Not this crap again is macdumbnut your dad or summat,his clueless interview should be enough to tell you how useless the bloke is.In every sport the buck stops with the coach/manager,the team are playing to his tactics and instruction,the defence is beyond terrible and you cant expect to chuck the ball about on the back of that and get away with it.

He always seems to be so awkward in his interviews, as if he hasn't a clue what he's going to say, and when he does say something, he seems shocked at what he says.

Agree with everything there.

As soon as fit and available get Stevie Ward, Jack Carvill, Singleton, and Hood integrated into the first team and stick with them and build the next team around them. Get them in fast and forget the results.

In his defence Agar is the same.Some coaches are not comfortable with the media,even though it is part of the job.
Others love it,Justin Morgan for instance,pair of sunglasses,hair gel, fixed grin,and he is away.

No I don't enjoy losing either.

We are conceding 26.8 points per game so far against 21 points all last season.

So given that the coach inherited the basic defensive flaws evident to some us us last year but not to you.

He also inherited a squad in decline with two of the three most influential players absent with long term injuries.

To this he has had his selection options further restricted by several new injuries including his protege BJB.

Add in a loss of form for several experienced players and a string of errors which in no way can be construed as down to a playing style or game plan.

He is also up against 4 or 5 other teams that have better squads

So your simplistic solution is to blame the coach along with all these others with their verdicts based on 10 seconds of thought.

I don't know what your coaching or team management experience is but unless you are aware of what is going on on the training field or in the dressing room you are in no postion to say who is responsible for the poor results.

Where you are in a position to pass a verdict is on the players performance on the field which you have done in way that some would say is a somewhat predjudiced manner. You pick on Buderus, one of our few players that have performed, yet defend the likes of Senior and Bailey which is bizarre.



I am talking about McDermott who the knives areout for. As for Lowes I have my doubts but the thoughts of some Quinns and Wires fans is hardly proof. I seem to remember the Wires stuffed us at Wembley and did Harlequins beat us in the league?

I think It is far too simplistic to just blame it all on players. Mcdermott HAS to take some of the flack. He is the manager and coach, he didnt just take the team over last night He has had a whole pre season with them all (probably the best turn out for pre season since 2004?) and we are now at the easter period. He has clearly failed to get the players either wanting to play for him or play how he wants, He has had enough time.
Yes the players are at fault as well but the idea I get from some is Mcdermott is untouchable. He along with all the players right up to GH need to take some responsability for the poor play we see today. cant all just be placed on the door of the players.

And its very simplistic to put all the blame on the coach as so many are doing. Why can't you accept he took over a team indecline with an ongoing serious injury crisis that one week gave him no props. At Easter last year we were 9th in the table and also playing badly.

With the exceptions of one or two youngsters these are seasoned professionals that are making basic errors.

Do you think that the new coach has asked them to tackle in a different way eg without getting hold of the opposition? Or drop the ball on the first pass.

If we dropped Hauraki and Senior our error rate would halve. The problem is with so many injuries he has had to keep playing out of orm players.

JC i agree 75% and it is obvious that the players are'nt doing the basics right or performing and they have to take some if not all responsabillity for their efforts.#
What i will add and i've defended Brian Mc from day 1 don't forget is that last night ,and against HKR they gave up showed no sign of any "structure" and even looked liked they did'nt know each other and that has to come back to the coaches.
He has kept players like Senior and Hauraki in the 17 when they've been awful and injuries or not that shows no bottle imo to take the squad by the scruff of the neck and "make a statement" about who's in charge.
There's also been a distinct lack of a "rethink" re-defensive attitude and indiscipline again and taht can be asmuch about the coach as the players imo.

There can be little doubt that McD took over a team in decline. The recruitment was, season on season, poorer, and the established players were all older and slower, however they did have "experience" of big games.

However, he has done absolutely nothing to show that he is fit to be head coach of a club like Leeds (assistant is very different to head coach). This team has now picked up 2 points from the last 10, and is one win ahead of Wakefield, a team who all were backing as the wooden spoonists this year.

We show no cohesion either with or without the ball, and this can only be laid at the door of the coach, as either the players don't understand what they are being asked to do, or they don't want to do it. The third alternative doesn't even bear thinking about...

BMcD isn't responsible for the players dropping the ball, nor giving away penalties (unless this type of defence is his gameplan, which I can't believe), but he should be getting the message through during the week so that we see improvement on gameday, which we sadly are not.

We are currently seeing a team with almost no confidence, being coached by a man who is exposing his lack of knowledge and ability week after week. There has got to be change.

No doubt we are playing as badly as I can remember in the last 15 or so seasons. I have no idea (and don't really have the time, resources or inclination to find out) what the position is vis a vis the salary cap, Hetherington's 3-5 year plan, players current deals, the coaches real abilities and methods, who's carrying injuries and who is simply bang off form. Whatever way you look at it we have the playing resources to more than compete and right now we are not!

A couple of thoughts. It only takes a couple of victories for a lot of this to be forgotten. Incredibly we are still in the top 8. We should have players coming back soon(ish). I agree with a lot of what JC says re the problems that are there for all to see having their roots early in Brian McClennan's reign. It would appear that Brain Mc Dermott is attempting a complete skills rebuild currently with very little success.

I for one am prepared to give him some more time however there really does need to be at least some evidence that things are moving in the right direction starting with a victory over a really poor Bradford side on Thursday.

Although watching McDermott's post match interviews is a genuinely painful experience I still prefer him to the much more media assured McRae!

Not time yet to completely write off the season but getting close

Some of the fans last night were an embarrassment . Some of the comments they were coming out with were priceless .
' I have never seen such e'
'I have never seen us play so badly'
Fookin useless bunch of w4nkers'
etc etc etc ..

Guessing those fans haven't been following Leeds very long .

The Wigan walk was a disgrace . I almost got trampled at about the 60 mins mark .

Bradford should be interesting . No home or away supporters 20k in 20 days .. Be lucky if they get 10k on Thursday with the performances both teams have been putting in recently ..

Are you Wigan in disguise?

Tony Smith said the same thing when he arrived at Headingley.
To the team, not the press.
Leeds at that time were in the habit of losing to Bradford and he asked the players to estimate their past completion rates against Bradford.
I don't recall the average rate but it was high but Smith was making the point that despite high completion rates they weren't succeeding.
He was saying that completion rates are not the be-all and end-all, you do need to play the percentages sometimes.

What appears to be missing is a game plan and the basic skills required when chucking the ball around.

Why do things have to be so black and white. There are multiple problems with the team at the moment. The coach is one, the players are another. Not sure why McDermott was brought in, I was initially confident, but I'm not so sure now. I wouldn't sack him yet though. For me, he's in the Daryl Powell position, manage the transition accept a couple of lean years, and hopefully build a decent team which we can hand on to a top coach.

The players is a more complex issue. In 2009 when we won the SL (for the third time in a row), Sinfield mentioned that the players all accepted less moeny at Rhinos than they would elsewhere. Now the culture of the club has bought that loyalty from the players. That loyalty cuts both ways, and some of the older players are being rewarded for that loyalty shown earlier. I guess it sets down a marker to other players that loyalty is a two way thing.

Recruitment is also something I think we have been poor in. We have known about Seniors decline for a couple of years ago, and yes we should still have stayed loyal to him, but we should have planned better for his retirement. Peacock and Sinfield will start to decline too, and we will really need to be thinking how we can try work without them. Fundamentally, I think the whole way we play will have to change.

Exactly.

So you are saying Smith saw a problem, coached and educated the players into playing percentages, taking calculated risks, to provide a winning formulae. Sounds like a plan.

Mcdermott has highlighted a similar thing, but what we are seeing is chaos, forced passes, bad options and failed sets. So, what's his plan? No one has come up with an answer yet, it beats me.