The Dean Lance era was the most miserable time to be supporting Rhinos in Super League up until 2006.

as I have said before, my mate was media training officer back then. he told me it was the other players who didn't want sterling in.

Met him in a pub the day after he was sacked, he wasn't very happy

Hives

It was during Dean Lance's first months in charge that I realised what a bunch of dicks a large number of fellow Leeds fans were. The booing of Keith Senior and then of Lance when his face appeared on the screen at Headingley was mindless and pathetic.

I remember the fifth of those opening league games, the heavy defeat at Warrington, when to the young me it seemed like the world was ending. But the following round we finally won and, although there were a few more bumps in the road like the Utu game and the slightly unfortunate cup final loss, the epic winning run began shortly afterwards with, I think, a win over Wigan.

Lance was a coach placed in an invidious position who suffered from a really terrible opening. Like McDermott, he got all the blame when things went wrong and it was the players ignoring the coach or playing for themselves when they won. The Sterling thing was something of a tragedy for him; my reading of it then and now was that he simply told Sterling he was never going to be picked and should find a new club - something lots of coaches tell players, never mind ones who are 36 years old. The basketball comment floored him however, notwithstanding the judgement's description of him as "an honourable man".

His qualifications for the job were good and he came well recommended but ultimately it didn't work out. He did, however, oversee the initial transition from the Murray team, which clearly had no future, to the Golden Generation team and his record doesn't seem quite so awful in retrospect.

I think you're extrapolating too far there. But I do wish people would let it go. Maybe because we were so desperately awful last season and he was the embodiment of hope.

One of the most pathetic posts ever made on this forum.

Graham Murray didnt sign a 4 year deal. In fact he was contracted to Super League. Which was one of the reasons Leeds didnt extend his deal which led Murray accepting the North Sydney Bears job.

He was a fantastic bloke, a great coach and did a truly great job for Leeds. I was lucky enough to get to know Muzza well in his time at Leeds and even met him a few times after he had left the club. He was without doubt one of the greatest blokes ive ever come across.

On the subject of Lance.............my blood still boils!!!

You can of course always lance a boil.

Or boil a Lance.

It wasn't the fault of the coach or player that Bell got injured though. Although I'm not sure if he's been fit he would have been an adequate replacement for Godden, in the same way David Barnhill didn't effectively replace Morley.