If he picks up an injury we are well and truly stuffed (bit like early last season)

Do you think Gary H already has players lined up from NRL after his trip last year and do Cooper and Kaufusi feature?

The squad needs some new faces but talk of a mass clearout is an over reaction IMO.
The Head coach must shoulder the majority of the blame although injuries have deprived him of fielding his strongest side. A top quality coach can have a big influence with the same group of players. TS at Wire and Maguire at Wigan have transformed their clubs fortunes without massive overhauls of the playing squads.
Hypothetical question maybe, but if TS had taken over our squad of players in the off season we would be a far more competitive side than we are ATM.

I think a complete clearout, is a little over the top, and may affect the swuad in a negative way, instead of positively. We need to get rid of the deadwood in the squad, and players that can easily be replaced in the youth. I reckon we will see Webb, Ali, Kirke, Bailey and maybe Senior leave. I think we need to sign Kylie on a 1 year contract, and JP maybe 2 years. We SHOULD offer Burgess a 3 year deal, whether he will accept is another question. But in my opinion a clearout would only affect the squad negatively.

would like to think so, but can't imagine he will. Those are 2 names that have been thrown about, but no solid rumours. The only real rumours for us are Heath L'Estrange and Andy Lynch...

I'd like to have seen us make more of an effort to keep Burgess too. He's had obvious flaws in his game over the past few years, but this year he's seemed to be ironing them out and looks like turning into a very good prop in the near future. We've all heard that he wants to try his hand in Australia with his brothers, and fair enough. But we could have at least *tried* to keep him.

What's more likely to change his mind? Playing him every week and showing him that he'd be giving up a spot as an important member of the squad if he leaves, or leaving him on the sidelines for a month and saying we rate him lower that Ian Kirke? If his mind wasn't made up, McDermott's made it up for him. Why would he accept a 3-year deal with us as things stand?

Also re Burgess, even if he does leave for Aus, we may well want him back whether it works out for him or not. No point in burning any bridges with him.

Generally if a player is announced to be leaving I don't see any reason not to pick them (unless they're going to yawnion, in which case they should be burned at the stake).

This post is so over the top incorrect.

A lot on here keep going on abou Maguire at Wigan. What he had was a massive overhaul of the squad to change their fortunes. He had exactly what Leeds had in 2003, a lot of class youngsters to choose from which were ready, and added experience like Deacon and Riddell to it. Huge changes happened at Wigan compared to what Noble did before him. Personally I still have always been of the opinion that Wigan got lucky last year due to the injuries Saints and Leeds had, and this season is proving me something correct.

I already showed last week how Smith had overhauled the playing squad at Wire in order to get where they are now. He took the club backwards as far as the league was concerned in his first season at Wire. Then with player changes took it forward significantly.

Let's look at Friday honestly. For 50 minutes of that game Leeds were the better side. Most posters accept they put in a very good first half. So if it is all ok for 50 minutes, what is happening for the other 30 minutes? Do people seriously believe that the coach is giving instructions from the sidelines to say "ok we have done enough good things now, lets go crap"? Is he hell, so something is wrong out on the field.

Do you not believe we would have performed any better this season with a different coaching setup?

Confidence and belief that they will win is not there. You should know that much of what a team accomplishes is based on iron clad self belief. Saints have it, we don't. It's leaked out of this squad over the last 12 months and McDermott and Lowes have just made more holes in the barrell I'm afraid.

Confidence is built from defence. If you believe in your defensive structure, technique and communication then you will have enough confidence in what you can do should you lose the ball to try things with it.