I've just received a missive from that nice man at the Rhinos, Mr McDermott. Has anyone else received one? (I have to ask as it was addressed to me personally, so didn't know if he had just taken a shine to me randomly!)

There was me getting all worried about the Rhinos & where we were headed, & it seems that I'm getting myself all worked up for nothing. Apparently, there were a host of extenuating circumstances which befell the club last season (I'm so glad he listed them for me, as I hadn't heard any of them before today).

Brian has confirmed to me that we will not be recruiting any further players as he feels the squad is good enough as it is. He did mention having two 34-year-old half backs, but assures me they will be fine.

Brian's only regret from last season was that he "chased too many wins too early in the season". Well that's good that he recognised this as his only flaw. Perhaps that can be our new tag line for 2017 - "Leeds Rhinos - Winning Isn't Everything".

Bless, good to know there are no delusions or instances of "burying heads in sand" over at HQ

I got that too, funny stuff.

It's almost as funny as that time GH proclaimed the 2015 squad as being the best ever.
Oh how we laughed.

Now now. We only won the treble because every other team is so poor.

Whilst I would ideally like to see some fresh blood - I wouldn't bet against them coming good again next year. Particularly when you look at the overall strength of the league - a good pre-season, a renewed fire in the belly, Chicko in 9 for the full season, a bit of luck on the injury front and some not so great opposition might be all it takes for them to be back in the winners circle.

Write them off at your peril!

not much wrong with the squad but desperatley need a quality half back and a coach

So if they don't try to win next season, things will pan out better..? They must have had a terrible attitude to winning games in 2015..!

Look, at the risk of allowing my mask of cynicism to slip, the (probable?) first 17 that we could/should put on the field is actually (on paper/previous exploits) certainly good enough to gain a top 4 spot in this SL. Is what we have behind that as good as most sides' back-up players in SL? Time will undoubtedly tell as injuries are almost certain.

We shall see whether BMD has learnt his lesson (& not the one about chasing wins at the start of 2016 - bizarre) - the lesson of not allowing his squad to wallow in self-pity & actively encouraging/leading the victim mentality as he did in 2016. Are professional sportsmen best able to produce top performances if their coach & leader is actively telling them (at least through the media) that all is doom & gloom, the world's against them, everything's going wrong etc? He needs to man up & lead from the front. You know, I absolutely loathe Shaun Wane, but would we have got the same number (a lot) of dire, lacklustre, uninspired, sometimes downright cowardly performances as BMD did last season with Wane in charge? We will never know, but I know where my money would be.

We have virtually the same squad that started last season, with Segeyaro & Ormondroyd replacing Falloon, Hardaker (probably) & Achurch. It makes it all the more puzzling that, looking at that 1st 17, they look like contenders (if you completely blank out last season). Injuries are not a valid excuse for most of those horrible performances. Wigan won the title without their hooker (McIlorum), their inspirational leader (O'Loughlin), their returning hero (Tomkins) & the form winger of the competition (Manfredi) for most or large parts of the year.

Still, onwards & upwards, I shall be getting behind BMD & the team in the fervent hope that this really was just our annus horribilis & normal service will be resumed (& I don't mean we have to be winning trophies - just competing).

2016 the teams suddenly got a whole lot better

Of course they did - delusional

You can't suggest the league isn't a strong one - Loiner 81 will spit his dummy out so far it will look like one of Jean Michel Jarre's lasers

By chasing wins I think he is admitting to his mistake (though not fully) of playing injured players, which by my count began in round 1 by playing an unfit Sutcliffe

Unless this is a smokescreen (GH has often lied about signings publicly to help his negotiations before), then it looks like they are putting a lot of faith in Lilly (or possibly Golding) which I am broadly okay with, though I hope some of the boo boys won't get on the younger players cases if they have a bad game

Signings or not, we have a squad capable of top 4 and if Mac can't get it done this year then its time to find a coach who can

I don't know if people are purposely missing the point McD is making about 'chasing wins too early' or if they're just a bit thick!

He's clearly saying that what they should have done in the early part of the season is instead of spending time on reviewing that weeks opponents and preparing game plans for that individual opponent, they should instead have used the time to catch up on what they missed in pre-season. I'd also guess he's also reflecting that he shouldn't have rushed people back from injury in the early season to chase wins.

It's a bit of a lame excuse granted, but it's not like he's said 'we shouldn't have tried to win games'.

Translated as GH handed out contracts to certain players too long in the tooth and now we're stuck with them!.
Was wondering had Wigan.saints.wire.hull had the season we've just had would they of stood still and recruited nothing?