A spot-on analysis but unlike when Sheridan, Hay et al were being ushered towards the exit door, there is none of the junior talent that was then awaiting their chance....I can't see a new McGuire, Burrow, Sinfield, Walker, let alone even a Calderwood for goodness sake, in the lower grade teams at present.

Maybe the best hope is that Cas' don't get their licence so that GH can go and raid Daryl Clark, Craig Huby, Rangi Chase and Joe Arundel. Would anyone put it past him to engineer such an outcome ?

You put it so much more elequently and comprehensively than I did elsewhere. Thank you

Too true.

Yet you appear to be calling for one to take Senior's place in 1st grade?

You're happy with Senior are you ?

I'm happier with Senior than I am with the alternative if it's as you described on this thread.

in a game like rugby league, there is a tendency for people to get a bit carried away. In both good times and bad.

We have some problems, right now we dont seem to be hitting form, bar the first half against Wigan we havent been great. But thats not to say the team isnt full of class and that A) it will only take some minor surgery for us to improve a great deal and B) there isnt some improvement in this squad of players anyway.

Right now we have some struggles upfront and in our direction. We have two massive improvements sat in the physios room in Peacock and Mcguire, we will improve drastically when they return.

Also something we need to keep in mind is that whilst we are struggling we will notice the negatives and ignore the positives, its one posters raison d'etre to highlight these negatives and ignore these positives but hopefully those in charge will be able to see the bigger picture.

Players like Lauitiiti, Pitts, and Burgess will improve when they have better ball and better set plays and better support for offloading, Hauraki, Burrow and Ablett will look better when they are being put through gaps against a tired defence warn out by better forward play. Senior, Hall, Watkins will look better when they are doing more attacking and less defending, Brent Webb will look better when he is chiming into the line not acting as our 2nd pivot.

There is more right than wrong with this squad, and it wont take a lot for us to turn that corner.

That's a very insightful post TA and when you think about it fairly accurate. Still think we have issues that won't simply dissapear when we get bodies back but nice positive post. Your certainly half full sort.

dont get me wrong, I think we have some obvious problems. But I also dont think other teams are full of supermen.

Take Wigan for example, Their strength as a whole squad last season somehow culminated in a fairly superfluous player like Richards becoming MoS. If im preparing a side to face Wigan, im not doing anything to prepare for Pat Richards. Its their structures that made him look like a world beater. I wouldnt take any of their back line over ours (bar maybe Tomkins over Webb) but theirs looked better last year because of their dominance up front and the work they made teams defensively left more space out wide.

Thats where we are falling down, Senior is probably a little past it, but he is still better than either of Wigans centres, he embarrassed Shenton last year, and im not scared of Chris Bridge. But Senior is struggling because the work he is doing is against fresh defences with little space and generally in his own half. You give him the space and work that Shenton or Carmont has been doing and he will look a lot better.

Some very good points Smokey but i dissagree re-Senior he's off form far more than on it these past 2 seasons and performances like Wire away or the CC semi last year are too few and far between whilst getting outplayed so many times against kids and players he should be destroying and tbh i hope he'll get the Legends send off he deserves at the end of this season.

Indeed. Some people appear to want him dropped for the sake of dropping him. At a time when BJB, Smith and Delaney are injured they'll happily throw anyone in with scant disregard for whether this warm body will actually be any better than Senior, regardless of how badly Senior is playing.

I'm just thankful these geniuses don't actually have any input into coaching our team. These same geniuses would take a week or two to be calling for the head of any young kid thrown in, in place of Senior as soon as that kid didn't measure up, like they were doing with Watkins just a few weeks back.

Not everyone was calling for Watkins to be dropped AND Delaney is back this week and from my own pov he should dropped for poor form ,nothing sinister or even just benched.
You yourself have called for players out of form to be dropped in the past have you not?

Are you trying to tell me that playing a mobile second rower with decent hands (such as a Delaney or Ablett) in the left centre wouldn't represent a better option than Senior on current form?

Or shifting Watkins in one (defensive issues and all) and putting a youngster on the wing?

At the moment, Senior is offering nothing in either attack or defence other than occupying space. A warm body would be a positive improvement over a stone-handed statue.

At the moment Delaney isn't available. Smith, BJB and Hardaker have all been unavailable so bringing Watkins off the wing might not be an option. Besides, Watkins has looked much more comfortable there than he did at centre when many fans on here were calling for his head.

With Hauraki now joining Ali on the injured list moving a second rower might not be an option.

All I am saying is that there may not be a better option available at this moment in time. If there isn't, there is little point dropping a player to "punish" him for a poor run of form. Especially a player who, when on form, can still be one of the best in the competition. If options become available and his form doesn't improve then by all means make the move. Now doesn't appear to be that time.

And the message to the players becomes "play as badly as you like lads, you're not going to lose your place because I haven't gone anyone else"?

Would you prefer the message to be "I'll drop one of our longest serving and most decorated players 9 games to teach him a lesson"?

With the problems that will no doubt come from a poor set of results I am sure a new coach would not want to divide his dressing room at this moment in time.

I'd prefer it to be "if you don't perform over a run of games your place is in jeopardy".

If the dressing room divides because one of its number gets left out after a poor performance then that says much more about a poor attitude amongst the players than it does about the coach.

What's the point having someone in place to manage team affairs if he's too worried about upsetting the players to do what he thinks is necessary?

Personally, reading McDermott's comments after the game, I expect to see some changes this week. I'd be surprised however if it's one of the "big" names that gets left out, more likely to be a fringe player such as Pitts or Clarkson that gets the bullet.

For me Wigan last season were a classic example of a team that played well. You can have a squad of superstars but if they don't gel as a team you'll win nothing. It's also a reason why come the end of the season all the supposedly best players get picked for internationals and don't look half as good as they did for their club because it was the team that made them look good, not them that made the team good.

I can't help but feel that Brian McDermott is going to be another Daryl Powell.

I just can't decide if Brian has got the job of doing the clearing out and building another team for someone else, or if he's going to be a nearly coach where another coach takes over this team and achieves more than him with the same squad

Sadly I agree with the last part, After calling the team "soft" I would have thought some changes would be made, but sadly only frindge players will be dropped. Mind you maybe we dont have the bodies back to make any serious chsnges.

Bump for subject question.

What's the shortest reign for a Leeds coach?

118 118

999?

Graham Murray was a great coach, but even Clark Kent couldn't solve all our defensive problems at the moment.