He’s the most successful manager in clubs history. We shouldn’t really be debating this!

Well he didn’t really help the transition though did he.

Mcdermott was very successful but he did have some once in a generation players in his sides, in that respect he was very lucky

To be fair to Smith, he moved on some players like Sutcliffe who needed to go.

Several key senior players are out of form or missing.

We are basically limping into the end of this season busted up and down on quality. We need another 3 really good signings plus a very strong off-season for the squad; we could really do with one or two academy prospects putting some pressure on for first grade spots in 2024 too.

Whether RS is a good enough coach or not - we get to find out in the first 5-10 games next season, I reckon that’s his window to show he can turn it around.

Poor pre-season
Loss of Hardaker and even Sutcliffe has messed up and weakened the three quarters.
Teams have worked out how Smith plays
Recruitment has generally been unsuccessful, Nene and MCDonnell have gone well but Olpherts, Roberts, sangare, Hooley and Ruan have added little, appreciate some are projects
Lost Leeming and not replaced
No captain/leader
Some truly awful performances at Cas and wakey
The handling of contracts seems a mess, Austin being pushed out with no replacement and Myler injured.
No attempt to use spare cap this season, could we have deregistered Tetevano? Still paid him but used a quota spot , maybe not , don’t know rules well enough.
Caught on back foot with Walters contract, too casual / arrogant.
We are now retaining players we should release like Donaldson and Fusitua and I’ve lost any faith in Bentley as well.
Lots of basic errors made.
I’ll stop there as it’s depressing

Just on Austin, he wasn’t pushed out he asked to leave at a really critical time of the year, of all the mistakes made this season letting him go wasn’t one of them, neither was not giving him 2 years like he wanted.

Maybe he did, maybe Gh got the monk on , whatever we allowed it to happen and have had 2 spine players
Leave early and not replaced, something is not right with how players are being managed IMO.

Austin made some disparaging comments about Cas in his ill advised podcast, strange thing to do if you wanted to go there.
You may be right but it’s another unhelpful part of a very poor season

Not sure saying we lost games against sides we should have beat, is much of an argument tbh. We didn't deserve to win those games. On the flip side we beat Saints away because Makinson missed an easy kick, so shall we knock 2 points off for that?
We have put some really poor performances in this season, not lacking in effort, but clueless with little cohesion when we have possession. The players shoulder some of the blame and so does Smith.

You’re right the club can take some square criticism in some areas but it’s not responsible for what appears to be petulant outbursts from players who aren’t as good as they think they are. Team first.

Look at our PD (clutching at straws here) and we should be higher up - we have lost lots of close games and rarely been hammered. It goes that way sometimes it’s sport.

Having said that the errors again have been ridiculous (how many seasons have we made too many errors for now??).

To play how RS wants to play you need better players than we have basically.

Anyway I’m not actually sure we are worse than last year; maybe we flattered to deceive a bit. We clearly haven’t made progress though and we’re back to square one in the most critical positions on the field almost.

I agree we have competed most weeks as our points difference shows. There has been no lack of effort. I was replying to the quote that we should have beat Cas twice and Wakey. We didn't deserve to win those games.
Last season we were a better attacking team than this year imo and Smith deserved credit for that.

It's all just a bit sht. And I don't like the use of the word gotten. Other than that I'm all out of long monologues about the state of the team, bleak futures and bla bla bla.

Perfect summary

The problem with the close games is just that, they are close games, when in truth, if we were a decent side, they wouldn’t be close to begin with

Close games and how you win those games shows a culture and togetherness of the squad. A belief in one and another. That is what the golden generation had and absolute belief they no team could beat them when they upped the anti. They won many tight games when it mattered. This team always looks like they will lose tight games they haven't got the belief in each other.

For me therein lies the problem - poor culture amongst the playing group - no leaders that are respected/feared. Not sure I would like to go into a dressing room with Jamie Peacock if I hadn't given it 100%. Instead we have big heads like Newman who hasn't earned the right to shout at anyone does it on the pitch - he is an in-sight example of what is wrong with this squad

Close games like yesterday should not paper over the cracks of a performance being dire, in so many close games this year the opposition have been just a little less dire.

Regardless of what the points difference is, the table show that we are in joint 10th.....

Which IMO is about right.
Regardless of how poor Hudds and Hull have been.
I think there is probably only Cas and Wakey worse than us.
And they've both beaten us.

We need to forget about the remaining games and 100% focus on recruitment for 2024.

And in a competition that really isn't that great.

After so many games the table doesnt lie. the only teams below us are absolute cack. and both have beaten us

Well to be pedantic, it’s precisely because of our points difference we sr 8th, you don’t get ‘joint’ anything on a League table.

I do agree we are where we deserve to be though.

Exactly, sugar coat it as much as you like, the reality is it’s been an absolute show of a season and everybody involved should be ashamed of their role in it

When you see some of the player interviews over the last few week its no wonder, the way they talk is as if it’s acceptable to just put it together in spurts when they really need to, I know its sound bites but it comes across poorly, they should be embarrassed sneaking into the playoffs in the last couple of weeks but they come across as thinking it’s totally fine and something to laud ‘we always do it tough’ ‘we’r capable of something special’….how about just playing solid rugby throughout the season and challenging at the top end consistently for a change?

It would have been nice to start the season well. I'm a fan of Smith, but I agree he totally misunderstood the value of the pre-season friendlies, and as a result we looked badly undercooked in game 1.

We should not have left a large empty slot in our squad after Leeming left. He didn't need to be replaced like-for-like, but we should have been alert to picking up quality players mid-season.

I hope I'm wrong on this, but there is a sense that Leeds tend to leave their recruitment too late in the season. If we don't have an adequate half-back pairing next season someone needs to take a fall for that given the club evidently didn't see Sezer and Austin as a combination beyond the end of next season.

Listening to the interviews with Smith at the start of his time at the club, I'd be hugely surprised if he doesn't treat this year as a huge learning curve - I doubt that it will be 'more of the same' but this comes with a massive caveat that there is a big task ahead with recruitment.

Fully expected that reply from you Chris....

Lost players and not replaced them, no plan B, no leadership ,no game control, no aggression,no brains, no strike power lr X factor, no hard hitting defence, playing too msny games at barebones

It’s a valid point though, if a club finishes 6th on PD but with the same league points as 7,8 & 9, they aren’t joint 9th they are in the playoffs in 6th, that’s how leagues work.

It blows my mind someone can misunderstand the value of pre-season friendlies. Maybe he knew the value, and we were just crap.

Leeds should be starting pre-season early next season. Players for next season should be told in no uncertain terms to be prepared to be pushed to the limit, that the sim will be top 4, but more important a drop in week to week standards will not be tolerated. That means knock Ons, penalties, missed tackles. It won’t be tolerated.

Standards. They need to be brought back. We’ve lost them.