You're going on the basis that their poor form would've definitely continued, which it MIGHT have done but by no means a guarantee. Burrow was dire earlier in the year but has put in some good showings recently. Garbutt is improving from his early form and despite the criticism I think Galloway has improved. Very possible some of our absentees would've picked up their form if they weren't injured.

There is no criticism of the effort for the most part - there are players who appear to not giving 100% or not performing as they should - Achurch, Watkins, Galloway are these really showing a hunger/desire/will to win?

Why are the players knackered they have played less than half a season - a disrupted pre-season yes but by now they should be hitting their straps in terms of match fitness.

How many players on Friday were playing injured - Hardaker irresponsible to play him imo, they dropped Singleton to play Cuthbertson so you can only assume he was fit.

On McDermott - I don't see a logical game plan - it may be boring but dumb the plan down to trying to gain territory - all this off the cuff stuff is OK when you have all guns firing. The less said about the defensive structures and the lack of desire to defend the line the better.

Leadership is a huge issue - on Friday Cuthbertson and Ferris as experienced players let their team mates down and need a word in their ear during the game - there is trying and there is headless plays both these players came up with far too many of the latter. Leeds are compounding their other issues with suicidal plays on the field.

That is a difficult conundrum - Handley imo has been excellent and doesn't deserve to lose his place until he shows a significant deterioration in form.

It could be that some players just aren't as good as they looked in a winning side with Sinfield and Peacock at its heart?

Even if you keep Handley on one wing their's still another wing. I believe Hall will be fit before Briscoe, despite Hall's poor form earlier in the year wouldn't you pick him ahead of Golding for the other wing spot hoping that his enforced absence/break could've been just what he needed.

Walters retiring speed is appalling; it worries me every time he's involved in a tackle that if he's not a marker then there'll be a massive gap in the defensive line.

Agreed - providing his enforced lay off means he can still get his shirt on

Only Leeds fans could look at an injury list that has robbed us of (on average) 7 of our first choice 17 every week and claim that it should have zero bearing on the results.

It's not just the players that are missing - and let's not pretend they're not huge misses, players that most of the league would sign in a heartbeat if they became available - it's that as a result other players are having to play when they're not fully fit, fill in in positions that aren't their best and try to learn a new way of playing (a post-Sinfield way) with a constantly changing team made up of whoever's fit and missing the core of the title winning side. No Hall or Briscoe means our back three who did so much damage last year are now a back one. Other people are having to try to do those yards, that means they're not in position to do other things. No McGuire means we lose the vast majority of the attacking structure and control we'd been working on, not to mention his passing and short kicking game. But no, none of that could possibly have an impact on the season.

Yes we should be doing better, obviously we should, but let's stop blaming Mac or a lack of effort and acknowledge that there have been some remarkably extenuating circumstances. Let's see how we get on when we can field anything that resembles a first choice team/squad.

Let's not pretend that Leeds are the only club suffering large quantities of key players, let's not pretend Leeds are the only side having to adjust to new structures due to personnel changes.

Let's mot pretend Leeds have handle this well - Leeds have handle this common set of circumstances worse than any side in SL.

its not the injuries for me, yes i get it and understand how that will stunt our progress but for me its the performances and the lack of addressing issues that are coming up week after week and its a team thing as a whole.We just look like a team that aren't being coached right now and are going out on the pitch in hope that some individual might turn it on and will win games and its just not happening.

It isn't a common set of circumstances. It's a unique set of circumstances. No team has ever experienced this current situation.

- On the back of a Treble
- losing 2 key leaders
- losing the rest of the leaders plus significant others to injury
- missing significant parts of pre-season

You can still think they haven't handled it well, that's a matter of opinion, but it most definitely is not a common set of circumstances.

We all know the " circumstances " and we can see the effort - but in todays game effort is no where near enough. A team needs a game plan , some tactics and a plan of how to stop the opposition.
We cannot produce 5 hitups followed by a kick down field on a consistent basis at the moment. In 2 games against Huddersfiled, on our first set of six -
Week 1 - Sutcliffe bottled the kick & as a result we spent the next 15 minutes in our own half tackling our balls offs. This came back to hurt us in the second half, when in the lead , we could not keep Hudds pinned in their half, as we had run out of gas - not helped when you play a passenger like Aichurch
Week 2 - first set , Sutcliffe bottles it again, but Lilley saves him with a dummy we score.

We cant follow ther process with the first set of six 2 weeks running - I put this down to lousy coaching.

When you are down , you have to work harder than ever - but you need structure and tactics - we have neither.
Our coach hasn`t the brains to get somebody to `rough up " Brough - instead , we stand & watch him 2 weeks running, kick us to death - that is down to the COACH - nothing to do with " circumstances !!

AMEN

Completely agree. One thing that Watkins is still doing extremely well. Like chalk and cheese

I think this is the one issue that goes under the radar so to speak. I still believe their was a mixture of complacency in pre-season from players that they'd turn up and carry on where they left off and also looking at some of the more experienced players a case of "we've pretty much achieved everything" now they won a treble.

How do you motivate/find goals to drive you on? Some rare individuals in all sports have that unique desire to just win trophy after trophy after trophy and in RL it was Sinfield and Peacock. Nevermind their leadership or game management, just their desire to consistently get back to Old Trafford and Wembley each year regardless of how many times they've been successful or not is what was special. At Peacock's age and after already winning 5/6 GF's how did he find the desire to keep getting out of bed with a broken body the morning after a game and push for more Grand Finals? It's something we'd all like to think we'd do in the same situation but unless you're in the situation then you can't be sure.

Some players in sports are happy reaching the top of the mountain and winning one title or one major and then slip back down, you could even ask that question of some Leeds players who departed after the 2004 GF win like Calderwood and Mathers.

How a season ends can have a massive bearing on how the next one goes. If we hadn't have lost our last 5 league games of 2014 and had such a massively disappointing exit to Catalans in the playoffs then would we have started 2015 with 10 wins out of 11 and a complete overhaul of our attacking style? If instead we reached the playoff semis or GF that year? Had we lost the LLS at Hudds last year and fail to reach the GF would the team have been more focused to make amends for falling short in 2015?

To motivate them....
Wigan have the disappointment of losing the GF, Warrington have the disappointment of a poor season.
Widnes, Salford, Wakefield have the disappointment/scare of finding themselves in the middle 8's

What do Leeds have? The reality that they probably won't ever have a more fairytale season?