Personally I think its the coach but I can see the argument for Buderus. I would rather have Tony Smith as Coach and Lunt at Hooker than McDermott and Buderus!!

Not replacing your better players when they leave, regardless of position will always be a problem, but the difference between a good performance and one like last night (and many others over the last couple of years) is not Danny Buderus.

This guy is out of his depth, many have said it from the outset, but last seasons heroics from the players papered over this.

Poor Head Coach or Lack of a quality hooker?

It's both to some degree and the responsibility for both rests with one man.

IMO the main reason we were bad and Wigan were good was/is our FB, SO & SH are not anywhere near the same class as wigans, couple that with a pack that couldn't get momentum (even if it did our pivots are clueless & create few if any scoring chances)

The problem isn't anything to do with Lunt or whoever is hooker, we haven't got creative halfbacks and Webb is long overdue a rest.

Again IMO theres nothing wrong with the bulk of our squad (especially the young members) we just don't create much, when we get wins it's either by grinding down the opposition or getting a good lead by opening gaps and having good support play, usually against the lower half of the table NOT the top teams.

To sum up, a good pair of halfbacks and a fullback that is as good as Webb 4 or 5 years ago and we would back up as a top 4 side. Rob and Mags are just support players at the moment and unfortunately age is catching up with them. Love or hate Tompkins, Finch & Leuluai, they are world class and consistantly playing at a world class level, we could do alot worse than look and learn from Wigans game, much as I dislike them.

Parramatta are sniffing around Tony Smith so he will be off 'home' next season. Without him our pretenders over in Cheshire will crumble.

If you're not going to give the coach credit for last year and say it was all down to the players, then surely the players must be at fault for performances like last night?

Not really, I don't think that they can do it on a consistent basis, by that I mean dig us out of the hole that our lack of structure, discipline, tactics and gameplan bring. Leeds are effectively a "cup team" at the moment, one that can get up for a few important games every now and again, but we are not capable of playing to the consistently high standards set by Wigan and Warrington at the moment. Ironic really as the Cup is the one thing missing from many of our major players trophy collections.

I just don't think that our current coaching team are capable of creating either the environment or gameplan shown at Central Park, oops DW Stadium at present. Look at their records, McDermott was a good No2 to Smith, a shocking No1 at London and has hardly set the world alight here. Lowes was a poor coach at Salford, was poor at Warrington after a few early wins, and is nothing at Leeds.

After seeing what they have done with this set of players in the last 12/18 months, where does the optimism that they can turn this around and put us on a long term right track come from? I just don't see it.

Its apple crumble not cheshire

+1

Does anybody know what Brian Macs win percentage is over other recent Leeds coaches .Also against other top super league coaches.
Apologies if this has been covered before but I spend some time overseas and may have missed it.

Smith is British.

Really? What with an Australian accent? Only wanted to be British when he was coaching Great Britain. He will go back to coach there soon whether he calls it home or not.