This is a desperate coach/club looking to deflect the blame away from himself/themselves.

There is even a new excuse - we tried to chase wins early!! That is simply idiotic.

It is all we and not I and that is an issue - take some responsibility for your shortcomings.

2016 was a complete and utter shambles and the Rhinos lack of agility in the face of adversity is duly noted.

What on earth are you blabbering on about. Duly noted? I'm quite sure no gives a damn about what you've ''duly noted''.

It's we and not I? that's because the club is a We. When they won the treble he didn't say 'I'VE won the treble''.

I think it's a fair article.

I think we need to move on. Last season has gone let's put it to the past, there's no point kicking and screaming because the club haven't crucified themselves with Mcdermott offering his resignation in blood. Things went wrong, mistakes were made but we'll be stronger for it, I am certain.

Very much this. It's just sport at the end of the day.

I also agree with what Mac said regarding chasing wins early, the bad start, compounded by injuries and playing injured players really damaged a team that was trying to find its identity again.

Roll on next season, if we can manage a good start, I'll be quietly confident.

Of course it's "we" and not "I". Whenever we've won things under McDermott he's always been about shifting the credit onto others (players, other coaching staff, management) so damn right he uses we when fail when he uses it when we've been successful. You stick together as a club and don't start pointing fingers at individuals.

That you want him to say "I" just shows up your agenda. Talk about excuses with regards to losing crucial time in pre-season, which is actually a fact not excuses....yet come out with your own excuses about why we were successful....."it was all Sinfield and Peacock, all the other teams were poor"....which aren't facts just lame opinions and excuses to try salvage something from previous claims writing off the coach and team who you thought would do naff all in 2015 (and on a few occasions previously).

The "chasing wins" comment is properly explained and you can understand what he means unless you're just reading those two words and taking it simplistically as we didn't want to win games.

Whilst we didn't deal well with adversity for quite a while, we did actually turn it around, all be it a few weeks too late to avoid Middle 8's. we finished the 23 Rounds with several wins under our belts, some against eventual silverware winners, climbed a few spots to get the better fixtures and we made simple work of the Midfle 8's. Might not sound like much but considering where we were at around the end of May/start of June strolling through the Middle 8's didn't look on the cards and we did actually work our way out of trouble in the end.

1. Interesting comment about the players not putting in acceptable performances - not much about him and his impact on these unacceptable performances? So who is pointing the fingers then - not much we in that comment.

2. The last six fixtures of 2016 included 4 against Wakefield, Salford, Hull KR and Widnes and the middle 8's should have been more of a breeze than it was - the performances against London, Batley, Hull KR and a loss to the Giants were hardly convincing. Let's not see this as a Lazarus moment!!

3. Given the club was in complete crisis/chaos chasing wins in those circumstances seems foolhardy if greater pressure was put on players to deliver.

4. He talks about hiding behind excuses - quite the opposite to what the CEO said at the time "we are a strong group that don't hide behind excuses" yet another confused statement in this piece - its typical of his muddled thinking that can be seen during game time.

You have an agenda to dismiss Sinfield's impact on the success of the team in 2015, just like you have with Tony Smith's impact during his time at Leeds - you are entitled to that opinion. To suggest anyone who doesn't agree has an agenda seems hypocritical to me.

1 - there was a load of "we" in that part of his piece....."I had defended the players until that point but those performances were unacceptable. WE had lost our way and WE were ALL guilty of relying on excuses too much. It led to MYSELF, ALL the coaching staff and the players questioning if WE were doing everything possible to perform." ......hardly shifting it away from himself to just players.

2 - yes and those teams were beating us earlier in the year. Not saying the performances were amazing but last time I checked you didn't get extra points for style and 2 points counts all the same. Wigan are an example of that this year.

3 - yes and he admits it's his major regret doing that. Does he have to word it a certain way calling himself a useless **** before some are satisfied?

4 - how is it muddled thinking of his behalf when you've taken one comment from him and one from someone else?

5 - not saying Sinfield didn't play his part of course he did. But this idea that's been built up that it was all on him and Peacock alone is ridiculous. As much as great players they were they weren't that great that they could be the sole difference between spending most of the last year in 1st and then spending most of this year without them last.

Simple fact is with the extended end to 2015 and then loss of pre-season time we must've been around a month behind where we were 12 months previously preparation-wise and of the other teams in the competition when the season kicked off. You can't have that and expect to keep up with the rest.

I think Sal takes this forum just a little bit too seriously, he was on about "dissenting voices" on another thread.

Christ, he's off again. What ashes would these be Sal?



And he's back to making things up again...
You know I'd ask you for a link to back up your latest made up ramblings but on past history that just won't happen so I won't bother.

Printer

I don't think he is dismissing Sinfield at all, just that it is quickly forgotten how
sinfield was well out of form first half of 2015 and it was Sutcliffe playing SO when we were playing champagne rugby at times and winning well until his injury.

As opposed to 2016 when we were playing flat Tizer rugby.

I was thinking more like a maturing puddle of P!$$...but close enough

What's interesting at the moment we current have 24 players signed up full time for next season (minus Hardaker, Hallas and Lilley(unconfirmed any deals in place yet). That to me is short, considering we are probably without Galloway for about 1/3 of it.