Some people will complain about anything.

Well there's something you don't see every week....

RhinoNeill overreacting.

Jesus H. I hope some of these are trolling efforts. If not I'd have to question the mental ages of the some posters.

Actually, either way I'd have to question the mental ages of some posters.

It is a bit of a joke really. I mean here we are languishing in top spot in the league and as for the Cup well our coach couldn't even keep us out of the semi finals could he. That's two years running he's gone and done that. If only he had an assistant we could have done so much better!!

Did Kieran Cunningham have help from an assistant coach to bring out that Saints performance last Friday night?

Did Kieran Cunningham have help from an assistant coach to bring out that Saints performance last Friday night?

Interestingly the Leeds Rhinos facebook page (presumably Phil Daily) actually bothered to respond to one comment along similar lines to some of the posts here



So he has TWO assistants? No wonder he can take on the USA job the part timer.....

Plus Jason Davidson and the most experienced and successful group of senior players in SL.

Until recently we were happy with a SL head coach also running the England team, which is a monumentally bigger and more complicated job than USA head coach.

Basically McDermott has taken on a part time job for when he's not coaching Leeds. Most people work Monday to Friday, if someone takes on a Saturday job too then what's the problem?

When you think after over a century people in England complain about us bringing in teams in London or Oxford, but the US manage to run teams from boston to Atlanta to florida. Its a monumental effort from those guys, and fully deserving of the game over here doing whatever it can to help.
Good luck to Brian, Good luck to the hawks.

Oh I get it, now Leeds are currently winning so everyone has swept aside their disapproval of McDermott. I'm sure just a few weeks ago when McDermott chose to play with just two subs everyone was up in arms and calling for this head?Typical fickle southstander. If Wigan hand our backsides to us tomorrow this forum will be in up in arms. All along I have backed McDermott at Leeds (and still do) I just call for him to have a decent No2. So on the whole my issue is not about McDermott taking on the USA job, its with him having no assistants and trying to oversea a huge transitional period. Barry Eaton and Chris Plume, come on....you're kidding right?

Quite right, no you don't.

Quote me wrong.

Thats right, you can't.

(

)

He has 2 assistants, and Chris Plume is an excellent young coach. All this talk of Leeds not having an assistant coach is bollox.

Chris Plume is F/T Running the Acadamy and Coaching the u19's that's his primary role he is a P/T asst as is Eaton who's primary role is HC of Hunslet Hawks again another fact.

How dare you try to inject reasoned fact into the Anti McD debate?

Running the academy is a part time role, as is head coach of Hunslet. They are both part time teams.

Don't a couple of the players also coach academy sides at the club?

Gary Heatherington has also coached in his time if Leeds are ever short of coaches.

Personally I think this might be another masterstroke by the sleeve as it will put Leeds Rhinos in prime position to offer potential superstars marquee contracts to choose rugby league over a career in the NFL. The club already sends scouts to local athletic competitions so I don't see why it can't happen in the USA as well.

Plume took over Barrie MC's job very much a FT appointment Coaching the u19's is P/T and i know Eaton is P/T but Hunslet is his primary role is it not?

I'm no critic of how Leeds is managed as a team or a club, nor do I have much knowledge of Plume or Eaton. But I do know the U19s have had a number of thrashings & Hunslet are third bottom.

But is it a full time role? Coaching the u19's is much more like coaching an amateur side than it is a first team side. Train a couple of times a week plus a game.
There's obviously a bit more goes into it than that but then he has 3/4 assistants/conditioners etc to help him. I don't see it as unreasonable that someone could coach a part time team in a part time capacity. The same goes for Hunslet.

I don't see any problem at all having Chris Plume & Barry Eaton fulfilling the role of 1 full assistant.
It also has the added benefit of better integration between the academy, first team and Hunslet.

As for McDermott, again I don't see why him spending a few weeks in the U.S. in our off-season is a bad thing. He presumably gets a few weeks holiday time in our off-season anyway. What he chooses to do with that is up to him.

As I said, Tony Smith and Brian Noble coaching GB didn't seem to do Leeds and Bradford any harm.

I'd rather the coach has a coaching setup he's happy with instead of hiring a No.2 simply to please some fans.

I thought Barrie Mac's role was less "hands on" coaching and more an overview as head of youth development. I'd say that was pretty much a full-time job at a club the size of Leeds. So if Plume is doing that, plus coaching the 19s, how much time does he have to commit to working with the first team?

You see I wouldn't say it was a full time job, especially as we don't have the u21's anymore which means all the academy are now part time.

IIRC the U19's train twice a week (occasionally 3 or twice and some gym/rehab) and the u16's once (though Plume doesn't oversee their training) plus a game. The actual coaching time is fairly minimal and not much more than an amateur club, we're talking 3-4 hours a week training plus a game.
Now obviously there's more than that goes into it from Plume and his staff but even if it was say 18 hours a week that Plume put in to the U19's that gives him more than half a working week to commit to the first team, and due to the u19's training being on an evening he's on hand during the day for the first team.
But significant parts of the first team training are also taken by Jason Davidson, he's heavily involved in the training.

So a combination of Plume, Eaton and Davidson assisting McDermott doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Especially as the team only "train" (as we would think of training ie team training out on the pitch) for approx 2.5-3 hours per week. The rest of their time is made up of weights, conditioning and rehab.

You're telling me he has [u2[/u assistants??

It's a feckin disgrace; why can't he manage with one? Like the proper coaches do.

He works on the principle, divide & rule.