Laughable comment

Yes I am suggesting you read wrong. The OP was talking about having no assistant coach, with no input to get a different perspective. He then suggested that because of no assistant, it makes the head coach unsackable mid term due to no one to step in as caretaker.

He wasn't saying sack him, but implying a degree of complacency with no challenge there.

Yes Printer we have already been through this little tit for tat before so need to continue it. I will stick with my view, as it is more realistic, is formed on what is in front of me rather than told, and doesn't involve sticking my head in the sand.

You are more than welcome to stick with your view though.

How predictable that having kept your negative head down for the first half of the season you should pop up when the team have lost form and lost players to injury. And how typical that you blame the coach for all our ills.

It was nice of you to share with us the dressing room pre-match team talk, I have to say I am surprised Big Mac let you in. If you regard our head coach as "distinctly average" it would be helpful in understanding what success in your opinion do you have to achieve to become above average? and which other SL coaches have achieved this rating during the three three years that BM has been our head coach?

I do not recall Brian McDermott taking the field at any stage against last Friday. The "shambolic performance", as you call it, was made by the players. Are you suggesting that any of these same players who have pride should also "walk"?

Perhaps your could share the benefit of your proud coaching experience and explain how an above average coach can overcome key player lack of form and injuries?

I've read the OP again a number of times now and you are right he never said the words 'sack him' but he did use a variation of words that would suggest the same thing!

Exactly, we have destroyed them twice already this season with a stronger team out but I guess you didn't praise the coach after those games?

A coach with any pride would continue the season and aim to win the Grand Final and the CC Final as a mid-season game against Wakefield, as any one with an ounce of knowledge of sport and super league knows, is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

If Wakefield had played out of their skins and produced a fantastic performance then I would agree with your comments. But they were awful, to lose to that we had to play even worse and we, and the coach should be very unhappy about not collecting the points.

We have dropped points to Hudds, Wigan and Warrington recently, at the time certain people held on to their optimism because we had mostly "banker" games to come for the rest of the season and this would see us on course for 2nd spot at least. Not much use if we can't win these "banker" games though is it?
What we've seen is a slow decline in performance level during the mid part of the season, and that includes defensive intensity, attacking structure (now almost non-existant) and just plain intelligence and decision making. You can blame that on injuries if you want, but for example, not getting the ball to Watkins has been the hallmark of Leeds play apart from the early part of the season and that's now service resumed as normal. It smacks of a lack of really ingrained good behaviour from the players - as soon as we lose a few to injury structure has fallen apart and everyone reverts to type - which for many of these players is simply average displays with a lack of control and discipline, both with the ball and without it.

You cannot drop points like this, there are no positives, it was a poor performance that can't be defended.

I'm not sure why the Leeds coach should have walked after losing to Wakefield. if that's the case then Frayssinous, Radford, Betts, Grima & Wane should also have walked.

Because it's Leeds. Irrespective of how many players are missing we should be beating everyone by 40 and playing the most exciting rugby on the face of the planet. All else is failure.

It's a good job some of these posters weren't around in the halcyon days of Fox and Dewhirst in the early 80s. They would have topped themselves.

Every year I have mellowed towards McDermott. We are in a poor streak at the moment, but that's life certainly wouldn't want him sacked due to a loss at wakey. To give him credit he appears to have attempted to rest players this year which to me is a good sign that he learned from mistakes last year, and at the start of the year our defence was very good but there is no way that could be sustained all year. Not sure we will win anything this year but we should be there or there abouts which is all you can really ask for

It's a good job quite a few on here aren't Hull fans, they'd probably topped themselves a long time ago.

The guy can't and never will win with some. They criticised when he tried picking his strongest team and not resting injury worries saying regular season games aren't important and must save guys for playoffs.

Now when he decides to not risk Sinfield and Leulaui at Wakey (which probably would've seen us over the line for a win) he gets criticised for losing a regular season game and this form in July is evidence we won't win the GF in October.....even though now he's trying to hold players back for that period.

The defence isn't as strong as at the start but that was freakish for the first third of the campaign. We shipped 16 at Wakey on Friday which is still comfortably lower than the 24 points we conceded there in 2013 or the 38 points in 2012......both of those games also took place in July.

I'm not sure whether we'll win either of the main prizes this year but like you said we're in strong contention for both. For the playoffs I've not seen anything this year that put any one team miles ahead of the others in the race. For me I think presently the same as I have done all year, it'll probably be the team with the cleanest bill of health come playoff time that wins the GF......and who that team is, is a complete roll of the dice.

The same could be said for Smith and Bluey. Who'd be a coach eh? Our club just "retired" our head coach - and that's the 12 year old age group (I'm not sure I like the idea of the promotion - too much pressure

).

One poster - Gotcha? - alluded to the fact that McDermott inherited a set of players that knew how to win. Fair comment. But it's just too big a stretch of the imagination for those same players not to have lost all respect for the coach long ago, were he as useless as some are claiming.
FWIW, I think McD will step aside should we fail to lift a trophy this season.

David Moyes at Manchester Utd inherited a team of players who knew how to win......it's not as simple as some would like to make out.

David Moyes inherited a team that was in terminal decline. Ferguson knew it which is why he chose to depart at that juncture

Quick question for the "McDermott out" crowd. Then who?

Who is available, has a record of success and would fancy the Leeds job?

If Ferguson had stayed he'd still had that squad finish in the top 4 this season that just passed, not 7th fifteen points off Champions League qualification with not even Europa League football to compete in next year.

Also looking back to October 2010 I'm sure many said Leeds were in terminal decline after failing to reach the GF for the first time in 4 years and a walloping in the CC Final and our lowest league placing since 2002 and McGuire and Peacock out with serious knee injuries.

I don't think he is useless. I think this year he has improved a lot and is doing a good Job at times. As I have said, this year is his team, and all credit to him if go on to success. I just don't believe it mattered who was coach those first two years, as the key players knew they did not have too long left, and still had it in them to win, and nobody is convincing me of any different. It's happened before in our game, and not at Leeds, it's not unusual that players are so good they don't effectively need coaching.

No top coach is ever available. Smith, McDermott, Brown, Powell, were all in other jobs before going to their clubs.

Plenty of talented assistant coaches in the NRL that would bring a breath of fresh air and a new culture to the club. I am not - by the way - advocating Mcdermott out but he isn't the only show in town.

In an ideal world supporters would have at the helm a man they trust to get the best out the squad and realise when that squad needed further strengthening. I'm not sure he does either of the above and that's why I never feel fully confident in the man. I don't listen too much to what players have to say about their boss, they tend to talk in cliches and would never question his tactics or personality while he was still in charge. Interestingly some players did insinuate that Brian Mclennan only had motivational skill and little else up his sleeve after he moved on. As he has an identical trophy winning record to Mcdermott as things stand, and the managers seem to have employed a very similar style of play, I wonder what the players might feel about Mcdermott if they go another year without winning a trophy.

Bit of a left field one..Paul Rowley of Leigh looks to be a bright young coaching prospect. Could fill the assistant void that's for sure.

I can't really see us making a change in the post season dependant on the playoff result (unless GH has someone waiting in the wings in mind).

A more likely scenario is that they'd agree to make 2015 McDermott's last season and it'd be announced mid-way through the season such as Smith, McClennen and McDermott were (granted the McDermott one then took a twist post season) with a new guy lined up for 2016. It'd also probably be announced as a mutual parting "Brian feels it's the right time to move on to new challenges and we're sorry to see him go" etc.



Whilst correct I have a feeling that isn't the route GH will take with the next appointment. Get the feeling that he'll want to stay with a British coach (or if we went for an Aussie it would be one with club connections like Furner or Dunemann). My preferred choice ATM would be Daryl Powell to return and get a crack.

This. But with Powell just signing a 5 year deal with the Tigers I can't see it for a while.