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| Jun 2012 | 13 years | |
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| Jun 2012 | Jun 2012 | LINK |
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TO BE FIXED |
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I wanted to start this thread to address what I feel is truly shameful treatment of Brian McDermott by some of the Rhinos fans. Looking at the Rhinos facebook page, the comments that have been made are not only highly narrow-minded, but also very personal, and in the same way that these people have spoken out to vent their frustration at recent results, I now need to vent mine. Brian McDermott has been in the job for just over 18 months now, and I really believe that he’s been a convenient scapegoat for the issues that we’ve had, with anything positive that he’s done being conveniently forgotten.
[uThe transition[/u
Mac joined us after a disappointing 2010 season under Brian McClennan – we finished fourth, losing 9 games, and lost both the World Club Challenge and the Challenge Cup final (a game which frankly seemed like we never even got off the bus).
We started the 2011 season without Jamie Peacock and Danny McGuire, who only returned to the squad at the end of April (nearly half way through the season), and yet during this first season under Mac, we only lost 2 more games than 2010, and we reached both the Challenge Cup and Grand Finals. While the first 15 minutes of the Challenge Cup Final were undoubtedly disappointing, we were the better team for 65 minutes of the game and if we’d been on the right end of a couple of poor decisions from Robert Hicks (as touch judge) and Phil Bentham, the end result could have been somewhat different.
[uIndividual Players[/u
While I appreciate that our results at the start of this year and last have not been what we might have hoped, I now want to point out the many positives that Mac has achieved over the last 18 months, starting with his achievements with individual players:
Ben Jones-Bishop – Mac took Bish on loan at London in the 2010 season, giving him his first real chance in Superleague. When they both came back to Leeds in 2011, he started Bish at Cardiff against Bradford, seeing him score a hat-trick and win the game for us by using his head, and playing to the whistle (albeit a penalty try was given). Following this, the player that Brian McClennan wanted to loan out, not even recalling when we were injury-struck at the start of 2010, became invaluable to us; more invaluable than the fan-favourite we signed during this injury-struck period, Lee Smith.
Zak Hardaker – Zak signed for us at the end of the 2010 season, and spent most of the 2011 season playing with either Featherstone or the under-20s, settling in at the Club. Mac chose to play Zak each week following the Challenge Cup final, and we witnessed some great work by Zak, including a hat-trick at Huddersfield and a really solid performance from such a young player at Old Trafford. His performances this season so far might be a mixed bag, but nonetheless Mac gave him his chance and he’s shown what he can do.
Rob Burrow – When Burrow first started playing for us, no-one knew how to handle him, and he was explosive. Unfortunately however, with the emergence of younger players such as Sam Tomkins and Kyle Eastmond, who arguably at their best play a similar style of rugby to Burrow at his best, more teams know how to close him down and he has been unable to create opportunities like he used to. Towards the end of last season, with Danny McGuire recovering well from his injury, Mac took the choice to play Burrow off the bench, and we started to see once again what Rob can do as a fresh pair of legs on around 25 minutes.
Many teams now employ this tactic with replacement hookers, and of course this is another position Rob can play. Where he excels off the bench is because he can see the wider game, he can spot opportunities right across the field, and Mac’s decision to play him at hooker utilises these skills well. Burrow can help dictate the game from either hooker or the bench, where is closed down at scrum half (as we saw at St Helens away before his injury). Interestingly, Rob started at scrum half against Warrington last week but was moved to hooker on 30 minutes with the substitution of Stevie Ward for Shaun Lunt. Mac's decision to do this made a big impact, with Burrow really kicking into gear and having a hand in all three tries. It's fair to say that from 30 minutes, we played a lot better.
Carl Ablett – Ablett has been a regular in our side for a long time, but he’s really come on leaps and bounds since 2010. It was Mac who awarded him his first starting jersey, and it was under Mac that he was first selected for England. I strongly believe that neither Brian McClennan nor Tony Smith would have continually played Ablett in the centre, where he excels, to ease an injury situation; they would have played Lee Smith in that position because he has played there before, regardless of whether or not he was overweight or playing poorly.
Lee Smith – Regardless of his reputation pre-Wasps, Mac has dropped Smithy when he hasn’t been playing well; like I say above, he’s chosen Hardaker and Jones-Bishop instead, and has been right to do so. I’ve heard many of you comment that Smithy was overweight at the start of last season, but to his credit he seems to have sorted this out in the 2012 pre-season. Mac has rewarded this by giving him another chance – something I think every single one of you would expect from your boss if you had made an error.
Brett Delaney – When Delaney first arrived in 2010, it took him a little while to settle in, and he certainly didn’t come across as an immediate replacement for pre-Wasps Lee Smith. He had a mixed bag year at centre under Brian McClennan but Mac moved him into the second row in 2011 and now, he’s a machine.
Ryan Bailey – Ryan Bailey, again, has been a regular for us for a long time now, but he has lacked consistency, and there are many occasions when he hasn’t used his size to make tackles or plough through defence. This being said, he is in the form of his life – he’s been tremendous over the last 18 months, and it’s fair to say the last time he played this well was in 2004. It’s no coincidence that Mac has been involved in all three of these seasons.
Richard Moore – When we first signed Richard Moore, I must confess, I had my doubts. But this guy has exceeded even my wildest expectations – he attracts at least 3 men in each tackle, can make a good offload, and is a tackling machine. Would any of our former coaches have signed him? Not likely – but Mac saw a player who could inject some good size into our squad (something we lacked in 2010, undoubtedly) and has real value.
[uPast coaches[/u
We have been privileged in the last 10/11 years to reach 10 finals (not including the World Club Challenges), with several of the players featuring in all or most of these seasons. We experienced disappointment under Daryl Powell (DP), some success under Tony Smith (TS) (2005 being a heart-breaker, and 2006 under-performing), and a poor final season in 2010 under Brian McClennan (BMcC). Out of interest, I wanted to see our league positions and numbers of losses in these years:
2002 (DP) – 4th place – 11 losses – no finals
2003 (DP) – 2nd place – 6 losses (3 draws) – 1 losing final
2004 (TS) – 1st place – 2 losses (2 draws) – 1 winning final
2005 (TS) – 2nd place – 6 losses – 2 losing finals
2006 (TS) – 3rd place – 9 losses – no finals
2007 (TS) – 2nd place – 8 losses (1 draw) – 1 winning final
2008 (BM) – 2nd place – 6 losses – 1 winning final
2009 (BMcC) – 1st place – 6 losses – 1 winning final
2010 (BMcC) – 4th place – 9 losses (1 draw) – 1 losing final
2011 (BMcD) – 5th place – 11 losses (1 draw) – 1 losing final, 1 winning final
Credit where credit’s due, Tony Smith, without a doubt, was the instigator of our success – he taught our lads (who were 8 years younger than they are now, and many of whom had never won a final) how to play some excellent rugby, and brought home our first championship for 32 years. 2005 was incredibly disappointing, but the fans stood by Smithy, even when his decision to play the still injured Keith Senior instead of Barrie McDermott was a large part of what cost us the Challenge Cup final. In 2006, with a disappointing third place finish and no finals, I don’t remember anyone booing Tony Smith’s face on the big screen, or calling him names on the forums. I don’t remember anyone doing those things for Brian McClennan in 2010 either.
[uAddressing fans comments[/u
I totally understand everyone’s frustration at our performances this year, but like I say above, it disappoints me that some of you are aiming this frustration at Brian McDermott; offering little justification for doing so and often being really personal with your comments. Here are some of the comments I’ve come across:
Kevin Sinfield does the half-time team talks – how do you know this happens on a consistent basis? Because you’ve seen a 20 second clip on Sky? This is a ridiculous comment to make – we can’t possibly know what goes on at half-time so to use this as criticism of Mac is really strange.
The players just do as they’re told, if they’re crap it’s down to the manager – think about why the players are under-achieving at the moment. This is nothing to do with the “plays” themselves, it’s because in every single game we’ve lost this year, we’ve missed tackles, knocked on, had a poor kicking game, and given away silly penalties. Anyone who really believes the players are being told to do this, frankly needs their head testing.
The team were solely responsible for the back-end of last season – if this is true, why aren’t we performing now? Again, we are losing games because of the lack of basic rugby skills, not because the “plays” aren’t any good.
Brian McDermott has no passion – how do you know this? Do any of you know him, know him well? For me, his passion for our Club and our players came across in the motivational video that helped us get to the Grand Final.
I’m not going to go through some of the more personal comments I’ve seen and heard the fans make, but I just hope that none of you get abused at work like you’ve been abusing Mac. The fans, yes, are important to the Club and we have been rewarded for our loyalty with a number of finals in the last ten years and some fantastic performances in the regular season. We have the right to be frustrated, but we do not have the right to gang up like pack animals and be as abusive as what I’ve seen and heard.
I have always been proud to be a Rhino because we’ve stuck together through thick and thin, so when I see some of you treating one of our own this way, it just doesn’t sit right with me. Mac has not only got the backing of the Club, but the backing of the players – over the last year, a number of players have signed contract extensions, and this surely isn’t in spite of Mac, but in part, with him. If the players and the Club back him, so do I, and I back the players to start playing better this year and once again, give us something to be proud of.
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