McNamara is not the first coach and won't be the last who has had to deal with players ignoring the rules - its hard to think of a coach who has not had to deal with this and to assume this is a reflection on him feels a little unfair.

Correct. Bigger, better and more experienced managers in all sports have been disobeyed by players.

I'm not a massive fan of McNamara but this certainly isn't a stick we should be using to beat him with.

Tell that to the parasitical ambulance chasers in the press foaming at the mouth to try to manufacture problems for the team.
Why do those dried-up-leavings-from-dead-slugs try to cause issues for any GB/England team (of any sport) ahead of any tournament of this kind?
Never mind Leveson, I'd gladly send the lot of 'em off to North Korea on a one way ticket & let's see how they get on there.

A report on the BBC News website (R/L) page states that Steve McNamara walked out of a press conference this afternoon after being asked repeatedly about disciplinary problems within the squad, especially Gareth Hock.

Taken from the article.
McNamara became frustrated as he was questioned on disciplinary issues and said: "I'm not going to answer any more questions on it. If you want to continue asking the questions, then we'll wrap up now."

McNamara briefly went on to talk about the match against Australia but ended the session abruptly when asked about Hock.

I really do think it's time people started getting behind the team rather than moaning about the coaching, players etc. It really is like Wigan's season all over again. Nowt worse than Rugby fans.

Our press certainly seem to be focussing on the negative on reading todays report. I wonder why they didn't 'probe' the 'goings on' when an Australian player (Josh Papalii)was involved a short while ago?

rlhttps://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/australian-rugby-league-player-robbed-6201718rl

More mis-management from the RFL.
If they had made a full statement previously, there would have no need for this. this could have started the press conference stating "weve told you about hock and the others. that done now. lets talk about tomorrow"
by only telling half the story and refusing to explain further about the rest of the details, they have been forced to answer these legitimate questions at the next conference.
what did they expect ? if you leave a journo with such a half baked story, do you expect them to just say "nuff said. over to you RFL"

bunch of amateurs

the first thing that the RFL need to do with any profits from the World Cup is to employ a decent PR guru to stop these stupid, avoidable own goals.

and relax .... feeling better now

hopefully the siege mentality will kick in tomorrow and we'll see a good game.

In years to come these players will look back and say "what on earth was I doing standing at a bar with Gareth Hock a week before the world cup? what was I thinking?" and thats after playing a shocker against Italy.....

Brian Noble said something very similar on television prior to the England - Australia match earlier - he said that had the matter been nipped in the bud earlier in the week then this would of prevented the media focus on the issue throughout the whole week which resulted in Steve McNamara having to face question after question during the conference.

I actually don't blame McNamara for walking out of the conference - he did warn them more than once and again he is not the first coach to do this - however as head coach could he have influenced the RFL to make a statement earlier in the week or is that down to the RFL themselves? Either way I agree that the issue could of been handled more smartly.

I always thought his appointment as head coach was questionable given his record at Bradford but he has actually gone up in my estimation after the last few days and his England Team impressed against Australia despite coming up short and despite the drama of the disciplinary issues this week.

As for Hock I actually find the whole thing really sad - I say this partly because since he burst onto the scene with Wigan he has always been my favourite player - outstanding natural ability and one of the few who could genuinely cause any team problems. Now his career looks in tatters and what is worse is that he does not seem to realise it.

A sad waste because he could of been one of the very best yet he has been reduced to trading insults with people on twitter.

Because lads like Gareth don't have it in their DNA to accept they are ever at fault.

Unfortunately, he is part of a culture for whom there is no longer any place in professional sport. It demands sacrifice, discipline, responsibility and the intellect to recognise that you will be required to give everything you've got, body and soul, for the duration of your short career - none of which Gareth possesses.

It doesn't help that he is apparently surrounded by people who constantly tell him what a great talent he is. Once, maybe, he could have been a great talent. In reality, he blew that a long time ago. All he'll be remembered as now, and rightly so, is a player who was occasionally better-than-average, and though he had it in him to be a bit more than that, never fulfilled even half of his early potential.

You must be one of the few people in world RL to think this.

The guy is a joke and I doubt the England performance, or should I say the Burgess performance, yesterday had anything to do with that proven failure of a coach. At the end of the day the Burgess boys are world class players and were always going to perform. They are big athletic lads who will always attract defenders and make yards in the tackle. Lets not mistake those guys doing their job as something positive that Mcbanana has done.

The fact that their top level NRL experience shone out makes the decision to drop Graham, who himself is in that elite forward class, even more of a joke. There are certainly other ways to discipline players i.e hitting their wallets instead of making the team weaker.

Despite the many talented players in the England team (including the Burgess boys) I saw many supporters and the media writing that they expected England to implode against Australia and this did not happen.

Now, if Australia had won the game easily I can give a good guess where many people would be pointing the finger (McNamara) but the players stuck at it where in the past their heads had dropped (despite having some very talented players in the team).

With regard to Graham I agree that he is an elite forward but despite this I don't agree that he should be treated any differently from any other player and despite rumours of drinking we still do not know exactly what happened - Is Steve McNamara a poor coach for dropping a world class player for breaking the rules before an important game? I think thats unfair IMO especially when you consider that many other coaches (inc the greats) have made the same decision.

If rumours are to be believed and Graham did break a drinking ban than I know who I blame for that one.

Agree with Sgt Pepper.
Hock missed training he had to go.
The others turned up for training, in what state we don't know. They had to be disciplined and were. Trouble is the wrong kind of discipline damaged the team.
Those stood down should have played and been fined their match fees, perhaps for more than one game.
McNamara got what was coming at the press conf. Give journos half a story and they will want to know the full story and persue by repeated questioning. The RFL media men should have anticipated this and dealt with it competantly from the start. He walked out because he couldn't control the journos and that's his fault too. He should be well trained to handle the media by now. If he isn't then he isn't up to that part of the job as well.
As for his coaching ability, or lack of it, well no need to go on really.