Brian McDermott's coaching style

I was a Harlequins supporter whom supported the club both home and away from when Brian arrived at the start of July 2006 and can make a series of observations about how he operates and where I think he is going with things.

What you will notice about Brian is that he is uncompromising and in appears to disregard for different and opposing views, be they from supporters, the media or even his own players if they do not meet with his inner vision and values and he is nearly always not in a mood to share what he thinks and his answers curt. He does engage with warmth with a limited band supporters, so there is normally a few people willing to champion him. He would appear unfriendly and dislikeable by those used to to a Bluey or a Tony Rea.

He tends to have a physical, almost brutal approach to training, for example he took the Quins players into the snow and ice last winter when there was no public transport for a week's training camp, was infamous for conducting a full training session immediately after a full Super League game on several occassions and a few years ago conducted a punishing two hour session in 30 degree heat at a sponsors open day. The next day Harlequins played Leeds and were winning at half time in the game which he made 7 first half substitutions but collapsed in the second half. What you tended to find was that there was a very high incidence of injury, for example Luke Dorn and Purdham missed half the season after the training in the ice and there was a high amount of late season injuries from training with players like Matt Gafa and David Howell on the long term injury list from perhaps full contact training.

You would generally see Quins get off to a flying start and top 6 place due to this punishing regime but then burn out with very few wins in the second half of the season as the players would look exhausted, plus with several injuries to key roles he would trot out the old lines about doing it tough. He will go out of his way to remove comfort and luxury, preferring outside work, barracks and manual labour to reward but you felt he would stretch things to breaking point.

What you tended to see at Quins was that he seemed to want players whom could run non-stop or train with weights in a record breaking style, were quiet and would continue to plough into the opposition as if it were the last tackle with a one point lead. Players like Chad Randall and Robert Purdham were very much to his work horse and understated style, whilst he used to love Will Sharp and Tony Clubb for their adaptability and perseverance. He was not known for his liking of free spirits or creative players unless they also had the physical approach he demanded.

Going forward I would be very surprised if he does not try to recruit the likes of Clubb and Ellis from Quins (he previously signed tons of Leeds Academy players for Quins) and he is an avid collector of his former players, I think he would love Purdham or Randall also, but may already have an older pack and he loves second rowers in a workhorse style but not South Sea Islanders as he has had a lot of trouble with them. Obviously Leeds are a more attractive name than Quins so he may get higher calibre players to his template.

What undoes McDermott is that he loves to give older family men in their 30s an extra year, sometimes two years, even when they are injured, have a bad injury record or are in decline. This is how he shows loyalty but you can get forwards whom are 30+ on a three or four year deal whilst Quins had a lot of trouble with centres and wingers getting new deals whilst still recovering from leg injury. Obviously you won't release 10 players simultaneously but he wasn't strategic, for example giving Jon Wells a 2 year deal and Will Sharp just 1 year. In fairness he seems to have learned from his mistakes at Leeds. However he has mirrored the same type of assistant, kind of a bit sour looking!

He is very poor at talent identification because he tends to buy players in positions that are commonly available as his marquee signings. Quins had players like Joe Mbu and Mike Worrincy and he brought in the likes of Chad Robinson and Luke Williamson whom were over-the-hill as replacement second rowers, when most people would suggest Props would have been better investments.

He is thought by many to have brought through a wealth of young talent at Harlequins, when the reality is that Tony Rea introduced Clubb, Louie and Mike Worrincy to the first team pool and they had played before his arrival.

He did introduce Will Sharp, brought again to the club by Tony Rea and he can take some credit for introducing O'Callaghan, Krasniqi, Bryan and Williams, whilst Rob Thomas and Dan Sarginson look a class apart this season plus he identified Andy Ellis, BJB and the mercurial Luke Gale as being talent.

He may be well remember with fondness for his playing record in the game and as a capable assistant, though he assisted at Huddersfield when they were poor and remained poor with him there, plus assisted at Leeds as champions and they remained champions.

However his legacy to the London club is this - Quins have won just 13 of the last 58 games, a run which goes back over two years, and is a 22% win record. Tony Rea achieved a 44% win record over his seven years. We also went from 7th to 9th to 9th to 11th to 13th and this season woud be in the bottom two but for points deductions.

I like Leeds very much, a great club and team and I am very sorry you have been lumbered with this guy who in my mind should be no more than a back-up guy, he'd be great at going into an underperforming club with talent like Barrow to give a short sharp shock but no way is he of the calibre to build a successful club or even preserve one.

Cheers
Mark