"We weren't at the races. We expected to perform better but there were obviously reasons for that and we need to rectify that." McNamara

A simple question would be does he know what these reasons are? He said similar last season on lots of occasions and has shown no sign of rectifying the problems. I know he has to put on a brave face in front of the media, but I wonder what his thinking really is - why does he think things are not working out? I wonder whether the GPS innovation is his idea of a technical fix, if you can just know a little more you can make things work, if that's his thinking it suggests he might be really struggling for ideas. By this point, this far in to a long contract presumably he's tried everything he knows and it's not working. I just wonder if he can admit to himself that this is the case? His only really decent spell was when Brian Smith was helping him out, we need that type of experience back to help him out if we're not going to get rid, he's a good assistant but not a Head Coach as is clear now.

I don't tend to read much into what McNamara says in the media, he's not likely to bag players in public However, we can all see what's going wrong on the pitch and the reasons for it. Can he rectify the problems? I doubt it now. The same failings crop up repeatedly despite him being in the job for going on for 4 seasons. They're not little things but basic fundamentals of how the game is played. The only answer must be that the players do not respond to his instructions, perhaps he really is just a good assistant and lacks the authority to get players to follow the gameplan?

Maybe they just can't tell what the hell he is saying to them. I certainly struggled to understand him when he was in the studio for Friday's SKY match!

I still believe it will take time for the imports to bed down and develop closer relationships with the other players. We just need a bit more bonding etc

When you consider most of the senior leaders from last year have left it is obvious it is gonna take time. Remember that Leeds have also lost two and they are meant to be the best in the league!

Rome was not built in a day!

Four seasons is a little longer than a day and last year's team was one he had put together as well. If he dismantles this one at the end of the year should he get another chance, on a third time lucky basis? It's not the personnel, other coaches have done better with worse and some continue to do so. Nor is it 'gelling', for pity's sake L'Estrange, Hall and Orford have all played together for years and with Menzies we have four of the team that won the 2008 NRL title, it's the complete failure of the system under which they're playing, that's the problem. They can gel all they like but it won't change the (lack of a) game plan.

Well.

Quite, quite depressed. I actually belived quite a lot of the pre season optimisiom. I thought we'd signed some quality at half back, we have some good youngsters coming through and whilst we were never going to blow the competition away I fully expected us to be competitive. But we all saw what actually happened.

I spent most of last season trying to find positives and defending the club and coach. There appears to be no defense available to me today. I don't think I'm in a Macca in or out gang, but I now think we need a change. I absolutly hate writting this in week 2, it seems such a cr@p thing to do but I'm just trying to call it as I see it here and now, which ever round it is.

I have some issues with lots of comments flying around; New players "bedding in"? I'm sorry, whilst there is a small measure of this I'm pretty sure we've just had a long pre season with enough trial games to show more than what we are doing, the crusaders have a new team assembled within 8 weeks and are off the mark. Hull have a new 7, new aussies and look good. Wigan have a new coach and look good. Leeds have no "bedding in" to do and look poor. Thats a weak excuse for me and is only a small factor, good players are good players and the combinations and tactics should be bedded in in preseason, whilst I agree it takes time to perfect the combinations they should be present in week 2.

As others have rightly said, we looked tactically lost (any set moves involving more than 2 people in the saints 20?), defensively weak (inability to clamp the ball carrier and too many people waiting for others to make the difference in close defence, and how many times are we caught short in numbers out wide??) , and unable to create a chance never mind finish one, I couldn't work out a plan A nevermind plan B. How much possession did we have in the 2nd half? Far more than saints but how often did you just know it wouldn't come to anything. No ideas.

Saints were good, especially in defence, but we were terrible. If you change assistants, change captain, change scrum half, change stand off but manage to look worse than the poor side you were last year what is left to change? I no longer think we can just wait and hope it comes together, whats the point in bringing through good kids if the team is bottom, uncompetitive and bleeding fans and money?

And no, I dont know if or how we can afford it or who would be available, or indeed if its the right thing to do ultimately, but that doesn't preclude me from saying its broken and I now belive the answer is a new coach. (4 years and we were worse yesterday than at any time in that 4 years IMHO) I think there would be plenty of applicants for the job, and I would maybe pay for it, (if needed) by selling [iany [/itwo senior players who we could realisitcally replace with juniors or cheaper loan signings, and use that freed up cap space for the new coach and assistants.

We'd be a worse team in the short run but I'd take a weaker team in the short run (until the new guy can restructure over next off season) with a new coach, over the excisting coach and excisiting players, for example; McNamara with Worrancy, Godwin, Nero, Sherriffe or new aussie coach with Olbison, O'Brian, Crookes, Wardle/A.N.Other?? and some freed up cash to pay for the new guy? I think I'd take the 2nd option today. (and I'm not picking on any player in that list, just looking at options)

Sorry for the rant, but it made me feel slighty better to vent my spleen. I hope against hope that McNamara starts to prove me wrong on Friday, but I have seen nothing to encourage me in the opening two weeks that that will be the case.

I'll still be there cheering for a Bulls win, but its only blind faith at the moment.

I'm going to wait and see what the response is on Friday before I join either camp. I can take us losing at home and pretty much getting nilled if there is a response the week after. I wouldn't care if we lost as long as the team gave us a scrap of hope to cling on to.

The same rubbish on Friday night though and I'm in the McNamara out camp.


A good team isn't one that doesn't lose. It's one that puts in a backlash the next week.

I agree with that. If there's a glimpse of hope or effort then that's an improvement at least.


If we put in the same type of performance as yesterday, then I may have to join the McNamara out party. Effort is the main thing I ask for on friday.

I like the idea that 'a glimpse of hope' is an improvement, says it all really.

The problem is you'll always be able to find a glimpse of hope, we might even win, but it won't remedy the long term problems and patterns that are described above and elsewhere. You could even wait until we've been written off for the play-offs, had a forced change in the HB pairing and the players have nothing to lose, we might then string together a bit of a run. But we've been told the criteria by which to judge the success of the team and we were told the criteria last year. Last year these criteria weren't met and it looks doubtful this year (although long way to go I admit!), so I presume we suffer another frustrating year, Macca then goes and we try to 're-build' again with a dwindled support base, less income and during a period of transition to another ground in some form or another. That's not a great scenario to be honest. Far better to show some decisive management, get rid of him now, look for the bump of a new coach and re-invite those lost fans back whilst we can still re-kindle the pre-season buzz.

It seems that now more and more people have quite simply had enough (the general concensus is that yesterdays was the worst ever in his 4 (FOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) years in the job). We now have a list of all available coaches that may be tempted to take over us if the decision is finally taken to remove the present commander in chief.

I said long ago that he should have gone after the Wigan play-off capitulation yet he has been allowed to carry on regardless and he even managed to better himself with a capitulation against the Catalans in the CC last season that eclipsed even the Wigan one (albeit at a slightly less important stage). We are now a complete laughing stock.

However, there is still nothing to suggest that he is gonna get removed (bar maybe a campaign from the terraces but we get so few fans at the games now that it is unlikely that they would even be heard.)

I have asked the people who are talking about the time needed to gel and the ones saying that the pitches do not suit the Aussies how it is that the likes of Hull seem to have gotten it together so well. What exactly is the off-season for? Blimey, we had more of an off-season than most so you would have thought that we would have had more chance to get it right?

As for bedding in? Menzies, Orford, Le'Strange and Hall all played together at Manly so that does not exactly cut the cloth with me I am afraid.

Unfortunately, as I have said for a while now, Hood does not have the balls to fire him and McNamara will not do the decent thing and resign so we will be stuck with him till the end of the season AT LEAST!!!!

Correct me i am wrong but the coach is not covered by the salary cap!!

Sack him. Hes had more than a chance. Time to freshen it up.

Nobody minds a team losing who look like they are giving it everything and just coming up short. But we just look crap.

"There were a lot of things that looked rusty. It wasn't a great performance at all. Maybe it was part of a process we need to go through as a group to get to where we want to get to." Mcnamara

Really??? We need to get battered twice? If so then fair enough, I await the masterplan coming to fruition. Otherwise, I await his sacking.

Survival in SL (or any sport) is a numbers game though and so the issue here is not whether we sack the coach, or any other action/s, but what are the financial consequences of action or inaction.

I have made the point for a long time that our home 'form' has been seemingly designed to drive away the long-suffering home fans, and as a policy that has been quite successful, but we have done some more very serious damage on that score this weekend.

IF we "do" something - (whatever that something is) or if we do nothing, either way there are financial implications, and they need to be counted. So for example IF we do nothing, and IF nothing at home improves, the this time next year we may be down to 6-7K gates. This is just a hypothetical scenario, but the point I am making is that if (say) the answer was to spend £0.5 million on player X, and we "can't afford it", we might end up "reverse spending" that or more, by way of decreased revenue anyway.

The number of people I know who used to go, but no longer are prepared to spend their money, has significantly increased. At our club last night, there are some very long-standing and very loyal supporters who have been going for decades, and will continue to go, but the thing is that all of them - ALL of them - are really, really disillusioned with the situation and none of them are getting any enjoyment out of going to Odsal any more. In a business venture that is part of the entertainment industry, that's a recipe for the biggest of disasters.