I also owe him an apology but we've won nowt yet.

With Peacock and McGuire injured for a third of the season, then getting back to match fitness for another third, Senior missing for more than half the season, Eastwood not replaced with a like-for-like player, getting both both finals is a great achievement. Statistically this season is already better than last year. Our performances have, at times, been poor but for people to want him sacked before Easter and then boo him at the Wakefield game is ridiculous. If we do it on Saturday it will be five championships in eight years and probably the biggest achievement of them all.

Have to resurrect this thread to add my own (belated) apology to BM. Well done.

I think the issue with the early season wasn't the results but the really very poor performances in too many games. Well done for turning it around Brian. I'll support you for next year at least now.

Whilst some decisions have been bizarre, I think particular congratulations are in order for how he's developing Hardaker. The lad was going well on the wing then disappeared, much to the confusion of many. Plainly BM rates him, but wanted him to become a centre. Now he's showing a lot of faith in a young inexperienced player, for which he gets a lot of credit.

Anyway, I will attempt to prevent my knee from jerking so quickly in the future.

I have never booed him, but as I put on my own thread (couldn't see this one at the time) I think it's only fair that I apologise.

I apportioned much of the blame for poor performances to him earlier in the season, and it would be hugely hypocritical to give all the credit to the players for the turn around in fortunes now.

You could argue that the jury is still out long term, but I think you'll find few arguing that he doesn't deserve the chance to continue what he's started next season.

I severely doubted him, but never booed him or called him names.

I still have some lingering doubts about the odd team selection and tactic but overall he has steered the ship through some very, very rocky waters.

However, he did himself no favours early on with some of his eccentric press appearances. For the last two months he's seemed for more reasoned and lucid. Maybe that is because the pressure has been less because we've been winning. However, if the head man reacts to pressure by making bizarre statements and flicking rubber gloves it still raises doubts it's not a good sign.

McDermott will have learned a huge amount from this season, his first in charge at a top club. Name me a coach - any coach - who's remotely likely to have developed their knowledge and abilities as much as he will have done this year.

I have been one of Mcdermotts biggest critics this year, particularly earlier in the season, bemoaning our lack of structure and insistance to throw the ball around before setting a platform. I still stand by that criticism as it was justified at the time, and even now I would suggest certainly our ball retention and to a degree our respect for field position still needs to improve.
What I will give Mcdermott credit for is the improvements over the past few months, this has coincided with a good few matches against 'poorer' opposition which allowed the team to get a bit of a roll on and build the confidence. However, it's no coincidence that since we started rolling our sleeves up and making the hard yards before throwing the ball around, we've got alot better. Mcdermott also has to take credit for the improved performances of Bailey, Burrow (although he was never terrible), and a number of the youngsters.
He has clearly got the team performing for the games that really count, which is definately a positive, although, a big part of me does begrudge paying to see the regular weekly rounds if the team are going to continue putting in careless displays and doing just enough to get them through to the important games.
The team have certainly got better as the season has gone on - this will be a mixture of players returning from injury, and no doubt McD's tactics/gameplan becoming familiar.
With us reaching both finals, he has to be given next year at the top, and hopefully the improvements will continue. I did post a topic earlier in the year when we got to the semi's of the cup asking what people would think of McD if we won the double (which people laughed at me about) - well regardless of the result on Saturday, we've not been far away from it, and as I thought - there has to be some humble pie eaten.
And to be fair, following on from Sinfields comments, I know from conversations I have had with some of the players that generally the players are very happy with McD's methods on the training paddock, and they have a real loyalty towards him, which I suppose speaks volumes.

I apologise to you Mr McDermott. Thanks for the excitement.

The season has been hellish at times, but we have reached the promised land again. The tactics and strange selections of regular season are still in the memory though. I just hope McD has learnt throughout this year and can continue what he has managed to create at the club. He has the players seeming to want to play for him and Sinfield's comments are duly noted.

I have not gone as far as to boo the coaching staff, but I have remained unconvinced right up to Friday night. I am happy with the current coach taking us forward to next year now and just hope we do have some siginings to come in to strengthen the squad.

I'll add my name to the growing list of apologies... I was never convinced by the appointment, especially after he had taken Quins to successively worse end of season standings, and the baffling tactics adopted at the start of the season did little to endear him to me. There have also been some selections that I found fault with (e.g. the non-selection of McShane), and I was disappointed with what happened with Cross and Burgess leaving (with Cross because I felt he hadn't been given a proper chance, and with Burgess because he was playing well and could have been at least retained to the end of the season). With hindsight, the coach probably knew what he was doing here! The main concern was our complete lack of form against the top teams for most of the season (apart from Wigan, who we got close to on several occasions but couldn't beat). This, combined with some dire perfomances against teams we should have beaten (e.g. Catalans away), convinced me that McDermott was taking the team backwards.

Credit to him, the team has turned around since the first 15 minutes at Wembley. I guess the experiences of the past few weeks should warn any set of fans of writing off a new coach until the end of the season. Having watched McNamara ruin Bradford over several years I suppose some of the similarities with his tenure led me to believe that the same would happen to us. Whilst I may have been over-critical of McDermott, I don't think he's suddenly the next Bennett or Bellamy. If anything our success in recent weeks has been down to the wealth of experience in the team and the team's mental toughness to get through knock-out RL. McDermott has to be given some credit for getting them to peak now, but also making the right decisions on some difficult selections and recruitment issues (e.g. centre, throwing the likes of Hardaker in over Smith, letting Lauitiiti go etc).

Anyway, he's definitely done enough to deserve to be in charge next year, and possibly the year after if we get a result on Saturday. How fickle...

Regarding performances, I hope everyone accepts that the performances for over half the season were unacceptable. I don't have a season ticket (obviously), but I'd be remarkably annoyed to have paid to watch some of the utter garbage played in far too many games. As well as a sport, RL is supposed to be entertaining, and I doubt that word would have sprung to mind too often for over half the season.

I'd also add that we shouldn't underestimate the role of the players throughout this year - both in underperforming early and improvements later on. The squad certainly is in a lot better shape than a lot thought, which makes some performances even more baffling.

Did the coaching staff get this present squad to where it now is..... Or did this present squad get the coaching staff to where it now is ?

On the contrary Brisbane, it was always entertaining, just more often for the away fans as they watched us gurgle down the metophorical plug hole.

I have said for many weeks now that you need to question how much of us being good at knockout football (CC and Playoffs) is down to Brains coaching and how much is down to the players being able to hit somekind of top form in one of winner takes all games.

Such is the lot of a coach/manager in most sports - the players get all the praise and none of the flak when it goes wrong, coaches cop all of the flak (and are usually first to be shown the door) and get none of the praise for getting things right.

I think you will find there is only Danny Buderus that is exempt from flak on this board. Other players, who have brought this club success are not immune and often receive unfair and unwarranted flak.

In much the same way that others (at least one particular high profile poster anyway) enjoys levelling "unfair and unwarranted" criticism at Buderus?

It might be considered hypocritical of someone who has singled ou the contribution of two players in particular this season for "unfair and unwarranted" criticism to attempt to seize the moral high ground on that front.