My thoughts at the time mate,

Find myself agreeing with you Sal.

I said before the Saints game Leeds were on the edge of a performance cliff, anything less then their absolute strongest team playing at it's full potential would result in defeat. Unfortunately this seems to be the case.

We are completely shambolic with attacking ball. I would not wish an injury on any player but McGuire's was almost merciful, I've never seen him play so poorly.

Burrow starting at 9 is not bloody working. He distributes the ball poorly and he has not the size or strength to mix it up in the middle like McShane has. But that's just a small thing, as is the hopeless Vickery (really, running back towards your try line when taking the ball out?) and our inability to produce a back good enough to replace him from the juniors.

Other worrying things, Moon's defence was very questionable first half, the pack looks rudderless without Peacock who obviously brings the passion everyone else feeds off, referees seem to not like us particularly (not paranoia, we just don't seem to get 50/50's, there were several harsh and inconsistent penalties against us last night). Perhaps we can thank our coach for that. We have to be smarter, simply whining about it and carrying on doing things the way we do them isn't going to work.
I also worry about the squad development. Which is being (mis) guided by the fact we sit on the lip of this performance cliff and we are not prepared to take a small fall to eventually get away from the edge.

Sinfield was pretty honest last night, he's putting effort in, he's not hiding but we looked frighteningly leaderless last night. He puts so much into his own personal performance that I think when he's struggling himself he finds it difficult to lift others around him.

This is all spot on.

Those disagreeing with this are just been stubborn, and feel they need to maintain a stance, rather than accepting what is correct. I am sure they don't really have the same view away from posting on here, they really can't be that naive.

Tough decisions need to be made in respect of some of the senior players. Remains to be seen whether even if the coach wants to make them whether his CEO - who IMO is too close to this group of players - would be prepared to stand by him.

Don't think kevs leading the team well at the moment sorry but he's the captain and we keep seeing instances of poor discipline such as jjb brainfarts last night.I can't see the 100 percent commitment we are used to seeing is he worried about getting injured before world cup ? If so he is putting country before his club . Something is wrong at leeds and it needs fixing fast.

The thing that worries me more than anything is that we have not looked like a well coached attacking side since McD took over. In 2011 we had a terrible start to the season (admittedly without McGuire or Peacock), but there were many excuses flowing for the lack of attacking organisation. All the usual "new coach, new patterns, it's not clicking" bullS4!t, but over 2 years on we still look like the players only meet 2 hours before every game and then have their memories wiped straight after.
I said this before, we only look organised playing the most simple of game plans - having Delaney, Clarkson and/or JJB hit the ball at angles off quick PTB's from Peacock and Kylie. It moves us down the field but doesn't score points. Our 5th tackle plays are hilariously bad near the try line when we have (or had!) Watkins unused at 3 (when McBanana gets more out of him you know you're fekked).

Completely agree - the fact we have finished 5th two years running shows our 'run rate' in comparison to the likes of Wigan, Warrington and Saints. Winning the GF masks much of the mediocrity we see on a weekly basis. The Huddersfield CC game was a big turning point - it showed they cannot simply rock up an win when it matters. This definitely cost them the loss against Saints has their confidence will have really taken a hammering.

Leeds were never the most structured attacking side under either Smith or McClennan relying on attacking from deep with real pace and great support play from McGuire. Our options close to the opponents line have always been poor, mainly due to all the pivots having a non-existent short kicking game. Now the pace has gone they really struggle.

I'm amazed JJB and Burrow were singled out by the coach for praise after the game. Burrow had one decent run and JJB ran well in the second half, but both efforts were overshadowed by negative play IMO (penalties, missed tackles).

For me, Hardaker, Delaney and Sutcliffe were the main positives. Kirke imposed himself well.

Clarkson gave a terrible miss for the Houghton try. McShane and Singleton were also poor at marker though on that occasion.

Vickery was terrible but don't let his performance mask the inadequacies of the others - especially Hall who looked unfit and clumsy, and Moon who had a habit of disappearing in defence. All three tries were scored on their flank.

Agreed

The question going forward is BMD the man to turn the team around and integrate the next generation or will he go, perhaps with his reputation in tact and leave it to someone else to carry the can of the couple of years of not winning much the development of a new side will bring ?

The 'great' Wigan side of the 80s / 90s rarely dealt on sentiment or reputation ... When you got to 31 / 32 at Central Park, you were gotten rid of.

Luckily for the Pies at the time, there were schmucks in the Leeds board room who were more than happy to wave cheque books at whoever they released. For every Ellery Hanley (a player who could have stuck it at Wigan until his mid 30s) there was an Andy Gregory ... An Andy Goodway or even a Shaun Wane.

Meanwhile at Leeds, when you reach 32, you're handed another 2 year deal ....

Burrow made some important tackles and did cause some problems for their defence and almost got through on several occasions. JJB made too many mistakes but put in a huge effort once again in defence and in taking the ball up and I think his positives outweighed his negatives. Some of his teammates may have made less errors but they weren't getting around the pitch in the same way he was.

Hardaker seems popular with many fans but IMO his attacking play is just limited to his physical presence, which sees him make good runs but which not often enough lead to scores. He runs strongly but doesn't join the line to create space for others as Webb used to do. He too often dies with the ball and can't pass for toffee. We looked better on attack with Watkins at fullback but maybe worse on defence.

McShane had more game time but didn't use it too well. Bad mistake in losing the ball on the first tackle on a repeat set and didn't have a clue on restarts much to Sinfields frustration.

In general hardaker is very good defender especially one on one near the line. In attack he is again illusive and a good broken field runner, but doesn't chime into the line well bar the vickery try at Wigan and his passing game is poor. Myself watching this season I think I vastly underestimated what Webb brought to our team. Not saying it was the wrong decision to let him go but the work he used to do is not being picked up by our half backs

He will stay because the virtually the whole is signed up for another 2 years - so unless GH is going to terminate some contracts then what you see now is what you will get albeit at a much slower pace. Yeaman left Sinfield standing for the blown try in the second half - The captain is slow now just think what he will be like in 2 years time!! JJB struggles to get off a man in the tackle now in two years time he will not be able to I bet Kylie get yet another extension alongside Peacock.

I almost pulled the princess from sleeping beauty at magic kingdom orlando today, then the wife turned up. Oh we'll, almost is just so goody.

Are those moaning that senior players that have been given extended contracts the same posters that a few Weeks ago were saying Kylies new deal was well deserved and that he was in the best form of his Leeds career?