He's also probably got some professional pride and an attitude of 'I'm not going to be seen to fail and I can make this right'. The strong backing the board have given him as the right man is likely to reinforce this attitude.

Are you a yes or no voter these days?
I think you should get off the fence.

When do you decide enough is enough? End of next year? Or would you give McNamara an extended deal just so he can see through the long term plan? Is it really McNamara or bust? Is there no possibility that a new coach wouldn't continue with the good work done in building for the future but also take care of the first team now?

A lot of questions there but life is like that. There are no easy answers. You just have to make the call on the information you have at the time. I personally think it's time for a change. We run the risk of jeopardising the future if the present isn't taken care of. If I were the chairman I'd be sounding out various agents to see which coaches might be available or be interested in the job. If there's a decent candidate or two interested I'd take the plunge.

If Mr. Hood can't see any of this then maybe it's time for him to step down? As much as I wouldn't like to see this happen maybe Mr. Coulby would have less faith in the man that has sent this club backwards?

In favour of whom?

I'm prepared to be ripped apart for this, but I don't necessarily see how sacking him is going to resolve anything.

When you consider yesterdays game, we bombed some try-scoring opportunities and we turned the ball over too cheaply with silly knock-ons and ill discipline. Should those things be attributed to McNamara, or the players themselves? I'd hope Macca doesn't teach the players to knock on, so I'd be more inclined to look at blaming the playing roster rather than the coach.

Also, would anyone else better be interested in taking this job? Don't forget, Macca's on Tony Smiths England coaching staff, and he's had nothing but good things said about him by many players in the game. Lynch might have signed his new contract because of Macca, and the ideas he has for the club. I'm pretty sure reading when Sam signed his new contract that he attributed a large part of re-signing down to Steve Mac. Personally, I think the answer would be looking at an older, wiser head to help Macca out.

One mistake Macca has made during his tenure was giving the captain to a limping, quiet scrum-half. He doesn't communicate behind the sticks, and I don't see any leadership characteristics from him.

I agree that the present playing staff have shown, to me at least, that they would as a group be worse than average whoever coached them.


I'd say "more than" the coach, he can't wash his hands of his share of the blame. Though i don't think you were suggesting that. But yes I mainly blame the players.


Oh yes, it's a dream job; the easier of the world's 2 top RL leagues, a club "with money", a better salary than an NRL club would pay, people like Menzies, Morrison and Burgess to work with and - given 2009 - an absolutely can't-lose situation. The better question would be, who [iwouldn't[/i want the chance to revive the fortunes of very recently the leading Eglish club, in these circumstances?


He does, but nowadays to save his voicebox they just play a tape.

I think there's some mileage in this.
The two factors against would be cost and availability of the right man.

The situation from the outside looking in smacks of a divide or unrest in the camp.
This may be wide of the mark, but it certainly seems the case.

McNamara's had 3 years as head coach, bringing in a more experienced man to help him further will be like admitting that appointing him in the first place was a bad decision, that'd entail a alot of humble pie eating for Hood and and McNamara

Perhaps McNamara is best suited to a job as a number 2. He's had plenty of praise for putting in place systems to bring you players thorugh. Perhaps he's better sticking to this area? There's no shame in sticking to what you're good at. He's had a dig at being a head coach and I'm sure given it his all but it hasn't worked out.

Maybe he's actually one of the best young coaches in the country, thus the high praise from players and coaches he works with, but the head coaches job is taking him away from what he does well. I think we can say he's not shown great tactical awareness (2 weak defenders down the same side, substitutions that don't change games positively) and, given the apparent poor motivation in difficult situations displayed by the players, isn't a great motivator.
Tactics and motivation are often a side effect of experience, and I'd hold up someone like John Kear as an example of this, and MacNamara doesn't have that.

I'm a massive John Kear fan, but he hasn't always been successful. He certainly seems to be improving with age. Perhaps Mac is still too naiive, he may well make it one day. I'm sure Brad Fittler was the best young coach in Aus not too long ago.

That's the thing, the Kear of now appears to get the sum to be more than the parts and i think a significant component of that is tactics and motivation.
Can we wait until Mac develops this side of his coaching, if he ever does?

why don't you ask Jimmy Lowes to come back, don't think i would stand in his way

Whereas Mac seems to get a fraction of the component parts.