Quote: ThePrinter "I get that point, the issue tonight is that no improvement was made from last year. Leeds fell just short in both competitions in 2003 (under Powell) but players learnt and were winning the GF in 2004. Even if Cas didn’t win tonight a closer game decided by a single score would’ve suggested progression. 14 point defeat might not sound a lot in the regular season but in a playoff game its a big winning margin to overturn. Should’ve really been evidence of lessons learnt from 2017 even in defeat tonight, they weren’t and that doesn’t bode well for the future.'"
You might be right, but even after tonight’s result I wouldn’t swap Powell for another coach. I think it’s unfair to judge progression on the score of two individual games against different teams almost twelve months apart (though of course we’ve dropped two places in the league too).
Putting Brian McDermott, for example, in charge I think would be a backwards rather than a forwards step.
I do wonder, however, how things might have been different had we signed Danny McGuire this season. The argument is that it might have blocked the progression on Jake Trueman, but I’m pretty sure we’d have been better tonight with him in the team.