Didn’t Dean Bell step down to let a better coach at the helm of the Rhinos?

It worked wonderfully

I think that there is substance to your arguement that Brian Mc is not working as the defence still remains weak and the attack appears more disorganised. This has to be tempered with the fact that he has inherited a squad that is injury hit and ageing and in need of root and branch clearance at the end of this season.
ALI, JP, Kylie, Kev, Buderus, CROSS, KEITH, are all over 30 and those in caps are suffering loss of form.
Kirke, Bailey, Delaney(brought in as a centre) are they the quality that we require? There are a large number of posters that would question any or all of these players stay at the club being extended beyond their current contracts.
Lee Smith is not the player that he was prior to going to Wasps and is struggling to justify a place in the squad if all fit (Hardaker, Watkins, BJB)
Rob suffering a dip in form, arguement as to how long this dip has lasted.
Clarkson, Watkins, BJB, Hardaker developing talents that need to be managed.
Can it be argued that it is not so much the legacy of TS than the year on year decline of the overall quality of the squad since 06.
Interested to hear people's thoughts.

Thought it was Powell's legacy we'd been living off these last 7 or 8 years?

The players who will be remembered as the nucleus of a great Leeds team were young when Smith took over. A tremendously exciting period when they obviously had the potential to get a lot better. Also, great signings like Peacock and Ellis had fans rubbing their hands and other bits together. Injuries have taken their toll and the survivors aren't likely to improve significantly. I believe there's still a trophy or two to be had (injuries permitting) but the expectations of the fans are different now. Make the most of the dimming of a golden era would be my advice, before we embark on the next chapter. It won't happen under McDermott IMO but that's no critcism of his abilities. I don't believe it would happen under anyone else either at this point in time.

You raise some good points here. First of all I’d like to think that we’ll still see good games from the likes of Keith Senior, Jamie Peacock and Ali Lauitiiti in the remainder of their careers. But it’ll shock me if Jamie Peacock manages to make 20 more games in his professional rugby league career. However this is all just guess work and you’re right in saying that they’ve lost form.

In regards to Brian McDermott, he made Harlequins worse and it appears that he’s making Leeds Rhinos worse. I don’t think that the ageing and injured squad is an excuse. Especially when you see what so called inexperienced coach Rob Powell was doing to Harlequins previous to the Warrington thrashing. He managed to bet us and Saints with a team that McDermott struggled with. I understand that you can have good days and bad days. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Brian McDermott was the wrong appointment. I’ve given him more than enough chances because this is after all professional rugby league.

It’s painful to see Lee Smith declining like he is and I think that Rob Burrow has come back from injury in reasonable form.

Finally you mention the overall decline of the squad. On paper last year we had arguably the best team on paper that Leeds have ever had in the clubs history. G1 wasn’t willing to give them praise until the end of the season unlike most of us on here. He was right!

My point still remains that Gary Hetherington needs to sort out the coaching and the backroom staff by the look of things. It was right that Brian McClennan went last year and I can understand giving English coaches a chance. But it shouldn’t be done at the expense of the club IMO. The Brian McDermott experiment has been tried and its failing. Whenever it’ll continue to fail is up for debate.

I’m not saying that Brian McDermott has got it all wrong. I think he’d be perfect for the post of Academy coach. His links with Harlequins have been valuable both to the game and to us. He’s best at bringing talent through but not necessary coaching it in a first team setting.

Indeed.

2006 was particularly enjoyable.

Define failing.

Leeds won 3 and drew one of their opening 9 Super League fixtures in 2010. Was Brian McLennan also "failing" or were his apologists queuing up to offer excuses for the side's home defeats to Hull KR and Castleford?

It's a good job you weren't in charge of Manchester United in the late 1980s Damo, otherwise they may never have experienced the most successful era in the club's history.

We had a similar sort of season in 2010 (like 2009) under Brian McClennan and remember how that turned out?

2009 is a totally different circumstance to 2011. For one in 2009 we were back to back champions. In 2011 we’re Challenge cup finalist runners up and failed to get to Old Trafford last year.

Failing is when you fail to improve a team which Brian McDermott is clearly seen to be doing. I look forward to been an apologist if he does turn things around though.



I acknowledge that there’s a big difference between fans speculation and opinions compared to the real deal. But there’s no doubt that Alex Ferguson is one of the rarest of kinds. There’s very few coaches of any sport that can stand by him and claim that they’ve done as well.

Finally I’m sure that if anyone from the club does read this then it won’t be taken too seriously. I may want Gary Hetherington to take action, but it doesn’t mean he will. It’s just an opinion I’m putting across that’s all.

I kind of agree with G1 re: The Smith Legacy.

With the benefit of hindsight people have forgotten how dire we were in 2006 and for a lot of 2007 as well. The biggest achievement Smith made was building that team up again for 2007, which culminated in of the clubs greatest ever performances at Old Trafford. I think Powell would have lead us to the league title in 2004, that squad came together beautifully that season, Powell's team plus Bai and Lauitiiti.

As for the Brian Mac thing, our performances did drop off once he left I seem to remember thinking. The jury is still very much out on him as a coach (and Lowes as an assistant for that matter), I don't think his success as assistant holds much relevance now.

Which only happened after his departure from the club had been announced.

I'm assuming that announcement freshened the place up quite a bit and it all felt fresh.

Prior to that, as you've already indicated, Leeds throughout 2006 and a lot of 2007 were absolutely dire.

I thought Bluey brought some joy as well in 2008. The side looked a lot happier in that season, I actually remember Sinfield smiling during his after match Sky interview after the win at Saints. It was early in the season and it had cacked down with rain the whole game, he even made a joke about it. I think Smith leaving was a big weight off for some players, Smith's made a big point about "pressure" on the pitch after the '07 GF win, maybe they all had had enough of it.

It's a funny thing about a group of people, you can get all sorts of mixes and all sorts of characters but sometimes they just gel and sometimes they don't. Or in the case of pre-cap Wigan in the 80's and 90's you just pay them more than anyone else and guarantee silverware every year and it doesn't matter how many total t0$$ers you put in the same room.

You do know that you’ve just opened yourself to an inevitable lecture by Rogues Gallery for mentioning this don’t you?



Anyhow I think that my column has expressed that 2006 wasn’t all that good and that the only difference with 2007 was how we played against Saint.