Leeds Rhinos fans reflect on rugby league season so far, debate Rohan Smith's future, pick out big improvers

There’s a feeling Rhinos have good enough players to be higher on the Betfred Super League ladder going into Friday’s visit of Huddersfield Giants, so our panel have questioned the team’s style of play and coach Rohan Smith’s future.

DAVID MUHL

We are seven games into the 2024 Super League season and sitting just four points off the leaders so I don’t think that’s too bad a start considering we have recruited a new spine which always takes time to gel. It has been an up and down start with good wins against Catalans and Leigh, but a disappointing performance against Warrington.

There is a lot of talk on social media about Rohan Smith. He doesn’t seem to have been taken to all the fans’ hearts yet, but I like him - and the players certainly do and that’s the important thing. I’m sure if we stick with him we’ll reap the rewards.

I think we have a good squad, a blend of youth and experience, but I do think we are lacking an extra big forward. The pack seems to be struggling to get on top in games, which would give our backs more opportunities.

There are some good signs: Lachie Miller has fitted in well at full-back, he looks the real deal and I just love the barnstorming runs of Sam Lisone. I think most of the new signings are settling in well and look forward to seeing more from them.

It was disappointing we exited the cup at the first hurdle, I do like a good cup run although the cup seems to have lost its popularity in recent years and attendances across the board were well down on equivalent Super League fixtures. I don’t know what the answer is to this, but I will be at Wembley as usual cheering on the underdog (as long as it’s not Wigan). Huddersfield are next up at HQ on Friday and they will be buzzing after their confidence-boosting win at Catalans. I’m expecting a big performance. This is a chance for us to get back on track and start the climb up the table.

BECKY OXLEY

I’ve got to start this week by talking about the Rhinos’ fantastic win against Warrington in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Challenge Cup. What a solid game and a 70-10 win takes them nicely into the semis.

After a year of injuries, Evie Cousins made an amazing debut with two tries and I’m excited to see how she is going to play this season. The women start their Super League season on Friday in the double-header against Huddersfield and I really hope they get the support they deserve. I, for one, will be cheering them on from the terraces

Seven matches into the Super League season for the men’s team, we are joint eighth in the table and fans are calling for Rohan Smith to be sacked. I am not one of those and overall I don’t think we are doing too badly. The teams we have been beaten by are all above us in the league and we have shown a lot of good attacking play and defensive skills.

The team is a new one in many ways and playing is the only way we are going to learn as a team. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were any of the teams of the past. The golden era took time to come together and I think fans expect the same all the time. The team we have now has class players in there; they will gel and I’m sure they will prove people wrong and be there at the end of the season fighting for a Grand Final win.

IAIN SHARP

After a blank weekend for Leeds, I feel a little like the school teacher sitting down to write a mid-term report. Following that theme, Leeds have been like school dinners …hot one week and distinctly cold the next. We’re not as bad as last year, which isn’t saying much, but we should be looking far more coherent than we do at times.

There can be no excuse, with a freshly pruned squad, talented players purchased and what should have been a decent pre-season behind them. There’s the old adage of taking time to gel, but for those of us of a certain age, it didn’t take the late, great Graham Murray this long to get a grip of his squad and get them firing. The Warrington and St Helens games showed starkly how far off the pace we are.

The wider game seems to have settled too. The ludicrous bans seem to have been curtailed, however I appreciate the difficult position the game was in with insurers, pending civil court action and the need to be showing it is clamping down on high tackles.

With every game televised too, I’ve dispensed with the bottle of Tipp-Ex I’d usually have used by now, when fixtures were changed at short notice. We just need to get the captain’s challenge to be introduced now. Maybe marketing giants IMG are finally dragging the RFL into the 21st Century.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

Looking back at the start of our 2024 season, it is very difficult to assess where we are as a team. There has been some improvement from the 2023 season, but whether this is down to the quality of players we have brought in or genuine improvement in how we play remains to be seen.

We have won four out of seven Super League games and some of our star players look like being back to their best, Mikolaj Oledkziand Ash Handley being the major improvements. It was never going to be an easy ride in 2024 but I believe the club is on the right trajectory.

Where has this air of disappointment come from then? When we are at our best, we are unstoppable. However, times when we have seen this have been few and far between. When we have lost, the level of performance and effort has been way below what we expect and it looks like no lessons have been learned from 2023. The lack of ideas in attack and constant errors really makes me question what we do behind the scenes.

This brings me nicely on to the hot topic at the moment - do we stick with Rohan Smith or bring someone else in? Personally, I do like him, I think he has done an incredible job to turn around the toxic atmosphere at the club and bring in some quality players. However, this is his squad now and we need to be doing better. There have been no 80-minute performances yet and with the money spent on players, top-four really should be the minimum. If he doesn't get a result on Friday, I do fear that the axe will swing and we will be looking for a new head coach.

Looking ahead to the game against Huddersfield, this is a must win. There are no excuses going into this one; we have the better team and we should be beating them in front of a home crowd. The week off should have provided a good rest for the boys and hopefully this will give us the edge over our Yorkshire rivals.

GAVIN MILLER

This enforced break, due to our inability to progress in the Challenge Cup, has given me the opportunity to reflect on my expectations for this season. We seem to have been in a perennial rebuild since Brian McDermott failed to recognise a once in a generation squad was coming to an end and desperately needed refreshing.

Coaches and many players have come and gone: hookers, half-back pairings, forwards, the lot. Some kids have come through and disappeared, either fulfilling their potential or failing to do so, going to Wigan or Bradford Bulls. Legends have also had input, with varying levels of success, yet the general feeling is that we haven’t moved forward.

So what are my expectations? Honestly, my expectations are victories, titles, cups, the lot. We are Leeds, we have been there, we have been spoiled with multiple Grand Finals and Challenge Cup finals and we should be competing at the top of the table.

We have the infrastructure, the finances, the support, the facilities; what we don’t appear to have at the moment is the personnel or the calibre of people to bring the personnel through or in. Our underperformance over the last number of years has been criminal, but no one has been charged and plenty are still getting away with it.