Excellent post. End of deliberations here as far as I'm concerned

Except for two minor details.

1. The poster probably has zero hours flying time in the Captains seat of a top flight club. So really has no clue what they're talking about.

2. The poster probably has zero hours flying time as the CEO of a multi million pound sports leisure and hospitality business. So really has no clue what they're talking about.

Your support doesn't do much for it's credibility either.

No - get rid now McMuppett back to his finest today.

coach and a big player clear out too.start again with a new team building regime

Trouble is we have already retained too many has beens and players not to the required standard to make an impact for next season.

Very strong support for this statement after yesterdays drive to London and back.

Whaaaaat?

I'd say he made a very good post and I agree with it 100%. I couldn't give a "flying" one how much time he has spent as captain or CEO of a club.

I'll cut BM slack for that loss against Quins - chalk that 100% to the attitude of the players. If they were going to play soft they should have asked BM not to play them. To be fair to him, he was undoubtedly trying to balance the requirement of not losing players through injury (how many times are players injured when playing soft though, you'd think they'd learn FFS) and keeping some momentum for next week.

As it is, the players undoubtedly made the right noises to BM about what they'd do against Quins, then simply didn't turn up on the day. That's not BM's fault - if he'd known they'd do that he would have been better served picking the Academy side and avoiding any injury risk altogether.

I don't think he's a good coach, but if we turn up at Wembley next week and win (unlikely) or lose narrowly, we need to be asking more from these guys every week. If we get hammered then its time to ask hard questions about the coaching and quality of the players.

BM may not be the only casualty if we get flogged publicly again.

Yes,but that means either the players do not respect the coach,or the coach cannot motivate the players.
Years ago when the Challenge Cup was the most important competition to win,teams would not perform the week before,but those days are long gone and there is no excuse for not performing.
Wigan did not seem to have a problem in getting up for their game,so either they have players with a more professional attitude or a better coach,probably both.
Either way we need to make changes in player or coaching personel before next season.

Whatever else, I think we have few players in this squad who have given real cause to question their professionalism.

Never include more terms in your model than are required to explain the observed effect. If we attribute poor form this season to attitude of players, do we really think the likes of Peacock, Sir Kevin, Burrow, JJB, Buderus etc have suddenly developed an attitude problem? Or do you look at a simpler explanation?

If strategy and motivation are not part of the coach's job, then why do we employ a coach at all?

Exactly

What if the players are simply not good enough - what is the coach supposed to do?

I am not saying McDermott is a mesiah, what I am saying is he is working with a very average squad.