He is Mr Leeds.

Eh? Surely he'd mr sinfield or has he changed his name by deed poll?

Difference being that we had given Agar plenty of time before the Agar out stuff started. Poor old Mcdermot is in his first season with an aging squad and they got on his back.

They will all be back if they lose in the final.

One of the nicest, most dedicated men I have met in the game.

Whilst at Quins he would spend time at junior games helping out, giving advice etc without even getting invited down.

He felt it was all part of his job to help develop the game down there.

Whilst at Leeds he has asked his players for one thing....to ignore what they are hearing from outside and believe that they can get things right.

It seems they have listened and have built up some form at just the right time of the season.

Sorry but another i told you so moment from me. I said i always rated him and he was best british coach in SL and id like him at Hull

I didn't really rate McDermott. I never expected Leeds to get to the GrandFinal with him in charge.

Agar had his hands tied by the board, Pearson himself said there hadn't been any investment in the club. If he is able to assemble his own squad at Wakey we will see what a good coach he really
is!

Or not

Well, a GF win from 5th and a CC final appearance in his first season at Leeds. Blimey, would never have predicted that in a million years when he was announced as coach. Bit silly that he was beaten to Coach of the Year by Trent Robinson, really.

Also, earlier in the season when we signed Phelps, Agar announced 'it was the final piece of the jigsaw!' I'm sure McDerrmott still sees Leeds as work in progress.

We finished an uncompetitive eighth. Leeds won the Grand final. End of debate.

They mistook him for Sam Tomkins

McDermott himself nails the issue in this quote from his interview in The Guardian the other day"There is a bit of your average northern bloke [who] wants to be regarded as one of the lads. Some of the things of how we view life and get brought up, I don't think it lends itself to some of the philosophies and the nuts and bolts of coaching, especially when it gets tough.

"Sometimes you have got to look at things really positively – without putting your head in the sand, you have got to manage the negatives and keep putting a positive slant on it, keep trying to find answers. It is not how I was brought up and it is not how a lot of my mates were brought up. Some parts of coaching, you have to adapt who you are – not what you learned or how you speak, but who you are – to get the right messages across."[/i

My take on it is that RL is still a profoundly working class sport and at comprehensive school we learn deference, not leadership. Our sense of 'us' is strong, but individualism and even self-confidence can be lacking. Now, we're not stupid, so we often come to distrust authority and mock it - but that means we're reluctant to become part of it.
The same could be said of football - no English manager has ever won the EPL.

Now you might point out that RL is a working class sport in Australia (or that football is in Scotland and it still produced Busby, Shankly, Ferguson, George Graham, Dalglish). But there is a deeply embedded cultural difference, IMO. During the first world war the Australians, with their strong sense of 'mateship', were amazed at the gap between the English soldiers and officers, while the 'democratic' atmosphere within the Scottish regiments was much more familiar. Some of that taught deference seeps in to our subconscious and it is a hell of a job to shift it. It took me until my mid-20s. Even now, I crave the acceptance of my peers, so I'll end this post with a couple of jokes.

Northern, working class England does occasionally produce successful coaches/managers - Clough, Noble, now McDermott - so it can be overcome. We just have to name all our sons Brian.

Thanks for reading - because of my upbringing, I'm too tight to pay for a real psychotherapist.