I said exactly the same re-excuses but was repeatedly shot at for saying as such.

Mate Cas won games with Millington & Mcshane as their HB pairing & competed throughout the season.

You are right Tad. The lack of onfield leadership was not addressed when Sinfield retired. To lose JP at the same time made the need to recruit all the more important. We do not have a skilled enough organizer at the club with the ability to read a game like Gale. Our play is all too predictable without an decent organizer and the reserves are championship standard at best.

To be without 8 first choice players is a real handicap. Had we been able to play Ward, JJB, Ablett, Garbutt, Galloway, Ferres, Burrow and Briscoe we would not have let in that score and would at least have competed. However I am not saying we would have won due to the serious lack of a game manager.

As it was Cas made 50% more carries than us resulting in complete dominance in meters, tackle busts and clean breaks. We made almost 50 missed tackles which is down to the players and in a game where the youngsters had a right to expect senior players like McGuire and Watkins to step up to the plate their displays were just awful. Keinhorst, Parcell and Singleton tackled their hearts out but the quality around them was below standard.

With the senior players back and a new half back recruit we could compete. Until we sign an organier I would be tempted to play Burrow and Lilley at half back as on last nights showing McGuire is either not match fit or sadly is now past it and Sutcliffe is a back rower playing out of position.

Fair enough, but I also disagree with your assertion that Cas would be a bottom 4 team without Gale. They are far better than that, as is Powell as coach.

I'm trying to remember who it was during the off-season who opined that only one or two Cas players would be good enough to get in the current Leeds team. Oops!

If they lost Gale this year they would be no chance of silverware.

It's not sour grapes, just my opinion.

If anyone can be ar$ed looking at my previous post on the Cas board I always have and alway will have soft spot for em.

Lets not forget 'Arguably the best centre in the world' and him going missing again last night and signing off with being squated aside by Shenton in embarrassing fashion for the last try. Too many of our top players appear to not have the fight in them anymore when the going gets tough like it did last night.William made a good point in that after a while the team just buy into the excuse peddled out by those at the top.

Woah calm yer turbos i wasn't implying it was sour grapes mate far from it just making a point re-Gale.
What they have are a Coaching staff who can adapt a gameplan to whoever is in/out of their 17 mate.
Yes Gale would be a loss but they've had plenty of players running riot like Mcshane Hardaker etc.

Cas are a good team- just because they're called Cas doesn't automatically put them in the 'whipping boy rabble', as I once heard said (the same does not apply to Wakefield by the way!) but we were shocking. We let Cas play, gave them space and easy ball, fell of tackles and were clueless going forward.

Back in the early 2000's we had a massive shake-up, removed a lot of the old rot and revivalist the entire team and look what happened? We need to do the same now - remove whats left of the old guard and start again... whats the worse that can happen; get our @rses handed to us by Cas?

I said last year if you added Gale to their injuries I think bottom 4. Not this year. But no trophies if he's not fully firing.

McGuire is irrelevant as a player now, so I do not understand the comparison. Gale is head & shoulders the best GB SH now, so he would be massively missed, but I have enough belief that Powell would have worked out a system to avoid the bottom 4. Dependent on other hypothetical injuries, but McShane, Chase, Roberts, Millington, Dorn, Milner could all step up. You just sound like a bitter Rhino.

Blimey! After the shambles of last season and the drift away of regulars who couldn't handle what the Leeds team had become, we finally have a returnee! Welcome back Fat Boy

Take yer time G1, El Diablo, Nantwichexile, Gilder, Soprano, etc

Have Leeds qualified for the Whipping Boy SL Rabble tag yet?

Not my words. Oh no. These are the words of our COACH!

(Source Sportinglife.com)

[i"Leeds head coach Brian McDermott on their heaviest Super League defeat

Wow. The man has done a fine job for the Rhinos over the last few years and that should be recognised, but this is plain delusional.

Of course, the fans will be calling for his head, but that's not how business works - and Leeds Rhinos is a business. The only time Gary H will get rid of him will be when the numbers of fans on the terraces start to dwindle and there's a financial impact on the club. Until then (and as long as we turn up to watch the dross currently served up by the coach and players) BMD stays.

A really low crowd against Catalans - with only a handful of away fan there anyway - might focus Gary's mind, and more importantly pocket.

There will be a significant degree of insulation on attendances for the time being due to season ticket holders still expectantly turning up hoping to see some decent footy being played. Who may be affected more is those who pick and choose their games who may not be inclined to do so. Away fans may turn up in larger numbers in expectation of a win as a counterbalance.

The danger sign on attendances will be if a couple of thousand season ticket holders decide they can't be @rsed attending. They aren't likely to renew for next season.