With regard to Briscoe, I'm on the same page.

As far as wingers go generally, there is a place in the game for all shapes and sizes; however, speed, agility, catching and jumping are the essentials to be a world class player. Having said that, was not always the case?

Not so sure about him being told not to jump for high balls in second half, but if so, surely he was told to ensure the catcher was tackled... on a few occasions he just stood there and did not even attempt to lay a finger on the opposion winger!!

My worry with Briscoe is not just his lack of height or competitive qualities in the air, it's his general dexterity. He has dropped plenty of kicks unchallenged this season, and seems to drop more and more ball coming out of defence. Would you pick him against Wigan next week, and do you think he will be picked ?

should he be picked? no
will he get picked? quite possibly

He's finished as a winger. He will always get exposed against taller wingers, but the most worrying thing for me is that he's lost a yard or two of pace. If you're not a big winger you need to at least have pace to provide a running threat. To me, I think he needs to be moved into the centres (not necessarily at Leeds btw). If he stays on the wing he will continue to be exposed. I feel sorry for him in a way, we've not really got any viable alternative, Handley is no better, and Walker and Golding would still have the issue of being too short and would lack the physicality when bringing the ball back, but at least they'd offer some kind of running threat.

had walker been on the bench, we could have taken Briscoe off (again) and moved Golding to the Wing

And if Briscoe played ok then how do you use Walker?

The last time McDermott selected a bench almost covering for Briscoe was magic weekend and he had no hesitation in dragging him off and yet the same people rip him for it saying he's ruined the guys confidence. Now he should've dragged him off apparently. As much as Briscoe was struggling it's not easy to replace a winger at HT in a game, the only option would be Watkins to wing, Moon centre, Lilley HB and we'd have still lost and he'd have gotten slated for moving Watkins from centre.

This is a fair point tbh what i will say is why continually pick Briscoe if his shoulders aren't ok or more importantly imo when his confidence issues have been there so long?
We do have options squad wise even if we dont pick Handley ,Keinhorst is comfortable on the Wing or Golding is an option with Moon back at Centre & Lilley in the halves.

Does Golding offer a running threat?