The team and coach have played a risky game, IMO, for several years. If you perform somewhat scratchily for much of the season then you have to justify (or gloss over, for those who put it that way) all that at the end of the season. Send the punters home happy in the end, and much of what came before will be forgotten (I know what my abiding memory of 2011 and 2012 will be). The ends can be seen to justify the means.

Without those ends the means obviously become harder to justify.

Happily, we do have a nice big shiny trophy in 2014. That will be my abiding memory. So the whimper at the end of the season isn't a massive problem for me. My memory of it will fade pretty quickly.

My concern is what that form might hint at as our fate for 2015. And I am more concerned than I have been since 2006. Obviously 2007 turned out alright though.

How confident do we all feel that essentially the same squad that effected the 06/07 turn around can do it again 8 years later? My answer is: not very.

Where has this come from? Presumably it's not from this

And that would be significant because ..... ? Especially given that Leeds made what appears to be only one more error than Warrington and a handful more than Castleford over the Regular Rounds according to this

And even if true that would be significant because ....... ?



Are these the type of player errors quantified by Opta that you appear to be referencing above?

Are you saying that when Leeds lose it's because they make more errors than their opponents? If you are do the Opta stats back your 'majority' claim in 2014?

Does this all point to mcdermott being a John kear type of coach, who can work well with a squad for one off games, but over the course of a season does not have enough to do it week in week out

Outside backs take more chances and perform riskier plays than other positions, they're also more susceptible to errors from bombs etc. . So the stats mean very little in these areas

Are you suggesting dropping Hall (42 errors) Watkins (34) and Hardaker (30) ?

No. We performed well for the first half of the season and were top of the table with a mean defence. Injuries to Burrow and loss of form by the likes of Sinfield, Watkins, Briscoe and Hardaker (after his suspension) and a failure of the reserves to step up when needed were problems that any coach would find difficult to correct. That he was able to manage Challenge Cup win despite these problems deserves some credit.

Indeed. But ours were much more susceptible to errors than the other main contenders for the Championship and it was one of these errors that put us out!

As an outsider looking in, the big difference between TS and BMcD is the ability to blood and develop youngsters and to get the team through the 'Storming' 'Forming' stages and very quickly into the 'Performing' phase.

Leeds performances look down on quality and disjointed when the big guns aren't there and the youngsters are asked to step up. That didn't seem to be the case when Leeds went through transitional stages under TS.

That's ironic because it was BMcDs ability to get the best from Londons Young players and young kids on loan from other clubs during his tenure at Harlequins which secured him the job at Leeds Rhinos.

With a big transitional stage due at Leeds in the next 2 years there has to be some measure of concern over the lack of progress of Leeds youngsters. Clarkson, Singleton, McShane, BJB, Sutcliffe, Steve Ward etc even though they are all good players none of them are where they were expected to be. Even Kallum Watkins, despite being immense and capable of walking into any team, has not quite reached the stratospheric potential that he has.

When you add all the this to the fact that the Rhinos Academy and Scholarship has just been downgraded from a 'Level 1' to a 'Level 3/4' and the loss of the jewel in the crown in Morgan Smith, the picture is not rosy.

There's some fixing up to do across all levels of the Leeds a Rhinos structure starting right at the top and reaching right across to the scouting system.

I'm not Rhinos fan so please excuse the intrusion.

JC-The Coach has to take some blame for the losses he selects the team and more often than not picks his "favourites" he decided to put S.Ward ,Walters and Sutcliffe in the Centres etc at different points ,he decides the minutes his "machines" play yet they were clearly knackered during the run in!
Yes the players make the errors and are just as if not more culpable but he controls selection and refuses to drop his favourites!
Its not even about the wins/losses for me we ended the season very poorly ,lethargic ,and devoid of attacking ideas whereas our early season scramble defence deserted us.
No amount of stats will show losing 10 games ,finishing 6th and getting dumped out at home to the Dragons is acceptable for this Club and as the CEO stated "best squad ever" (bullsh1# Gary).
From top to bottom there needs to be changes and done now anyone can see that this year has shown that the "Legends or in some cases Immortals" are very much on the downward spiral of their careers and its time to thank them and begin the changes.
Admittedly it cant all be done at once but the days of automatic selection ,individual consistent poor form and part time Coaching set up should be gone for good.

Avenger RE-Acadamy downgrade it was more to do with Ablett & Burrow Coaching the jnrs but not holding the badges ironically the Club have chased the RFL for more courses to get them the relative badges yet still got downgraded.
As for M.Smith Wire chased and "paid" well to get him we have other propsects with the new batch of u15's to start as well.

I hope you are right. You always strike me as being one as most optimistic of what you see at junior levels.....but time after time we don't see the potential realised. Whether that is due to mis-management (which I suggest is at least partly responsible) or something else it IS becoming increasingly worrying. Maybe we are seeing the start of a period of decline. I hope not, but it looks increasingly likely

The thing many need to stop doing is judging these young lads on how the likes of McGuire ,Sinfield etc and more recently Hall & Watkins hit the ground running.
When I rate a player its purely on their potential and I sometimes think some expect them to come in and blow the SL away this as well when the "senior" pro's are struggling around them or even worse see them for limited minutes over a few games and write their careers off!
I won't and don't claim to be any kind of "expert" but I do see a lot of these games indeed so does Gotcha and we don't always agree on the "prospects" we watch!
Also as Jjb proved just because you aren't a quality player at 20 it doesn't mean you wont be & I'd like to see a return to u23's with a 3 player over age allowance as a minimum requirement for all SL clubs they get more money now so have no excuses!

I won't contend that, in fact I know that to be true and at least partly responsible for the downgrade, it's the same at many clubs though. Wakefield were in a similar position re the Clubs Youth Coaches with only 1 coach 'Working Towards' Level 3 and two others being Level 2, they too were in the Catch 22 of being punished for lack of qualifications and CPD while the RFL hadn't run any/enough courses.

The deliveries had a big part to play in the grading as too did the Data and Recording (Administration) of both Acadamies. Wakefields Academy though went from a 'Level 4' to a 'Level 3' bordering on 'Level 2' with the paperwork being the biggest failing.

All of that said, back to Leeds, big improvements required across the board but I have no doubt they'll make the changes necessary.

I don't believe it's policy either. But it is what has been delivered.