I started a topic about Bailey sometime last week with the view of hearing other peoples opinions about him and it seems there is a massive gulf between those who see him not worthy of his Leeds place and those who rate him as an unrecognised asset. Ive always been neutral towards Bailey and recognised he must be doing alot more good than bad or else he wouldn't be in the team.



He did however have something to prove to me; and he did so on Friday Night. Bailey should have got man of the Match. He put in a more than worthy perfomance and it was good to see him doing so and subsequently getting the plaudits, if not officially but at least on here. I only hope firstly he is okay after the injury and secondly he continues performing like he did on Friday throughout the season.



On the subject of penalties though, so far this season he is averaging 2 a game. This is too much, no doubt about it! If it carries on at this rate and he continues to get the games it will be over 40 by the end of the season, and thats more than any one player has given away in the past 5 years of Super League. I doubt however that will be the case! Another Interesting point where past penalties are concerned are yes in 2008 he only gave away 15 penalties and if you compare Peacock gave away more (20) Im sure some of Baileys faithful will take the view of Peacock gave away more and nobody gets on his case. Thats True but when you compare metres made, tackles made etc etc etc it all levels its self out. I think its all reletive and I think and hope Bailey continues playing like he did on Friday; lets see how many people complain then....



Either way I think its safe to say Bailey needs to be recognised as an integral part of the Leeds Team whether it is seen or not. If he wasn't much good they'd have got shut of him and lets face it, we can't fault the Leeds Coaches over the past few seasons, they obviously know what they are doing.....

Agreed.

Yeah at that rate it would be too high. But realistically it won't happen. I tried to sensible with the data I picked, I mean its hard to work out any generalisations from only a few games. That's why I picked the last two seasons, in full, as I belive they report a true reflection of what actually has happened. Rather than going all Mystic Meg.

in a way friday's performance shows any past criticism Ive made (not on here) to be justified, if thats what he can do why hasnt he done it more often?



ill always criticise someone good who isnt fulfilling potential more then someone who is just a bad player - Ive always felt that Bailey could put more in than he does and Friday night goes some way to showing that



Kepp it going Mr Bailey

Imho he is consistent in that he does the hard graft and attracts penalties and attention from the opposition and whilst he stood out on friday his work often gets over-shadowed by the headlines the other team members make i.e another 60 minute stint by peacock,or brilliant tries from donald,webb,burrow or mcguire.

How much did people recognise jjb's efforts early on in his career??

There's loads of people who still think that sinfield is only a kicker.

Bailey does and always has contributed to the team maybe not always worthy of headlines or M.O.M awards and many times not as explosive as friday but he does a job for the team and i'd rather have him in the 17 than not.

He was in great form at the beginning of last season as well until he picked up the hip injury (I think it was hip). Form suffered a little after that, but not unusual for that to happen to a player.



I've always liked him for one reason in particular - opposing fans hate him. I can only assume then that they dislike seeing him in a Leeds shirt. Maybe opposing fans are subconciously more perceptive than the Leeds fans who constantly bag him?

Why didn't you highlight the rest of that quote? It would have saved you replying to it.



But to answer, what we saw on Friday is no fluke. It is what Bailey is capable of and what I am told he shows very often on the training pitch. So that said, if he hasn't put in the sort of performance on Friday in many other games (which he hasn't) then by definition he is not consistent.



That said I agree that his contribution to the team is far greater than he is given credit for, which is what I said on first page. But why settle for just that, when you are capable of more.

Unless game time in minutes is recorded it's still a bit Mystic Meg amongst the prop forwards, some of who will spend anywhere between 2 and 3 times the length of time on the park as others in a average appearance.

That was my first job when I got back here after lunch. Thanks for doing the job for me.

We agree on something.

I wondered when you'd pop up on this thread!!!





Sorry for stepping on your toes, I understand your vulnerability.



Joking aside, your 100% correct to mention game time, I thought of it but didn't want to undermine my own argument! But seeing as I don't have access to that info, mine will have to do for now. I still think it holds up, we have records of Baileys penalties in full seasons and I feel I can make assumptions on these. I'm hardly making wild generalisations. But I'll leave this end to you, I feel very uncomfortable making well structured debate.

It took me a while.