I'm gutted to say it but there is noway Kirke is getting dropped.

I would rather play Clarkson at centre than Smith - who has shown nothing to deserve a place. If push really came to shove then I would gamble on Hardaker who I think has really good game awareness

I think another factor in picking Sinfield at 6 is that it means we can have a no.13 whose metre per carry ratio isn't as poor.
Whether Sinfield is picked at 6 or 13 he more or less plays the same role anyway (in attack).

Big difference in defense whether he plays 6 or 13 - if he plays 6 he defends out wide if he plays 13 he defends more centrally.

The only person who knows where he is playing is him - he decides where he wants to play and then McDermott fills in around that.

I've heard from a pretty reliable source that your final 17 will be watching 'home and away' in the dressing room.

Its always good fun for loiners looking at those folk from those small towns kitted out in there insular smalltown regalia BIG MASSIVE SCARVES that there great grannies in the 20s and grannies and mums in the 50s.It was always easy to spot the loiner a badge of a little rugby ball in his lapel !there is the difference in a small insular town and a large city

McDermott....tactics....victory, have never before been seen in the one sentence!

I am savouring the moment....

Tactics: hope our big game players play out of their skin, tackle like animals and one or more of our possible match-winners (of which we have a few) has a Lance Todd day.

Tactics - hope Wigan freeze on the day, the players play what is in front of them and not what McDermott sees as being in front of them!!

Finally both McDermott & Lowes get food poisoning and are unable to attend the game

The tactics SHOULD be simple.

You play your best players in their best position. I know centre could be a problem but with Delaney, Hardaker and Smith we have enough cover. Mags and Burrow in the halves thanks.

Team picked you tell them that if they have any ambition of winning something this season then this is it (if they do win the CC then in the playoffs he can ignore this statement and say 'look, you won the CC against the odds, you can win the GF too).

Then let JP and Sinny go round the players as needed.

At the end of the day most of this team have been to finals and won them. There is nothing spectacular that Brain can do at this point for two reasons;
1; He hasn't got the (or perhaps any) personality to give an effective battle cry
2;Clearly whatever motivational speeches he has been using have not been effective.

Tell them the team then let them get on with it.

Unless he's mastered time travel and can go back and get the 2009 versions of the Leeds squad, he's stuffed no matter what he does.

Too many big players in terminal decline for tactics to make one iota of difference.

So we may as well get rid of Brain then. Good call.

Aye, changing the coach will make the likes of Peacock, Leuluai, Bailey etc much better players overnight.

Much better to keep an underperforming playing squad and just change the bloke at the top - it's a structure that served Leeds so well during the 80s and 90s.

In fairness Bailey is in far better form at the moment than he has been in ages, so I wouldn't include him on the "terminal decline" register just yet. Some of the other big players in the squad are also a little young to write off just yet.