It's eight and half years because there haven't been that many cases of coaches showing themselves such a knobjockey in taking that course of action.

But of course McDermott is inventive isn't he?..... No really.

Some injuries you can play with, and not affect your performance too much. Some, like an ankle or a knee are not in that category. HOwever, if he is tough/daft enough to play with broken ribs, I can't think why you would stop him

Well the main reason would be because we had a better player, who didn't have broken ribs, dropped and sat in the stands, to accommodate this tough hombre with broken ribs.

As a "one off" and "odd player" in a Final iirc Furner in 04 did his knee in the warm up but played on that's when i think yea right call i'm sure Kylie had tight hamstrings aswell prior to the 08 or 09 GF but had them taped up in that bright blue tape we see more and more of again fair call.
However as we've seen far to often under this Coaching regime and especially last year we've had 3/4/5 players AT ONCE clearly buggered before KO whne we have other options.
The Jjb/Watkins and Mags at Wigan ,Delaney on numerous occasions i mean come on is that really Coaching genius??
Is it all out bravery or foolish?
Finally again as Gotcha points out re-Kirke Singleton was available and more than a match for Kirke performance wise throughout the year.

Agree 100%. Against Wigan we only looked to have one fit forward in Ablett. He was the only one who looked like he could possibly apply some pressure and grit to the Wigan pack. Add Watkins and McGuire playing with a leg a piece and we were doomed. That is the problem with McDermott, its his strongest possible 17 every week. By Strongest its not fitness, its surname. This year more than ever we will need squad rotation to be anywhere near Old Trafford or Wembley, hopefully McDermott has leant some lessons.

I wasn't debating McDermotts selection policy, just that playing with broken ribs is a totally different proposition to playing with an ankle thats hanging off

But I was. Look at page 1.

I think the point is that Kirke was asked to play by his coach and went out and played in what would have been considerable pain - on top of the usual pain involved with playing a game like RL at the top level. Those of us who have played and played with rib injuries will be well aware of what it feels like.
Somehow that's still been used as an opportunity to have a dig at him.

I can't see many digs at Ian Kirke. Maybe another chap though perhaps.

Not correct, Ian Kirke is just a pawn in the argument. The issue is to do with the knobjockey who selected him with broken ribs, as opposed to a better player in the stands without broken ribs.

It has been repeated several times and by several different posters.

You've certainly repeated it several times I'll give you that.

A pity the coach didn't watch the final league game of the Regular season at Wigan where Singleton had arguably his best game yet in a Leeds shirt before relegated to a bit part then no part during the Play-Off series - unless he was even more injured than the rest of the pack.