Major problems in Leeds Rhinos squad

Leeds Rhinos have gone from competing with the likes of Wigan Warriors and St Helens at the top of Super League to six years straight without a top four finish and this year matters were made worse by the fact they missed out on the play offs all together.

The club is set for a massive rebuild but could they have more problems to solve than they can find feasible answers for this winter?

This is because they have four positions they need to address but only a finite amount of salary cap and only two quota spots to use.

The Rhinos really should have only had three positions to address: stand-off, prop and hooker but the saga around Nene MacDonald has created a fourth problem.

The Rhinos are in need of a stand off with only one halfback brought in in the shape of Matt Frawley.

Meanwhile, a prop is needed with Zane Tetevano and Sam Walters leaving whilst Leeds are looking for a new hooker as well.

This may leave them with too many problems to solve making 2024 another transitional season.

They have seemingly made a major step in closing in on Brodie Croft but there are still other problems to solve.

Recently Rohan Smith said of the squad:

“There’s a lot of spirit, there’s a lot of ability, and there’s a lot of a belief in this group, the group that played, but also the group in and around that are injured and unavailable. So we’ve learned a lot.

“We’ve let ourselves down at various times this year. Some other people have let us down as well and left us short on troops at times, but we’ve kept fronting up and they’ve kept connected and they’ve worked together and they’re good mates. They haven’t turned.

“It’s still been enjoyable to me. Hard, but enjoyable and that’s what life and sport is supposed to be. Last year going to the grand final, it was hard and enjoyable as well. So nothing much shifts for me,

“There’s a lot of belief in that group. There’s a lot of good people. There’s a lot of good things happened in this club, behind the scenes, throughout the year. And there’s foundations being laid.

He also confirmed the club would make around three signings but there will still be problems in the squad to solve:

“Lots of review this week. Staff have got a full week of it, it’ll probably be the hardest week of the season for the staff to debrief and to get forward planning.

“The players will have a debrief later in the week individually, medical and that stuff. That’s important, a really important week for us this week.

“Then there’s a bunch of recruitment that’s going on in the background to get those last few spots signed off and then the planning really starts which to me is a really enjoyable and fun part of the season. No matter how this season finished, getting the next one prepared is something I love to do.”

“There’s probably three spots I reckon, depending if there’s any other movement amongst our roster.”