Keith Senior or Sinfield, who's the most level headed intelligent person I'd rather respect the opinion of, hmmm? Reality too is you'll always get the odd one who doesn't feel the same.

Given the structural deficiencies of our attack and defence, there has to be question marks over Mcdermott's abilities as head coach. Sinfield may enjoy working with him and like him as a person, that doesn't make him a good coach.

Anybody who watched the NRL grand final this morning will have noticed a marked difference between even our best sides and the two teams playing in that game. The gap between Leeds and those teams can only be measured in light years.

I could never rate the opinion of a communist too highly

Bet your "whipping boy rabble" from Wigan rate him though!

I certainly don't recall much praise in terms of McClennan's coaching. It was one thing that struck me at the time he was here, that very rarely did any player actually mention him in public.

Nobody is saying you shouldn't criticise poor performances. As I've said before, some of it comes down to player motivation. Motivating yourself for the bread and butter of a regular season game away at Cas/Wakefield/Salford in the middle of the season is probably quite difficult after the highs of the previous season, and having already won 4 of the previous 5 GF's. Even the away games at Saints, Wigan and Warrington, you can understand why they don't break their backs trying to win them when they're safe in the knowledge that a big end of season effort when it really counts might be enough.

McDermott isn't the perfect coach, nobody is, but the criticism of him is a little over the top at times considering his achievements.

But when the much acclaimed captain of our Champion side makes it quite clear what he now believes, in comparison to all of the others, should you not reconsider that maybe, just maybe, you have been wrong to lay the the blame for some poor performances in the regular season at the coaches door?

Would you agree that Sinfield is a much better judge of coaching skills of BM than you or I, or indeed any of the so, so knowledgable keyboard coaching critics?

Sinfield said"I have to say that Brian McDermott is the best coach I have ever played under. His combination of tactical awareness, player development and man management is second to none and I am so pleased for him that we have got back to yet another Final. The backroom team of James Lowes and Jason Davidson perfectly complement Brian and together they give us everything we could possibly need to succeed.

"Sometimes things don't go our way in the season but we stay tight and continue to work hard for one another. That happens in life and how you handle that adversity makes you what you are," added Sinfield. [/i

His comments were clearly highlighting BM´s coaching skills; "His combination of tactical awareness, player development and man management is second to none"

This is not some young player seeking to keep his place with a bit of toadying. Most people close to the team are well aware of BM´s abilities so I guess Sinfield chose to make this very strong statement to enlighten the coaches critics who are unaware of what is really happening on the training field. A bit like his speech at last year´s GF.

The last thing you want to do when corporate entertaining is actually watch the event! You want the time to work the client, not watch sport!

Edit: It's for that reason I don't spend on sports for corporate entertainment. Corporate entertainment should either be talking to clients, in which case dinner and drinks is far better that the distraction of an event, or a reward for your organisation in which case travel typically works far better. I'd have to break out my expenses to see exactly what's spent on what events, but it's in five figures annually.

Won't it be an irony, if the cause of the end of the most glorious period of our clubs history, comes because the fans are no longer prepared to pay to watch the greatest team in the history of the club.

Rather than subjectively guessing at light years, we actually have a match of rugby league to objectively measure the gap between the two teams.

Just because he says one thing to the media does mean that's what he thinks. Sinfield knows what it takes to win and part of that is unity at the club with everyone pulling together.

Having said that a lot of people gave BMD a lot of credit for our performances in 2004 & 2005, which dropped off when he left. It may be that he's an excellent coach who knows how the game works and knows how to get a team over the line in first. Mid season results and performances mean nothing. Its all about doing it in the play offs.

No but ..... <insert excuses here>

Or in the salary caps.

True, I'm thinking along the lines that everyone who sits in the stand can have an opinion on tactics and who should play where or what they should do with the ball in hand (and fook knows we see enough of them on here), but what is it that motivates a team of individual players to break their backs for each other and how similar is that man management and motivation to what is happening in every Army unit on every day of the week ?

Maybe he is or isn't the worlds best tactical rugby genius but you cannot doubt his ability to lift a squad at exactly the moment that its needed and more importantly to get that squad to follow him - anyone heard any rumours about dressing room cliques and whispering campaigns recently ?

No, thought not.

That's the thing though, you don't really have to lift this squad of players for the big games because they naturally lift themselves (as any team should do for the biggest occasions). It's when you have to go away to Wakefield on a Monday night, a few weeks short of a CC Final and Belle Vue seems a million miles comedown compared to do-or-die matches at Wembley and Old Trafford and minds may not be fully focused that the coach has to step in and make sure we approach it right.