Excellent point there, we've put in some seriously disappointing performances this season but we've always bounced back the week after. If we can spend the next few weeks smoothing out our performances we will be in with a good shout at reaching Old Trafford and we know more than any other team that anything can happen in a one off game.

I don't think anybody was calling it a McDermott master stroke just defending the guy when someone tried twisting his words about "leaving the players alone" into a pop at McDermott.

It wasn't against posters having a pop at the coach the previous week, in my opinion both the players and the coach deserved criticism for that performance, just like both players and the coach deserve praise for the performance against Wigan.

It was against the often ridiculous and unnecessary attacks on the coach. The personal attacks are unwarranted and rather pathetic. As I said, we've been told on here that the coach is stubborn and unwilling to take others opinion and only wants yes men as his assistants. We've also been told he's that uninvolved that the players take training not him.
That clearly can't be the case.

Some of the attacks and criticism of McDermott are entirely unwarranted and some are just daft.

I have no problem with criticism of the coach. It's just the ridiculous nature of some it I have a problem with.

As for an all too rare a performance - Leeds are 2nd in the league and have produced plenty of good performances this season.

It was a performance I didn't think Leeds had in them. I don't think McDermott can coach attack. My view is that he is more a man-manager than RL coach, getting his side mentally prepared for the game, with the likes of Sinfield & Peacock doing the track suit coaching, which is why they have struggled the last couple of years. I thought Hull wanted it more in the SF, I thought Leeds wanted it a whole lot more than Wigan.

Yes indeedy. Not because McDermott's ever likely to read them, there's probably almost as slight a chance of that happening as there is of those issuing them saying them to his face. However, it does cause aggravation to those who rate him more highly who then respond in kind - with the result that what might have been sensible discussion then goes out the window.

No disputing that Leeds are a clear 2nd in the table, it is a matter of opinion how many good performances it has taken to achieve that.

What an odd post, contradicting yourself more and more with each new sentence.

Poor coaching?

Big difference Sal. Those that blamed the coach last week and called for him to go had their criticism answered by the coach this week in the most emphatic way. So if they were fair minded the least they could do is give some credit this week. Indeed one or two did.

Those that defended the coach last week have had their opinions backed up by the excellent performance this week which had all the hallmarks of the players putting their hand up and accepting last week was down to them.

For the record, I have nothing but admiration for McDermott, he is a strong character and he has achieved much in his time at Leeds. However, last weeks performance was very similar to a number of other equally poor showings that have occurred under his tenure. Despite his success, we have achieved little in the way of consistency in all the time he has been at the club and it appears that there is always something missing.

As much as you seem to be satisfied with Friday's performance, Wigan were not the best opposition on the day and but for a dubious forward pass call, would have lead early in the second half.

Sorry Ronzy cannot agree with you. The half time score flattered Wigan and both their first half scores were due to two schoolboy errors by Sutcliffe. We were better than them in every department of the game.

We have to be the most consistent side for winning trophies since he started and that is how coaches are usually judged

The standard of the league currently is so poor that leeds are 2nd in what is the rugby equivalent of a tallest dwarf competition.

I think that is an issue that has clouded peoples judgement of McDermott.

The fact is, for various reasons (youth development, playing numbers, the salary cap, exchange rates, structures etc) the playing standards in SL have fallen fairly dramatically, this means that even when Leeds win or demolish teams, there are still failings within the side that people can see. Which creates an expectation issue in that because Leeds have been so successful for so long and the general nature of sport is that people expect improvement, a comparison between this squad and they 04 or 05 or 09 sides isnt going to be favourable.

Its an odd situation where a good job by McDermott is simply taking Leeds backwards at a slower rate than the game in this country is going, that leaves us in a weird world where Leeds can be successful and even see relative improvement, and still be noticeably inferior to our own previous performances in the not too distant past.

All very valid points but, from my perspective as a punter, I simply want the team to perform consistently to the best of their ability. In my opinion, that has only happened for relatively short periods whilst McDermott has been in charge. That fact does not and should not cloud the fact that he has been very successful at extracting some very good performances from the players in key periods.

I'm not going to speculate on the why he fails to achieve consistency, why he has achieved the success he has or whom may also have contributed. To me this points are almost unprovable and, to some extent, irrelevant. I recognise that he deserves credit for the success experienced in his tenure and a good deal of respect. Furthermore, I'm really not sure who is out there that could improve the team to any great extent, the potential candidates seem a bitten on the ground.

Juan - You've failed to recognise that Wigan were not up to much on Friday, a point made by McDermott himself.

Exactly. We were dreadful and flattered you I think. There are at least 3 teams better than Leeds on current form IMO and if it came to it I wouldn't mind playing you in a semi final.

If I was a Wigan fan I wouldn't mind playing anyone in a semi

Fair comment


WCC and CC win would still be a good season for us though.

Correct, especially in veiw of the injury hit players. Obviously the big flop of the season was warrington, so in comparison if you win at wembly it would have been a reasonable season.

Leeds only ever win in style when the opposition have an off-day.

True story.

Yep.

#FACT

Probably. Most of the league is pretty even now thanks to the levelling down of standards so when one team wins in style it's probably because the other team had an off day (e.g. us with our 32 missed tackles).

32 missed tackles caused by good, strong & evasive attacking play by the Leeds players?

don't forget the lucky bounces we had, you were certainly mentioning them on your own forum, semi final, you wish

Certainly Wigan have not been up to their usual high standards this season but you can only play what is in front of you and Leeds put in a top class performance which would have beaten a Wigan side from previous times too IMO. To not give the coach some praise for that is some what churish.

Well yeah all those offloads that hit the floor could've gone somewhere else couldn't they? Even the blindest of fools would agree with that.