Or a bit of both ? The league campaign has been a write-off if we're being honest and if we crash and burn early in the playoffs the question has to be answered. The defence has had more holes than a teabag most of the season and without Mcguire we look completely lost going forward. Today was a shocker that has unfortunately epitomized the regular season, God knows how Mcdermott and the players will turn it round this time. Answers on a postcard.

mainly the coach. clueless and not good enough

This is a mgmt issue - GH recruits the players and the coaches the buck stops with him.

Good point.

The squad. Leeds haven't made any marquee signings for a while. The teams above you all have better players and have made significant investments in their squad.

Good enough for what? We're current WCC champs, CC finalists, and in the same position as we were at this point last year when we won the biggest prize in the league.

Granted, what happens in the next few weeks will really dictate how good our season has been, and I don't know what the result of that will be.

Your letting a great team get too old.

I once again ask the question ... Name one of our regular established players who has improved under BMD ?

What was the answer to that question this time last year, and in early October last year?

Today we had a side who didn't want to get injured before the playoffs, and knew that, no matter what the result, they were finishing 5th, a point brutally brought home by the injury to Kirke. JP was the best forward on the park by a mile, but without Kirke & Delaney, the workload on Kylie, Ablett, JJB & Griffin increased a lot. This wasn't helped by a dismal defensive performance down the right by Watkins and, most of all, Ben-Jones Bishop. His defence, in-goal for George's try, or in play for the many Huddersfield breaks down their left, was appalling.

There are players (e.g. Scott Taylor) available who could make a big difference, and the signing of Mitch Achurch is a real positive for us. However, it's become clear that Moore (seemingly frozen out) and Hauraki (clearly not good enough) need to move to pastures new. Additionally, it's clear that some of the ickle kidies (Hood) aren't ready, and need to spend time playing regular open-age rugby. The rumoured loan of Hood, Briscoe, Olds & Keinhorst to Hunslet would, IMO, be beneficial for all parties.

That's the thing with time, you can't stop it. Our backs seem relatively young.

Good enough to compete on a regular basis against the better teams. Wigan scored 50 odd against us, Wire scored 30 odd against us in the league and C.C. Final, St Helens scored 40 odd against us, Catalans scored 30 odd against us and Huddersfield have now scored 40 odd against us. We are 5th for a reason, we have been consistently poor. Yes if we reproduce last seasons miracle I'll be eating some humble pie like everyone else, but watching my team this year has not been good for my health. Good enough to compete on a regular basis against the top teams is the short answer.

GH does have to accept some of the responsibility for consistent inconsistency in that he is responsible for bringing and retaining the right players and coaching staff to the club. That said, he gets much more right than he gets wrong, and given the success we have enjoyed under his stewardship, he deserves to get cut a lot of slack IMO. He does need to make sure that the next few decisions he makes are the right ones, or we are in danger of slipping back into the pack of 4-6th place where our league positions have us, but without the capability to rise to the occasion when it really matters which pretty much sums up where we are at the moment.

I think a lot of our current problems come from the coaching team. I honestly think the players don't know what's expected of them. They don't know who will be defending next to them from one tackle to the next, and we have no structure to our attacking play other than "chuck or kick it for Hally". We look like a poorly coached team when compared to Wigan and Warrington.

We have some very talented younger players at the club, who don't get a look in, and some elder statesmen who are flogged to death every week. We have even left subs on the bench for a full game a few times in the last couple of years. This is all down to the coaching team.

BMD might well be a "good bloke" and have "the lads behind him" but I'm yet to be convinced he can coach his way out of a paper bag. At a time of transition any club needs to be in the safest possible hands, and I really can't say that about Leeds at the moment.

It will be interesting to see what happens next week. We will either raise our game and in doing so prove that we only play when it really matters meaning that many of the league games throughout the season are little more than opposed training sessions to a fully paying public, or we will wither and die to end the season on a whimper.

Either way it will be very telling to see what GH does in respect of his comments about this team having run its course earlier in the season.

Just hang of for the bit that really matters.
Could be worse, you could have seen the team go from dominating the league to almost out of business or at least SL (and that doesn't just refer to Bradford)

Completely agree. I've been fairly vocal about how we look poorly structured. However, you have to remember that under BMD we have only twice lost knockout games. In the end, as long as you win those games, nothing else matters.