Make your mind up......a couple of months ago you liked him.

I respect your opinion on Mac, of course everyone is entitled to one, but i have to pull you on the above. Smith and Bluey got this team at their absolute prime where Mac had most on the downward slope and at the fag end of their careers and has not had the quality of imports afforded to him that those two were.

He is very lucky however to be around at a time where the CEO seems to have lost his edge and drive. No way imo he would have still been in a job at Leeds were we to have performed whole 2016 through to start 2017 pre 2012.

He did inherit a top group of players in the likes of Sinfield, Peacock, McGuire and co. But how many on here or how many other coaches if they'd have taken over at the start of 2011 would've still kept them as the core and heartbeat by 2015? You only have to look back at the start of this thread back in mid 2011 to see how many thought that "top side he inherited" needed dismantling ASAP.

McGuire was never the same after his injury at Wigan in the play offs 2010, although to his credit he did become a better all round ball player when he lost his zip but his prolific try scoring was gone. Sinfield, Peacock, JJB were all over 30 by the time Mac arrived and you are right many thought the era was over or coming to an end when he took the reigns, the fact he won more than both his predecessors can't be purely down to luck.

Anyone else find this unsurprising? Not a great indictment of the coaching at Leeds is it?

Not sure really but to be fair, With Sinfield and McGuire preferred in the halves at that point (the right call for me, i never thought Burrow was great there) he had to make the switch or he could have moved on. It was his call ATEOTD. I'm so glad he stayed and made a fist of it at 9 though. He was never a great starting hooker in fairness but held his own and as impact sub there is nobody better, and what a weapon to have on the bench in a big, big game. Rob gave me some of my best memories at OT, he will be missed.

Not disputing the call to move him to hooker, just the lack of coaching, advice or support he appears to have received to make the transition. In his own words 'he got nothing'.

If you accept that there are two basic elements to RL Burrow didn't find a way to play hooker, he found a way to play dummy half. That - in his own words - he was left to figure it out for himself will probably surprise a few. Would be interesting to hear Danny Buderus' version of events, perhaps if he'd seen out his final contracted year at Leeds things would have been different.

I myself was one who applauded the decision to appoint the coach back then.
He was thought of very highly as an assistant before moving on and then returning to Leeds.
However reading what some of the players have said and reading commnets about the arrogance shown by our coach to some players.
I really do think it is time he moved on even if we do win the GF.
By winning it just shows how shoite this league is with only really Cas proving a worthy team this year and a team I like to watch.
I am not sure any of our players over the past 3 years have developed under McDermott with many going backwards.
Younger players are thinking twice about coming to Leeds whereas before it was their dream to come and play for us.
We are boring to watch with half the pack the slowest set of forwards I have seen.
Our halfbacks are nothing special and some of our threequarters have gone backwards this last 2 or 3 years too.
If we go with pretty much the same team next year god help the new coach if we do get a new coach that is.
4 or 5 new (good) players required plus a good coach next season otherwise it will be painfull to watch.

Or Sinfield who had experience at 9 including a MOM performance for England playing there, or Lunt who came in 2012, or Alton when he came in, or Lowes one of the best hookers of the SL era, or Roby when Burrow was called up to do the same role for England.....not to mention he did make a few appearances there earlier in his career pre McDermott so previous coaches too.

Burrow was hardly a stranger to the dummy half role prior to the McDermott era, he played hooker under every coach he's played for at senior level. I find it hard to believe he received no coaching from any of them.