So, now we're using Hull and Wire as the yardstick for sustained success? How?

If McD has sold that crock of $h1t to GH then he deserves more credit than he gets. He's in the wrong job. If he actually believes it then he is also in the wrong job.

However, if we get some luck with injuries I can see a top 6 finish not being particularly challenging.

Not using them as a yardstick just saying they wouldn't stand still and pretend everything was fine after that rubbish of last season.

Wow. Everyone is mocking McD's open letter yet everyone is also buying it!?

For months everyone has slated the current squad as not good enough yet now allow a sudden we are good to go with that same squad?

It's like you all have Alzheimer's.

"Only regret".....he didn't say that at all, he said his major regret.



He also admits that they were all guilty of relying on excuses too much.....the exact thing people have pointed at him and he is accepting that is true.

This was my view on it back in April re chasing wins...

"Aside from clear lack of leadership and direction on the field, 80% of what goes on in a game is mental. BM talked recently in an interview how training wasnt an enjoyable environment to be in at the moment as 'they have to always address the things that are going wrong' this is clearly an approach that isn't working at the moment. I have always believed that the more you enjoy your work the better you perform, sometimes the harder you strive for something the further it gets away and more demoralising it becomes. It's OK talking about technical issues but this game isn't the most complicated, morale is the first thing to address in my view.

If you have seen the PA suite at Leeds the players are analysed right down to the infinite detail and when players are low this is not always helpful, employees are not robots and don't function as such"

The main issue remains. No reasons/excuses could hide the fact that the glue that held Leeds together as a unit and made all the pieces connect retired and now works for the RFL.
We need a player to put a decent squad into shapes that make a team perform.

We needed a Gidley, not a flat balloon.

Thing is when we were playing well in 2015 it wasn't because Sinfield was directing us around. The style that worked for us didn't have great structure or set plays or a kicking game that always delivered. It was one built just playing what we saw and keeping the ball alive and leaving the opposition knackered with constant offloads and we produced that on occasions when Sinfield was out of the side with away wins at Catalans and Castleford and we were out of sight away to Saints before Sinfield came off the bench. It wasn't like we were clinical in the final 20m then either and we still looked more likely to score from further out.

What that style needs most is energy, enthusiasm, fitness, confidence. All the things that were beaten out of the side as the start of the season progressed.

Look at the McGuire no try @ Wigan in 2015, keeping the ball alive repeatadly against the toughest defence in SL who were left grasping at thin air. That kind of play summed up what we were about in 2015 and that didn't require that Sinfield type general, it required a team that had the energy and confidence to do that. And we clearly weren't properly fit because of the time lost in pre-season to have the energy (and then subsequent loss of confidence/form) to try pull that style off.

Think it's forgotten because of what Sinfield did with the 40/20 in the playoff semi and his good performances in the cup games, but he started that season really badly in 2015 and dare I say he was a bit of a weak link in a side that really started hot before he missed games through injury and then not selected.

He has answered a lot of questions people was asking but they're still one more thing I don't understand only playing 16 men in games and sometimes 1 sub would only get 10-15 minutes at end of a game

It doesn't explain the shambolic half-d defence either. I'm sure being 'man enough' to admit and confront mistakes is part of BM's makeup. The problem is when the mistakes admitted to aren't the right ones or the only ones.

I tend to agree that the first 17 looks OK compared to last year on paper (weaker at full back, stronger at hooker everywhere else much the same albeit getting old in key positions). But McGuire hasn't had a good game since 2015, and if he can't turn it around or Segeyaro gets injured the team would look almost identical to the one that played terribly for most of the year. We have too many plodder forwards and still no serious backup hooker should either Burrow or Segeyaro get injured.

Assuming what GH and BM are saying publicly is the way the club feels, next year will be all about some kind of redemption. The problem with that is if we start badly again it will all look like PR guff and a year will be wasted.

Having said the above, I just read BM's statement on the club website. As a whole its better than I thought, if you want an insight into BM's thinking.

But its a remarkably odd thing for a coach of a team supposedly wanting to win trophies to come out with. Its basically a shopping list of problems, all of which will miraculously disappear next year. Its also admitting that through all the dreadful first two-thirds of the season, BM and the squad had literally no plan B. That doesn't suggest any resilience at all. Pointing at meaningless wins vs Hull and Wigan as some kind of guide to next year really is scraping the barrel IMO.

One thing I do agree with is BM's view on Burrow and McGuire having earned some loyalty. However, I'd say 2016 was so bad that they've pretty much spent all their loyalty points. Its up to them to show BM's faith is deserved.

Actually I thought he was referencing playing injured and unfit players, which led to poor performances and often recurring injuries

Funny, because Mac wasn't so loyal to Burrow when he first joined and started benching and even dropping him...

I think last year really showed that if McGuire gets injured again or doesn't fully recover then we will struggle. In previous seasons we could afford for either Sinfield or Maggsy to get injured because the other would usually step up and allow either Sutcliffe or Burrow to get on with their natural game.
By not bringing in another half they will either have to make sure Lilley/Burrow can play without Mags or it will be a big gamble

They're only not the right ones in your opinion though. The issues with the defence will be covered in this part



I said right from week 1 the shortened disrupted pre-season was the key thing. People can and have mocked the Kiwis game comment but it's highlighted above how it altered and shortened our usual pre-season plans. To then lose time afterwards because of the floods made it even worse. People can say "well they eventually got sorted" with regards to pitches and gyms to work with but the problem was you never make up for that lost time (unless you try having a mini pre-season when the season starts ala his chasing wins comment) and pre-season is so crucial. How do people think we went from how we played in 2014 to how we played in 2015 without many squad changes? The work done in pre-season. Tony Smith admits the basis of the 2004 winning season was the work done in pre-season. Hull and Wire made some recruits yes but clearly they came back from being mid table contenders last year to top by having a great pre-season.