like Leeming was first choice hooker anymore, so he hasn't left a major gap, especially when you consider that Johnson is now fit. Better to use the cap space where it will really make an impact (which might be next year) rather than an end up with a player we don't really need.

Hopefully there's another hooker option among the squad. If either O'Connor/Johnson get injured for any time we'll be down to one....