Quote: Fat Boy "This suggests that all our previous success is down to our incumbent coach - I beg to differ.
If BMcD is solely responsible for an all conquering team then the loss of a couple of players should be irrelevant, his coaching skills will surely be able to counter losing a couple of players? He will obviously be able to coach the rest of his charges sufficiently to more than compensate for this small loss. Remember HE was the coach that brought is the Treble, HE was the coach that brought us back to back wins from 5th, HE is Leeds' most successful coach EVER.
Good old Bri will use his superior coaching knowledge to coach us out of this dilemma, he's just making us sweat for a while simply to amuse himself - why else would he have let us get to this point in the season with such a pish-poor record when he could have used his coachy super powers to ensure we didn't lose?
If Brian McDermott is such a good coach, why are we in this mess?'"
Wow what a lot of anger!
I never said or suggested that all our success was down to the coach. It is a combined effort. Usually the players rightly take the most credit for success and IMO it should also be the players who are responsible when they fail to produce the expected performances as they are supposed to be professionals. When the usually reliable actor fluffs his lines it is not the fault of the director.
To simply blame the coach for all our troubles is plain wrong. Coaches cannot prevent players dropping the ball over the line, or a high bomb, or a missed tackle not matter what they do on the training field. If half your squad is out injured you have not the luxury of being able to change the side. For most of this season we have struggle to get a full side out for training mid week let alone on match day. You are assuming the coach is making errors when you do not know at all, yet you are not calling for Watkins, Hardaker or Hall to be sacked despite awful performances that you can see for yourself week after week.
Many were critical of the coach when he didn't play Singleton and Garbutt for a couple of weeks yet they were both arguably our worst performing props in the previous game against Wigan (I think) and we did not know if there were off the field disciplinary issues or injury niggles either. When they both did return they again showed disappointing form which rather justified their previous lack of selection.
However despite the long injury list and the poor defense and the errors etc etc IMO had we had a creative game manager on the field and a decent kicker we would have won another 4 or 5 games and be just outside the top 4. (we have lost once by 2 points and by 4 points in 4 other games) We have had plenty of field position and possession despite our form to have won more matches even in the first game against Warrington and I think all would agree our 5th tackle options and decisions have been very poor.
Maybe BM is to fully or partly to blame for the failure to recruit a replacement for Sinfield's key role in the side (ie creative game manager/goal kicker. ) However I am not privy to management meetings and therefore without knowledge of that I cannot agree with the calls for his removal. To put all our faith in McGuire staying fit and in form all season was foolhardy IMO and to expect Sutcliffe to step in to such a crucial role in the event of Mags being unfit was equally foolish.
There are always two sides to a situation and amid all the one sided posting I am just putting another point of view.
