Its hardly surprising. Don't forget Kear came from an assistant SL job to come for us and was what we've been crying out for. We had to go out and get him whilst the likes of Ford, Houles etc have been at their clubs a long time.

I do agree with Northus to an extent. Fev and Toulouse have both spent colossal amounta of money on their squads that we can't compete with financially. Doesn't meant we don't have to invest decent amounts of money wisely in the right areasa dn I think in Kear we get value for money IMO

Colossal amounts of money? Aren't Fev part time and their best players last week were all career non-SL players. It's a well put together squad which shows some investment but it only looks as solid as it does because ours is paper thin by comparison. The issue McDermott's apparent non arrival throws up is what is the plan going forward. We're back at Odsal - now what?

I wouldn't be surprised if they are second in the league in terms of squad spend. You can't just base it on who played in one specific game. Look at their official squad numbers, there's quality throughout.

I have. And there isn't. There's rock solid Championship level depth running all the way through to number 30. 4 or 5 are at the back end of good SL careers but what stands out is the maturity and the depth.

He wasn`t assistant at Wakefield, he was Director of Rugby.

For this league, it's a very good squad. Better than most.

Brian Mac was pretty good at getting Leeds to perform when it mattered - not so much good at serving up entertainment for season ticket holders Warrington-style with drubbings of the opposition in the weekly rounds. Whether it was his faith in the old men and project signings that brought the glory years to an end, or Hetherington's tight-fistedness when the new ground needed paying for, who knows? We're still recovering from the last years he was in charge, but I'd still rate Brian Mac ahead of McNamara (who has won a lot fewer pots and had a lot more chances to do so) or Wane for that matter. It would be great to see him bring Bradford back to SL.

It won't happen. We don't have two pennies to rub together and the funding for lower leagues is only going to dwindle as time goes by.

No smoke without fire

Yep, no journalist has ever completely made up a story just to sell papers or get clicks ever.

Unless he's making out he knows something we all don't...

Agree about the journalism part though. Think it was highlighted yesterday with Chesters sacking. All the journalists seemed absolutely shocked at his sacking (despite him having something like 12 wins in 54 games and the Wakey supporters clearly having no confidence left in him) then all tweeted what a nice guy he is, with hardly any of them focusing on his actual performance record. Just shows the "friendships" journos now have with clubs, chairmen, CEOs etc and not much neutrality and very little objectiveness.

RL journalism is such a small church that it's incredibly rare that anyone says anything that is remotely controversial. The reluctance of anyone to do any real digging around the role of Nigel Wood over the past 9 years and how he's ended up at Odsal is a case in point. I suspect nobody wants to put any noses out of joint. More recently Ralph Rimmer's performance as the game's CEO is open to question but it seems that only supporters do that - it's radio silence from 99% of journalists. Can't imagine that being the case in a big sport.

We only have one weekly RL paper now (League Express) which is a classic example of a publication that avoids controversy or investigative journalism. The monthly magazines have little reach from what I see, especially compared with the pre-internet era.

Online there's a lot of hot air on social media but it rarely amounts to much and doesn't really hold anyone to account. I think that it's time for something new to do that. Anyone remember the Rugby League Supporters Association? That group made some waves in the 90s. Perhaps we need something like that again.

Anyway this has nothing to do with McDermott so I'll shut up.

Quite a few people on the Wakey board suggesting they might look to get Kear back to replace Chester

Pure speculation of course, but often these things have a way of coming together in the small world of RL. It seems strange that rumours of McDermott coming to us 'just happen' to coincide with a vacancy at a club that John Kear holds quite close to his heart

Stranger things have happened....

It's certainly not far-fetched to think JK would be receptive to going back to a club he's clearly got a soft-spot for. Depends what's left on his RL bucket-list. He may feel a fitting way to finish a great career would be to get us there or thereabouts as a top Championship / aspirant SL side.

Same "source" that said Mcdermott coming to us now saying he's put his name in the ring for Wakey job. Suppose if you throw enough darts some will hit the Bullseye.