Are these the same players who are regularly slammed around here for being well past it?



Fine by me. But look at your fellow traveller - a gibbering fantasist who thinks I'm fecking Lord Lucan.

As you know, it's not a question of blind faith in McD, but perhaps at least he's earned some basic, unvarnished loyalty? The players obviously think so...

Who is my alias, Gotcha?

True, in fact over the course of super league no coach has won back to back titles, except McDermott and McClennan, both of which have been declared no good by experts on here. Now obviously we have a very special group of players, but for me, and they have a very good bond and a collective attitude. But the coaches have to take some credit for keeping them fresh and hungry. A great team is to a certain extent useless if people work out how to negate the threats. Could they be the sucess they were at leeds somewhere else? Maybe? I think being a top coach and being sucessful are down to having top players, and knowing how to get the most out of them

No diss on Mac here but if you look how the Saints game ended it was the players who stepped up and knew what they needed to do to get the result.

It's instinct that is born out of 'been there...done that...got the t-shirt.

The commitment to hurry Wilkins drop goal effort so he scuffed it and the re-grouping of the team after Sinfield kick out on the full.
The big carries from JP...Ablett...Kylie to get into the heart of the Saints defence.
The knowledge of Sinfield to move the ball onto McGuire.
McGuire position and execution of the drop goal.

A team effort to know what to do at the right time. Which is where Saints fell just short. But that's the difference and it's an arena the Leeds players know well. That's not to say its a guarantee for success, but it's not a bad start.

Agreed. And I think McDermott's unorthodox methods - limited player rotation, not using substitutes, elite cadre of players and all the other stuff that gets a pussy riot going on here - are designed to maximise these credentials of our heroic players.

I am quite neutral about B Macs coaching abilities, but I can only admire the courage of the present group of rhinos players. It's obvious that several players are carrying injuries and some are not one hundred per cent fit.
Yet against all odds they keep battling on, last Friday when saints equalized a lot of teams would have folded, not us we got up off the deck, and produced a smart piece of play to win the game.

He's earned a massive amount of credit.

I suspect the criticism of his methods would be far greater were it not for the end results. I suspect the criticism of his methods will increase when, inevitably, they stop winning Grand Finals.

None of that means his tactics and methods are beyond criticism or discussion.

Of course. It's only when one-eyed, incomprehending anti-McDermott vitriol is dressed up as rational critique that me and my aliases get p!ssed off.

You have a bee in your bonnet about alisases. Is your name really Fetlar?

Don't you bluddy start

Psst, my name is not really G1.

It's G4.

I will admit to finding some of the tactics baffling and his squad use is a bit odd sometimes, but I still think McDermott gets a raw deal on these forums.

Essentially, when we lose it's down to the coach, when we win it's down to the players. That doesn't seem entirely fair.

I have said before that I think his regime is a vulnerable one, being dependent on getting end results that justify some of the more dubious stuff that precedes them. I think that makes him (rightly or wrongly) more at risk of criticism if and when the results dry up than he would be if the week-in-week-out stuff was amazing. But as long as he delivers the results when it counts I personally struggle to find any major fault and he should get the praise that such results deserve. IMO of course.

Keep up - we're talking about an alias' aliases derived from someone else's alias' alias here. It's quite simple and not paranoid at all. He knows, you know.

I am Keyser Söze.

A very fair appraisal, I think.

I like the fact McDermott does things differently and is single-minded in his approach to winning the comp, despite the reputational risks of not being a crowd-pleaser. Far more interesting than some wind-up, tub-thumping gorilla like Wane...

wane looks like a gorilla?

i always thought he was cala millor rhinos double