Galloway, Garbutt and Cuthbertson have spent their careers using strength rather than speed stopping big men running straight at them from the ruck. On the occasions where a smaller, more mobile man takes a dart the Galloway would have had Robbie Farah - lower to the ground, more nimble - to make the initial tackle - probably from marker - before the prop comes in to add force.

There's a reason 18st 6'4'' guys struggle against pace from the ptb, and there's a reason no other team defends every tackle with a prop on either side of the ruck with a big gap between them, and there's a reason that there's a position called hooker, where a smaller, quicker but still strong forward is involved in 40-50 tackles per game.

I actually do agree with you that frailties were evident last year including a massive drop off after the Wembley win. I felt there were clear signs that several in the squad were getting on and past achieving their best on a weekly basis and I saw flaws in Watkins, Hardaker and Sutcliffe. The management took a gamble on Sutcliffe recovering from serious injury and being good enough to start at 6 and they also risked McGuire staying free from injury.

However nobody could have predicted the extent and length of the injuries nor the inability of the team to play to the previous structures without on field leaders telling them where to stand and what to do. There does seem a lack of rugby nouse in some of them. Laziness and poor awareness at marker have cost us so many points this year and I do not think the squad looks fit enough.

Last year Cuthbertson with his offloads was a key element in our success. Towards the end of last season there were also clear signs that opposition sides had begun to work out how to deal with him so this year he is nowhere near as effective which has led him to make silly offloads which lose possession.

So we have a series of factors which when added together have brought about this huge loss of confidence creating a negative momentum leading to our downfall. Perhaps the return to fuller strength and a period in the middle 8s will see us become competitive again but we still need to recuit some top quality playmaker/leadership.

Head coach still doing a first class job though?

Just asking.

You're deliberately missing Ronzy's point that the quoted frailties (a) red zone pressure, b) marker defence) have been apparent CONSISTENTLY through McDermott's tenure. With an exception that proves the rule over the first half of 2015 when Aiton was playing Booker the only answers he's seemed to have have been for a) Kev will do something, and for b) Jamie will do something. Without that - and also without the fig leaf of Hardaker's try-stopping cover defence - we look completely lost, but it's not like the potential problems have been hidden for the last few years.

It's the weakest spot in the defence and we are horrible at defending it at the moment. It was somewhere that Sinny in his younger days and the likes of Diskin and Buderus covered superbly. Peacock was very agile in defence for a big man and was also great at covering that area. Being a little generous to Falloon the times I have seen him covering the middle he seemed to be on his own covering 10 yard gaps in the middle of two props who can't move sideways. And we used to think Luke Burgess was flat footed, he was like Wayne Sleep compared to Garbutt and Galloway. Happy days.

I am not deliberately missing Ronzy's point. I do not agree regarding marker defense. In each of the last three years (2015, 2014 and 2013) we CONSISTENTLY made the most marker tackles in SL under Mac's tenure. With regard to red zone pressure this could be better but most other sides would say the same. I think only 2 other sides have averaged more points and only 2 sides have scored more tries over Mac's tenure.

Apart from the treble last year Leeds won many plaudits from opposition fans for the attractive style of rugby that we played which is based on less structure to allow the players to use their individual skills with great backing up and offloading. Now if you take out sufficient of those individual skills through retirement and injury and the replacements are not up to it then you have a problem. Which is where we are now.

To change the style and structure takes time and is all the more difficult if you only have half your first choices to work with and some of those selected are unable to train during the week. I have no idea, and I am sure neither do you, exactly what the coaches have tried to do on the training field to overcome the very obvious errors the players are making each week. Why I choose to blame some of the players is that we can see with our own eyes they are guilty of getting the basics wrong which those same so called professional players have been able to get right previously. It is not rocket science and Mac looks mystified as to why they keep making the same errors in matches which they are not doing in training.

We were over reliant on certain players who have not been replaced with sufficient quality which most of you critics failed to spot. BM hasn't the luxury of dropping any of the error brigade as he has to scratch around to get a side out each week. We also now know we have a few overrated players that without our retired leaders are not good enough to step up to the mark.

Adapt or die. Sinfield is gone, burrow and mcguire are past their best and on their way out. Those players were the backbone of that style.

I disagree that Sinfield was the backbone of the style we played most of last year. He was the backbone to efficient professional wins like the job we did on Cas at Wembley or the ultra close playoffs semi's and finals. The stuff we were doing last when we were racking up points, putting scores on Saints, the 2nd half demolishing of Hull and thumping Wire at our place weren't from a style that had Sinfield at the heart of it. Just on regular seasons performances he would've struggled to make my top 10 performers for Leeds last year.

The style we had last year in attack didn't need a fantastic organiser. It did require a lot of effort and energy to keep that style of play up and keep the ball alive. It required quick PTB by ball carriers winning collisions and offloading and a good distributing hooker to keep up the pace and flow of the attack....none of which we are getting now.

That's the annoying thing about our attack this year, it really didn't need Sinfield there to make it work until we got to the crunch games at the end of the year. Sinfield doesn't need to be there for professional RL players to know to kick it on the last tackle. What we did in attack last year during the regular rounds geared towards a style that didn't need Sinfield to hold their hands and guide them through it.

If we finish bottom of the league (after 23 rounds), will BMD be the only coach in any professional sport ever to take a club from winning every domestic trophy available to bottom in one season? (tvoc?)

Ignominious honour that would be.

That's all great. But you've missed what I was saying. I included Burrow and Mcguire with sinfield. They worked in tandom. You under sell sinfield as well, he was quite good at playing what was in front of him over the years, 2 examples from last year off the top of my head the watkins try in 1st half v warrington in the super 8's, watkins try 2nd half hull challenge cup. Look at the amount of times sinfield and mcguire combined in grand finals for kick tries and the like.

Now Juan Cornetto, the resident chief apologist was doing some turd polishing and mentioned Leeds style. I'm pointing out that of the 3 key cogs, one is gone and 2 are on their way out so leeds need to adapt.

Just on Cuthbertson, I'd add that without his offloads he looks very ordinary - underpowered for prop and too slow for second row.

Most of your examples above came from cup or GF's which as I said he was still massively important in the crunch games. But week to week in the league he wasn't so much. Look at the disallowed McGuire try vs Wigan last year. Passed through loads of hands, Sinfield barely involved, doesn't take a great organiser or structure to do. Just plenty of energy and quick ptb's. The persons most key Cuthbertson and Aiton.

I dare say the style of the play we used in attack last year that we're actually missing Aiton more than Sinfield. Their was games early last year when Sinfield missed or Saints way when he started on the bench that we didn't lose our style. When we lost Aiton we lost it completely but managed to drag ourselves over the line.

The way we attacked last year wasn't reliant on Sinfield. It was reliant on winning collisions and getting quick PTB's with good quick distribution from a proper hooker. The reason Cuthbertson isn't going as well isn't because teams have suddenly worked out that you need to stop him offloading (they'll have known that several games into last year) it because he's lost Aiton who he had a great combination with. Who helped us win collisions with his dummy half work and distribution which in turn let the likes of Cuthbertson run at less settled defences and get his arm free more easily and most times when he did Aiton was backing up to catch the offload and start the second wave of the attack.

The way we attacked last year is only really do-able off winning collisions and good speed PTB's letting us go at less organised defensive lines and that's more down to the absence of a good quality 9 that we aren't getting close to that.

That all sounds very convincing, until you realise that Aiton missed a good portion of the season. To my mind, (I don't rely on stats) the vast majority of our plays ran through either Sinfield or McGuire.

I know you like illustration so, let's consider the Grand Final. One try arising from off the cuff play and that was an structured attack, which had broken down.

Had it not been for the fact we saw what he could do last year, I think he'd be getting some right stick on here. Imagine if this had been his first season with us.