Ref tad rhino.
Congratulations on the wall I passed it the other day looks good ,you can't beat limestone.
I am not bothered about closing paths or any other of humpreys antics so long as he keeps producing beer at the prices he currently charges.

First posted - Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:18 am

is it time yet?

Certainly his useage of hookers at least needs to be questioned

Got to say Ive been impressed with the recent form of Lee Smith. He's beginning to show signs of his pre-wasps excursion!

Bailey again has really stepped up, he compliments the no-nonsense approach of both JP & Kylie well because he winds up and niggles the opponents at the same time. MOM 2 weeks running for me.

Its hard to pinpoint any particular player for me, but what we do seem to be doing a lot of is forcing the ball. Looking for the offload when its not on, short passes going to ground, FORWARD passes to the wingmen!

When were on were on, but too many times this season weve switched off and being punished.

As for Lunt on the bench?? havent a clue

Have to admit that last night is the first time I've genuinely questioned BM's position. As much grief as he was getting last year he deserved the full season & proved most of us wrong. Last night however, to publicly criticise the players when it was bleedin obvious it was his tactics that had failed us, was quite a shock to be honest. Is he losing it?

Problem with Smith for me is plenty of effort, but too much running like a crab. Still not good enough.

The rest I agree with. We seem to play 'panic football' far too often, looking for the miracle break....but if the forwards fail to make any inroads up the middle then I guess that's why.

Thought the majority of the players didnt look as fit as the Stains squad and were blowing. Aged squad saving it for the playoffs?

We might not even make the playoffs at this rate!

If Bradford beat us Sunday we'll be 3pts off 7th (albeit with a game in hand)

Bear in mind we play Bulls, Wire and Wigan next, worst possible outcome could quite easily see us sat in 10th in 4 weeks with MUST WIN games against Wakey, Cas, London and Hull in the next 4 weeks before our CC Cup showdown with Wigan.

I think top 4 is gone, 5-8 is most likely and one BIG game against Wigan might see us back at Wembley and If we do come away with any form of silverware this season then the last bit of luck thats got us it will well and truly be spent

We will make the playoffs I have no doubt whatsoever........simply because Super League is really poor.

I couldn't work out if they were unfit or just lacked urgency, which would support McDermott's present contention that the team is just drifting through the regular season. No one would swap the 2011 Grand Final win for anything but it does appear to have had unexpected knock-on effects on the Leeds mindset.

To be fair McDermott is responsible for his bench rotation and epitomised by not even bringing on his bench hooker (again) he has to take the [uvast majority[/u of the blame for this latest loss.

Profoundly disagree that the blame for that defeat rests mainly or solely with McDermott. The Leeds players didn't give the impression to me that this mattered. I agree with his analysis of the players' mindsets - they don't seem to be ready, at the moment, to virtually die for the cause. Had they shown that tiny bit more determination last night they could have won it. McDermott's bench policy did not help - but the team as a whole didn't display their champion qualities in this game. That said, there is no doubt the coach needs to take a serious look at how he is using the 17 and who is starting where.

Although I have no problems with Burrow starting at 9 I said both before that match and since that I would have selected Lunt to start for this match. However to say the coach should take the "vast majority of theb blame" for the loss because he didn't bring on Lunt is somewhat OTT even for you nantwich

Some of the players did not rise to the occassion like the Saints players did and the coach was not happy with that.

When you look at the stats for Griffin (19m in 2 carries and 5 tackles) you would perhaps consider that he took a knock or maybe the coach took him off because he was playing crap. Either way with only 10 interchanges and one prop down perhaps the coaches felt they wanted to interchange their best players. I am not sure that Lunt could have turned the game off the bench. For me he should have started.

Agreed Juan, Lunt is not a gme changer, he is a solid base of support we can use to get a foothold through the forwards and then Burrow should come on and wreak havoc. That should be the tactic

After last year i am not going to doubt McDermott as a coach, only when we are in a dire situation will i question him. The only thing i question is his use of substitutes

...but that's my point exactly. Who else is to blame for the tactic of having Burrow start and have the player on the bench that wasn't considered good enough to come on and contribute as a potential game changer ?

Most (if not ALL?) on here have stated that Lunt should be the starting hooker with the exocet Burrow to come off the bench.

Not the first time there has been a hopeless useage of the interchanges; something that should be a useful assett towards the chance of winning a game

So which players do you think were [unot[/u committed to rising to the occassion ?

Just a few observations, in addition to the non-use of Lunt I'm left wondering why Griffin was not introduced in to the game until the 49th minute? That'd be unusual even for Kirke who usually gets on for the final ten of the first half.

St Helens made four substitutions using all seventeen players at their disposal during the opening forty minutes, Leeds made three while only utilising fifteen of theirs by comparison. St Helens used their remaining six after the break, Leeds finished the game with two still up their sleeve. St Helens had an outside back stretchered off but still managed their subs better than Leeds did, IMO.

Jones-Buchanan scored with his first touch after replacing Delaney in the second-half.

Mcdermott, and in all honesty I'm not sure why. I do not think he is the type of person to bow to player pressure. Although a lot of his subs seem to be robotic, he will go on at this time, regardless of how this particular match is going. That there could prove to be a bigger problem

I've agreed on another thread and for this reason I will disagree with MJM and lay most of the blame on McDermott's doorstep for this one.

BTW, his prop rotation was Bailey for Kylie then Kylie back on for Peacock before half time whilst Griffin kicked his heels. Obviously resting Griffin's tired legs and using Kylie's youthful energy.

The players were up for it, were in it up to a certain point and faded badly. The use (or lack thereof) of his substitutions may well have been a major cause of this IMO.

I only managed to listen to the game on the Radio on Monday as I was at work, however, the commentators indicated that Griffin had been in constant discussions with the physio during the first half, which suggested to them he seemed to have an injury, and would explain him not being used in the 1st half. Quite when this injury happened I'm not sure as if he did have a problem in the warm up could we not have changed him for the 18th man (whoever that was) ?

Judging by the game time he had it seemed it would have been a case of Griffin saying I'll give it a go, and after 10 minutes realising whatever the problem was just wasn't going away so being taken off never to be used again.

The Lunt situation was bizarre to say the least.

I agree that McDermott has the blame for this one, i can't fault the effort of the starting forwards + Bailey but they had nothing left to give in the last 20 mins.
But to even it up i thought the players were to blame for the Hull defeat, poor discipline and poor tackling got us that lost.
Both McDermott and the players need to work on the 5 mins after we score a try, too often we score just like we did Monday and against Hull and within a few minutes we've conceded a try and/or momentum, usually quite cheaply.

You can't fault the effort some of the pack put into the game, but you can certainly be disappointed with the poor return of that effort. And to be honest, I'm beginning to wonder if a team that is barely hanging on to a playoff position (yes, I do know that it's only May, thank you!), can afford the luxury of TMFMISL.

I genuinely only noticed him twice in the entire game. Once when he was face down on the ground and doing some crazy flailing his arms about routine, and in the last minute when he managed to put a hit in on someone. Up until then he was totally anonymous.

Little Rob seemed to be simply going through the motions, rather than actively looking for gaps....Hardaker, for me needs to be switched to a wing position soonest,..... and despite Webby's excellent go forward play, letting a high bomb bounce would earn you a bollocking at under 8 level.

I'm a long long ways from being BMD's biggest fan, and his baffling team selections do him no favours, but on Monday night, I think it was the players who must be held accountable, both for attitude and ability.

All is not doom and gloom though, we were simply beaten on the night by a Saints team who played some cracking rugby.

Life goes on.

You Must have been one of the fans doing the Wigan walk then or you'd have noticed him picking up the home man of the match award.

Obviously, who ever awarded that has a fine sense of humour.....