What came first, Chicken or Egg?

Theses same players were already successfull before the coach was appointed. Unless you have only been watching last couple of years?

Right well let's no bother with a coach then.

If he gets personal attacks when the team is losing, but people put any success down to the players what's the point.

This must be how the Chelsea FC forum feels....

You could have coached that team to success over last couple of years.

The bigger test is how to maintain it. That is the area it looks like McDermott will fail in.

That seems to have been the Hetherington approach since Tony Smith left at the end of 2007.

When the captain retires perhaps his appointment will be made official?

..until then we have to muddle through with a puppet government coach? Great

No it hasn't.

Yeah I wish we could go back to the Tony Smith days. The days when we went 31 months without winning anything, and failed to succeed in any of the 10 competitions from WCC '05 to GF '07 (and won only 4 out of a possible 15 titles during his reign)....even though he wasn't faced with an ageing squad and got given signings McDermott could only dream about.

He also replaced more than half the side that won the GF in 2004 by 2007. Mathers, Calderwood, Walker, Bai, McDermott, Poching, Ward, McKenna and Furner had all been replaced.

TBH I think until the hooker situation gets sorted, its really hard to tell which players still 'have it' and which don't. I find it hard to believe that a player who has never relied on speed in Sinfield could suddenly become ineffective, even with a heavier workload in defence.

I'd say that the whole team is stuttering on attack - and making some good players look very average in the process - because our acting half isn't playing well.

That's right - the Tony Smith days when it looked like the players were being coached during the week when it came to their performances on a weekend. A team that cared about their final League placings, a team that went out to entertain the fans not bore them into submission, a team who could score from all over and mount a defence that didn't rely on hero plays. Something Huddersfield fans will no doubt have noticed from his time there just as the Warrington fans will have noticed since he replaced James Lowes.

Playing entertaining rugby was not something that was apparent at London under Brian McDermott though.

I wonder whatever happened to Jimmy and Brian?

They won the last two Grand Finals.

One of them against Tony Smith's Warrington.

HTH

Steady on, you'll be wanting the guy with 13 on his back to play LF, 7 to be SH and 9 to be hooker.
That would never do as it doesn't fit with what appears to be McD's ethos of deconstructing the pivot roles and awarding bits of each role to who he imagines can handle it.
Hence we see Burrow wasted at dummy half, Sinfield being the conduit for just about everything and McShane playing half a game.
These are talented players and they have done well to cope with the coach's notions but they could be used so much better.

Some high end silliness here, the bottom line is this, if you ask a Reliant Robin to win Le Mans it won't.

If you ask an idiot to Coach a team like Leeds with players reaching the twilight of their career with skills diminishing you get a Reliant Robin, if you play Burrow at 9 you also get a flat front tyre.

What?

Worst bottom line ever, worse than Adele's.

What?

You're an idiot

Has Sinfield's appointment been made official at international level yet? I'm led to believe that McNamara has his approval to do the interviews and wear the suit during the World Cup.

So what happened to this well coached team when we were embarrassed by no hopers Hudds and Wire in the 2006 CC & Playoffs.....or for the rest of 2006 for that matter? What happened when we were on the receiving end of letting the first team from outside the top 2 win the GF in '05? He led us to only 1 CC Final and lost and out of all 6 since '99 that was the one we were strongest favourites. Or when after finishing 1st we then wobbled at home to Bradford in the playoffs? Where was this entertaining score from anywhere team in the '05 GF when we could only muster 6 points in 80 mins?

All this as well with Saints having a very poor 2004 (as soon as they got their act together they leapfrogged us quite easily as the best team in the country), Bradford slipping away for the final 2 years of his reign and Wigan not threatening missing out on playoffs in '05 & '06.

But hell as long as we strolled through teams a bit more convincingly during the regular season and had the luxury of big signings from both SL and NRL then I guess all was well

Not sure what you are trying to say, hopefully it's not drawing comparisons between Smith and our current fool.

No if I was going to draw comparisons I'd do this.

- Time it took to win 2 GF's and 1 WCC...
Smith = 4 years.....McDermott = 2 years
- Number of finals played in
Smith = 5 in 4 years....McDermott = 6 in 2 and a half years
- Biggest gap between winning something
Smith = 31 months.....McDermott = 9 months
- Number of Challenge Cups reached
Smith = 1 in 4 years....McDermott = 2 in 3 years
- Number of GF's lost
Smith = 1.....McDermott = 0
- Playoff Record
Smith = P9 W5 L4.....McDermott P8 W8 L0

Just going to post but the printer beat me too it with superb stats aswell.i aint going to say mac is better than smith as coach,maybe he isnt but to label him a fool is a disgrace and anyone who posts such drivel cant be a real leeds fan imo.

Good points Printer.
We might not agree or understand all of McDemott's methods, but you can't argue with the results.

Likewise, I'm not actually trying to say one is better than the other but some seem to view Smith as a God who did nothing wrong whilst McDermott is thought of as something you've stepped in. Unlike those with short memories I also recall how glad many where when it was announced around the middle of the 2007 that Smith was moving on.

After a great start Smith hadn't pressed on since mid '05 and only his last 3 matches saved him from a reputation as someone who promised much success but didn't deliver enough.

.......yes, BUT do you enjoy watching the fayre that is dished up these days? How many tries eg have Leeds's wingers scored this season compared to previous recent seasons?
How many tries eg has Burrow scored compared to previous?



Of course a GF victory and most - if not all - is forgotten again: however I also see nothing else but another decline in season ticket sales. Not sure that would be in GH's best interests.

Of course you can argue with his desperate point, if you were capable of opening you eyes and not just seeing black & white.

Had McDermott been the coach instead of Smith, this era of success would never have happened. Smith developed those players what have delivered success in spite of McDermott been at the helm. By comparison players are regressing under McDermott which proves the point.

That point made is the equivalent of using an arcade bandit where someone has been putting money in all day without hitting the jackpot. Then first shot you win. Does that make you a better player of one harm bandits? Or just lucky to be in right place at right time?

When McDermott manages to be successfull with his own team, then you can dribble with admiration.