Ricky Hatton said in an interview that he never shadow boxed for 12 rounds because he felt it made fighters too robotic. He liked to train for a few rounds in different scenarios so he could react to situations. Under McDermott, to me, we seem like a team with a plan for 80 minutes, rather than one with a few plans to mix it up.

The players are trained to the point, that when it's not working, there's no alternative. I'm not looking for miracles, but at this level when most defences are strong, teams need something extra in attack to break them down. Dummy runners, second phase, offloads - things many of us see lacking. This surely comes down to the coach and how he prepares them. So many times, we offload and the next tackle is within 5m of the offload. Other teams offload and look to exploit the space.

I try to think of a run of a games where we've been on fire, but I struggle.

Quote DoubleAone="DoubleAone"Maybe a couple of posters might like to attend. These are regular events. Very popular and very well attended I understand by the local coaching fraternity. Thats people who actually get involved and put something back into the sport they love, rather than those that just have Terrace Test Caps. www.therhinos.co.uk/news/23485.php'" They are popular and well attended, though not as well attended as I would like. I think there are still plenty more coaches out there who can learn from these events! But then those coaches who need these sessions the most are the ones least likely to attend!

Quote DoubleAone="DoubleAone"Maybe a couple of posters might like to attend. These are regular events. Very popular and very well attended I understand by the local coaching fraternity. Thats people who actually get involved and put something back into the sport they love, rather than those that just have Terrace Test Caps. www.therhinos.co.uk/news/23485.php'" They are popular and well attended, though not as well attended as I would like. I think there are still plenty more coaches out there who can learn from these events! But then those coaches who need these sessions the most are the ones least likely to attend!

True

With all the experiences in our team do you not think the players should be able to think 'you know what this isnt working, lets try something slightly different'?

Players shouldn't need to be told to offload or support a player in attack, it should be something natural that happens

I cant imagine McDermott doesnt have them running dummy runners and different plays in training, IMO its the players not taking things from the training ground to the pitch

But Brian McD IS going to the training, so where does this leave the point you are making?

You'd think so. But surely the coach would have addressed it and things would have changed. Let's be honest, it's not just this year out attack looks stagnant. So either they are his tactics and the players won't divert from them or the players aren't listening to a word he says and ignoring the last weeks training. I know which option I'd go for.

Don't you think experienced players with so many titles would be good at taking their coaches plan onto the pitch and executing it?

The thing is that it's the sort of tough pay that has won us titles. Grand finals are nearly always won by a small margin on a tight game.

Last season we ran out of bodies but we should never underestimate the affect of being tougher than the opposition

That's kinda the reason I don't mind us not hammering opposition by massive scorelines like Wire and Wigan often do and have done in the recent past.

I do think the problem that has stopped the last 3 LLS winners even reaching the GF has been lack of tough and close games during the year. People say that England's problem at international level is lack of close and intense games.....well the last 3 LLS winners have pretty much strolled through the year with minimal tests.

So when we get pushed by the likes of HKR or lose to Wakey, whilst frustrating or disappointing at the time it probably does us more good in the long run than going through the motions with a 40-50 point stroll from the 1st minute of the game.

Look at Warrington's run in 2011 and the complete lack of close games from April 15th (Round 10) onwards

W 64-6
W 60-0
L 10-24
W 58-14
W 80-0
W 62-0
W 112-0
W 42-6
W 56-16
L 16-18
W 46-16
W 35-28
W 48-18
W 28-16
W 54-24
L 24-44 to Wigan in CC QF
W 66-12
W 25-12
W 39-12
W 34-12
W 47-0
L 24-26 to a Leeds in playoffs

13 of those 18 wins were by 30 points or more, only one was less than a 12 point win.

Wigan's 2012 season is perhaps even more noticeable. They won 25 games in all competitions and only ONE was by less than 12 points and that was against HKR away.

Both lost to us in the playoffs and both had strolls in the first week of the playoffs, Wire beat Hudds 47-0 in 2011 & Wigan beat Catalans 46-6 in 2012. Hardly the tough preparation you need to claim a GF.

I don't mind us getting pushed, I'm just concerned at our ability to win these tight games. It's something we don't seem to have right now. In the past I'm pretty certain we'd have won at least 2 or 3 of the close games we've drawn or lost.
Most notably Wakey away & Cas at home.

If Leeds had kept 13 players on the field I believe they would have won the Cas match by continuing to grind it out. Leeds were in control until Sinfield's shocking brain fart.

As for Wakey...uggh!

On this we can agree

As has been mentioned for Cas it was a Sinfield brainfart and against Wakey we were missing a ton of experience on the pitch.