Only seen the tackle on Shenton once, but it looked all wrong to me.

I can remember Mcguire saying when he got a similar injury that it took him a couple of months before he go confident with it, may just take that long for Sutcliffe, lets just hope Ward can hit the ground running as he has significantly less time before the crucial part of the season

I agree he didn't have a great game but perhaps expectations were too high give the circumstances. He was certainly off the pace - hence the forward passes - that was to be expected? An injury of that severity is bound to impact your confidence until it has been properly tested in your mind. Add to that he was injured early in the game, I think some allowances should be made.

Is he a world class half back? time will tell

Remember McGuires early days? 90% of his game was speed and supporting, as a ball player he wasn't good. It took a good few years for him to grow into the role and had no choice as his pace diminished. With Sutty he is a natural ball player and has a good few years to grow into the role, leave him be and see what McDermot can do with him.
Also we have to remember what Sir Kev has repeatedly said about McD being the best coach he has ever worked with, let him do his job and bring the player on in his way. The more game time he gets the more he will start making the right decisions. Last year was supposed to be a transitional season for the Rhinos, look how that turned out! Well this year IMO even more so. We can't lose a player like Sir Kev and expect a young green kid to fill his boots immediately.
We will wait and see, from what I saw last week against Warrington and the other games from Rd1 we will be there or there about come the business end of the seasonand the important games

I agree with most of that
However I always worry about the fact that Sinny said he was the best coach, as he might of felt that way because (especially in playoff games) Mac might have basically let Kev coach the team...

Odd theory

I'd hope that you would give Kev a bit more credit than that.

The current scenario is not ideal for sutcliffe, but early last season he was rightfully picked in front of sinfield and hopefully he can regain that form it may well take a while to get up to speed but I have no doubts he will do so.

I dont understand? most halves wanna have the freedom to basically do what they want anyway see literaly any interview of Gary Schofield, Im just abit worried that Mac let Kev do whatever tactics he wanted and Kev found him the best coach because he was given virtually total freedom (it definately looked like he had it in the 2011/2 playoffs)- this is backed up by accounts of Kev (and to a lesser extent JP and Mags) running training sessions and doing the majority of talking at half time

Thinking about it though it might not be such a bad thing, if Sutcliffe and ward and Hardaker are given these responsibilities it might help us out long term

If that were true, which I'm sure it isn't, that's the mark of a great coach. To sit down all week with your captain and discuss game plan and tactics, to be able to adapt at half time if things aren't going your way. I have been reading the posts on here for quite some time without participating but it seems to me that the majority on here think that McD is not that great and has been "lucky" to have a great set of players. Firstly having a great set of players is not lucky and secondly let's see what we can do over the next 2 seasons to see if he is a good coach or not. I hope finaly that he will put the doubters to rest

I think he gets alot of stick because his first season saw us play some of the worst rugby a Leeds team had played in a long time, I agree he has not been lucky though, his squads have been arguably worse than Wire saints and wigan at times
I think he seems to be a good man manager and has done extremely well to hang on to players like Hall over a period when even the Aussie press were calling him a world XIII player
Where he does deserve some stick imo is in some of the bizarre and uncoventional decisions he makes, especially regarding interchanges, a policy that has cost us games numerous times- see Cas last year where we only used 1 sub until the 51st minute

I agree that some of his decisions regarding subs do seem a little bizarre sometimes to us supporters who do not have all the facts and figures to hand, however no coach is infallible and he is in one of the highest pressure jobs in the UK game. IMO he makes far more correct decisions than not, he certainly is a great man manager and has the players wanting to run their blood to water for the club and team mates. What we haven't had under McD is any submissions from the team and they have never given in and not tried to win every game. The pain of losing a game is evident on the players faces .
For me McDermotts management of the team while we have major injuries within the squad has been sublime, we have been playing mostly entertaining rugby where we could resort to pushing the boundaries of the rules like Shaun Wayne's Wigan we have played within the spirit of the game rules.
Whilst Mags is out and we are playing the likes of Sutty, Lilly, Goulding and Ashton to cover reshuffles and accommodate changes to the first team playing squad, this is where we will see the strength of the coaching system.
It is a shame that McGuire has been injured in the first hit out of the season as we still don't know how much he is going to step up post Sir Kev, JP and Kylie era.
Time will tell but I, for one, do have faith in our coach and the team supporting him all the way. We can't expect to win every game, we are playing some quality opposition and this year I see it being one of the most competitive right across the board.

Numerous times? You fail to mention the many times he has prepared the team so well for numerous big games with bespoke game plans, or how he has introduced and developed younger players or successfully managed the ongoing transition of aging stars. Neither do you record that he inherited a squad that had lost it's winning ways and was playing poor rugby the previous season.

No coach or player can be free of human errors and mistakes and often decisions that appear bizarre and unconventional from the stands are founded on inside knowledge regarding fitness and training ground form.

What you cannot deny are his record breaking achiements and his ability to develop the team to play outstanding and attractive winning rugby. These are the big picture points that dwarf differing views with regard to interchanges.

its

I agree with that, all I was saying is that he isnt perfect and some of the stick he gets on here is warranted (although any calls for him to leave are not)
the bizarre decisions I were talking about dont just include the interchanges, its also things like the unused sub and not naming Lilly the kicker in the last game when he was on the field