I will only say 4 words about McMuppet and Piglet boy;

Not fit for purpose.

GH offered McClennan a one year extension for the 2011 season, swiftly followed by the appointment of McDermott as his deputy for one season to take over in 2012. At best, it was an undermining of McClennan's position at the club... at worst, it was a set-up for McClennan to take the blame for the inevitable fall from grace in 2011.

McClennan is no fool so he left.

McDermott is now the fall guy instead and I suspect that's not what GH intended for 2011.

Meanwhile, all the sycophants will fall in line by berating the current coaching regime.

How about Terry Matterson nxt season ???

My view is Hetherington knew the squad wasn't good enough and couldn't/wouldn't get the players in to strengthen. He mistakenly thought he could protect McDermott from the exposure by keeping McClennan in post to take the flack. McClennan has always had Hetherington in his pocket and when he saw he was being set up for a fall and a dint to his reputation he soon stuck two fingers up to GH leaving both coach and CEO in the firing line with what they knew was a poor squad.

That is exactly as I see it.

Why does bringing in McDermott leave McClennan (as head coach) set to take the blame for what happens in 2011 anymore than employing anybody else?

If McClennan was head coach he would be blamed for the team performance as head coach regardless of who was his assistant. In fact employing McDermott as assistant for 2011 does precisely the opposite of what you state in that McDermott as assistant would have taken some of the blame for Leeds performance this season (if we accept your hypothesis that Hetherington knew Leeds would perform poorly this year) and left him with less goodwill and less of a grace period when he took up the reigns in 2012 than had he come in next year with a clean slate.

Your conspiracy theory simply doesnt make sense.

The truth is likely to be much more mundane in the McDermott isnt as good a coach as Hetherington thought he was, and the squad has regressed faster than he anticipated.

Sal/Keith it still doesn't make sense to treat Bluey like that ,what does it achieve and above all why go to all that trouble of even offering the extension to him when you could clearly state we are in transition this year with a re-build planned for next when more quality is hoped would be available.
The whole thing is senseless and there's no reason whatsoever for Bluey to be treated like that.
I think GH has got this appointment wrong big time and also dropped a bollock re-retention but i don't believe the conspiracy fellas.
If Bluey was another Lance maybe but he won 2 titles in 2 yrs and a LLS ,WCC and got us to Wembley why would GH treat him like that just to "protect" or shield Mc from any blame for us being p!$$.

Even though the squad is past its best surely it isn't as poor as the standard of rugby that we keep seeing week in week out. Time to go McDermott

Yes. You can tell a poorly coached team, and that's us, right now.

From speaking to GH less than 3 weeks ago Leeds will be looking at a bill of c£6million for the new South Stand. Theres no way this has not had a direct impact upon our investment in the squad. Keep on former GF winners on a lesser wage and blame the new coach. As good as GH has been for Rhinos hes tight as a ducks !!!

If Hetherington thinks that there will be no ramifications for hanging on to these two numpties then he is mistaken. There will be reduced season ticket sales at least until it is announced that the Numpty Twins have been sacked and then a high class replacement made. Then we have the added damage that these two will do to the team with the increased exposure to inept coaching which will take the new coach longer to repair.
Do the deed now Hethrington for goodness sake.

Conspiracy theorists mate.

Some people find it hard to believe that bad decisions were made at the top level.

Classic conspiracy theory mentality, can’t understand the rational behind a decision, event or occurrence and therefore construct what, in their mind, is a reason for the unexplained/unexplainable.

Ask them about 9/11 being related to oil being sold by the euro or who was stood on that grassy knoll in Dallas on 22nd November 1963?

We must agree to disagree - I honestly think GH knew this year would be bad and hoped to strengthen for 2012. By the start of 2012 McDermott would be under the radar, have his feet under the table and have a year of planning in place. Sadly the economy, McClennan leaving, the RU side, the tax stuff and the inability to get the right players has ruined the plan and McDermott and not McClennan has been exposed as an empty jacket.

GH wanted rid of McClennan after year 2, sadly he had overlooked the one sided contract which gave McClennan the option of a renewal if he wanted it. Year 4 was pay back time for GH - sadly he picked on the wrong person - McClennan had his number big style.

The question must also be asked why are we re-signing over the hill players?

It just doesnt make sense, why employ McDermott this year if the plan was McDermott does the job next year. It simply makes McDermotts job a lot harder.

There is no upside to what you are proposing. If McClennan was to be the fall guy then McDermott should be nowhere near him. Why employ McDermott as number 2 and contaminate him with this years planned failure when he is due to take over in 2012, neither GH nor McDermott gets anything out of it, if McClennan does well then there is more pressure for McDermott to follow next year with none of the goodwill of a successful season, if McClennan does poorly McDermott is tainted with the failure as number 2.

Because to change them all at once would be suicide. Yes some of them may be past their best, but we arent going to create a better team by dumping them all this year and replacing them because there simply isnt the quality available.

How much under the salary cap were we at the beginning of this season and how much will we be spending under the salary cap for next season?


Which coaches did Hetherington turn down on grounds of cost?

Look at the coaches Leeds have had since the GH arrived - Dean Bell, ex player no experience, Murray on a SL contract so the majority was paid for by SL, Lance the same, Powell no experience, Smith limited head coach experience, McClennan never coached day to day, McDermott less said!! He has never employed and paid for a top notch coach with NRL experience - John Lang applied at the time McClennan did but was overlooked - why? Steven Kearney the same?

On the cap we will be 100-200k under the cap, Burgess and Cross must be on 100 between them? next season we could be 500k under the cap given the contract renewals that have taken place.

Erm, Bell was here before GH arrived actually. GH appoinyed him head of youth development a role he fulfilled with some distinction both here and at WIgan.
So your beef if not with Murray's experience, or his wage but that GH managed to get someone else to fund his wage. I see.
See above.

Yes, and despite you never rating him we saw how that worked out.

Surely you're not denegrating a coach you proclaimed as Leeds greatest ever after a month into the job? In case you missed it Mclennan coached a fairly significant team to a fairly significant acheivement before getting the Leeds job.

Were you saying less whyen you were giving him the credit for Smith's success in 2004?

Nope, he's only appointed the coaches that have won the majority of titles in Leeds Rls history. Besides, you're wrong. What was Graham Murray's NRL experience before coming to Leeds?
What is your point? Can you clarify because it's so rambling and incoherent.

You're right. Imagine the success we could have had if he had made the right coaching decisions. Oh.

Murray had coached Illawarra to a GF before he went to Hunter and did the same? your point is?

Powell was so good he is coaching in the NL, Lance is an second assistant somewhere, Murray is not coaching at all McClennan the same - what does that say GH was the only person who truly knew how good they all were or the opposite?

We could have won as many trophies as Saints!! We maybe would not have lost 2 grand finals and 4 CC finals?

Dean Lance had a W% of 64 which is better than Noble's spell at Wigan...forget that we need a new coach asap.

Regardless of anything else GH wants success on the field. He may have stuffed up over the last couple of years, but to suggest this season's 'performances' are part of some master plan to avoid paying money for something (or to get rid of Bluey) beggars belief.

Whilst BM seems to be an unmitigated disaster, I haven't read anything that makes sense in the real world that was 2009-10 that GH should have done much differently to what he actually did. Most of the suggestions on here around rebuilding at that time require either us to have not had as good a chance at winning the Championship in 2009 due to resturcuturing or having a crystal ball which suggested that the wheels would start to fall off in 2010 (when in fact most people believed the 2010 squad WAS significantly stronger than 2009 at the start of the season).

What GH needs to take responsibility for is dumping BM into a job he doesn't seem ready for (regardless of the platitudes trotted out by various senior players over the season), and lumbering him with two of the worst overseas signings we've made in the last 20 years as major components of his rebuilding. GH rather than BM is also responsible for any 'player power' issues that may exist, if he hasn't completely and fully backed the coach in that regard.

Where did I say it did? I was making comments about the individual players in the original post. Would you advocate us getting rid of Peacock, JJB, McGuire and Webb now?

I agree, we'll never match their achievement of losing 4 in a row.

Gary Schofield is available!