He said "sinfield isnt and never will be a stand off" which was nonsense. I haven't commented on whether him or McGuire/Burrow are preferred options.

FWIW I fully understand the idea of not playing McGuire and Burrow together as they are not in any way a conventional halfback pairing and are and always have been reliant on Sinfield to do a fair chunk of the hard creative work that other teams rely on their halfbacks for. Therefore there is a tactical integrity to Sinfield starting at 6 since he is doing a lot of the functions of the role, plus it opens up an additional grunt space on the bench as we don't have to carry the second hooker. All of which presupposes that he stays there for the entire game and completely abandons his normal role when starting in the 13 position, which he doesn't.

Personally I would have signed a proper creative halfback many years ago but the club became wed to the idea of McGuire+Burrow and, with Sinfield's presence, it seemed to work. But to try and pretend McDermott is some sort of crazed nutter for deciding Sinfield+1 is a more promising option is, in my opinion, delusional, and seems to fail to understand exactly what it is he does.

I wonder just what it would take for MAC to lose his job?I hope this is not going to go on like the Cullen saga at Warrington or McNamara at Bradford.

I'm gutted to say it but there is noway Kirke is getting dropped.

I would rather play Clarkson at centre than Smith - who has shown nothing to deserve a place. If push really came to shove then I would gamble on Hardaker who I think has really good game awareness

I think another factor in picking Sinfield at 6 is that it means we can have a no.13 whose metre per carry ratio isn't as poor.
Whether Sinfield is picked at 6 or 13 he more or less plays the same role anyway (in attack).

Big difference in defense whether he plays 6 or 13 - if he plays 6 he defends out wide if he plays 13 he defends more centrally.

The only person who knows where he is playing is him - he decides where he wants to play and then McDermott fills in around that.

I've heard from a pretty reliable source that your final 17 will be watching 'home and away' in the dressing room.

Its always good fun for loiners looking at those folk from those small towns kitted out in there insular smalltown regalia BIG MASSIVE SCARVES that there great grannies in the 20s and grannies and mums in the 50s.It was always easy to spot the loiner a badge of a little rugby ball in his lapel !there is the difference in a small insular town and a large city

McDermott....tactics....victory, have never before been seen in the one sentence!

I am savouring the moment....

Tactics: hope our big game players play out of their skin, tackle like animals and one or more of our possible match-winners (of which we have a few) has a Lance Todd day.

Tactics - hope Wigan freeze on the day, the players play what is in front of them and not what McDermott sees as being in front of them!!

Finally both McDermott & Lowes get food poisoning and are unable to attend the game

The tactics SHOULD be simple.

You play your best players in their best position. I know centre could be a problem but with Delaney, Hardaker and Smith we have enough cover. Mags and Burrow in the halves thanks.

Team picked you tell them that if they have any ambition of winning something this season then this is it (if they do win the CC then in the playoffs he can ignore this statement and say 'look, you won the CC against the odds, you can win the GF too).

Then let JP and Sinny go round the players as needed.

At the end of the day most of this team have been to finals and won them. There is nothing spectacular that Brain can do at this point for two reasons;
1; He hasn't got the (or perhaps any) personality to give an effective battle cry
2;Clearly whatever motivational speeches he has been using have not been effective.

Tell them the team then let them get on with it.

Unless he's mastered time travel and can go back and get the 2009 versions of the Leeds squad, he's stuffed no matter what he does.

Too many big players in terminal decline for tactics to make one iota of difference.

So we may as well get rid of Brain then. Good call.

Aye, changing the coach will make the likes of Peacock, Leuluai, Bailey etc much better players overnight.

Much better to keep an underperforming playing squad and just change the bloke at the top - it's a structure that served Leeds so well during the 80s and 90s.

In fairness Bailey is in far better form at the moment than he has been in ages, so I wouldn't include him on the "terminal decline" register just yet. Some of the other big players in the squad are also a little young to write off just yet.

Hardly a ringing endorsement, given his usual mid-contract lull...

Im intrigued ....

Peacock - Had a very bad injury that saw him miss pre season and join a team that was already on the back foot. He hasn't been as consitent but Im not sure what you want from a 30+ player who was out with such a bad injury.

Kylie - Ive notcied over the last few weeks more people having a pop at him. Two or three years ago when he was only playing in short stints but knocking people over they made a song up about him. For me he hasn't changed what he does. He's always played in short stints and as he gets older its only natural these stints will get shorter.

Bailey - Prob having his best season for a number of years. No problem with him at all.

Why have you only called out props?

Because I couldn't be bothered typing out a full list of every underperforming Leeds player in 2011, and it's a position where I believe the decline in performances has bitten hardest.

Peacock's still getting through a ton of work, but it's now quantity over quality.

Leuluai's stints (or certainly the part of them where he's effective) have now got so short he's rivalling Feka in the shortest useful time on the field stakes.

Bailey has (unsurprisingly) picked up his form as his contract gets nearer to the end - something he's got previous for doing before lapsing back into the comfort zone. If he spent more time concentrating on being effective with and without the ball rather than being a pantomime villain, there's an international prop in there somewhere.

Given that GH has already revealed in the YEP that Bailey was "already" signed up for 2012 it seems his upturn in form this year deserves more credit rather than just the "he's playing for a new deal" it's been credited to.

Best tactic is to tell them that if they win he'll resign!

I take it Nantwich and his fellow naysayers shall be staying at home on Saturday?

Out of interest. How old is Nantwich exile do you think?

Why is his age relevant?

In terms of the naysayers staying at home I think its become pretty clear that many many Leeds fans have been reluctant to buy tickets, at least from Leeds (suspect a lot have them from the RFL direct). Perhaps the real question is why?

I can't understand the pessimism from Leeds, some of the squads on here have some top players that could well beat Wigan on their day. I don't think that this match is as clear cut as it being made out by the media.

Some would think that Wigan are being set up for a massive fall (again)