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.

David Kidwell would be an interesting option - if his time with Bellamy has rubbed off half as well as it did to Maguire then he could be an interesting choice

For last couple of years, always had this feeling that it will be Kearney who will be next up at Leeds. Just seems to follow a pattern.

Sorry, probably didn't make it clear that I'm agreeing with you. Neither was I implying that you were one of those condemning McD out of hand. Point I was making was that that group of winning players would get behind a coach in the way that they clearly have if they thought he wasn't up to scratch.

Doesn't mean a thing in coaching.

Powell is exceptional, Cas seems to suit him as well.

Why would Powell want to come back to a club that showed him the door in a hurry as soon as a better option became available? He's on a low-expectation, no-lose project at Cas, making the 8 every year would be an achievement.

None of the better coaches in the British game are likely to be available to Leeds (Wane, Brown, Anderson for example) simply because their current clubs wouldn't release them.

So it's either an untried assistant from the NRL, or promote from within.

Don't completely agree with that, Powell was untried and obviously in need of more experience - which he got at the lower level. Didn't he move to the Leeds RU side initially - I don't think he was booted straight out of the club?

I do agree that Powell has little incentive to return to Leeds at this time. He looks at home at Cas and Cas seem happy with him. McDermott does have to go at some point (all coaches do), and he is already at or beyond the average shlf life in this game. It's not unreasonable to speculate that after 4 years the management of the club might be looking to their next head man. I can't see Mac being "sacked", and I hope that doesn't happen - definitely not this year, but chances are, based purely on probability, he hasn't got long left in charge.

Also, if Powell does win something this year do we say that's a one off or do we now expect Cas to do better than just a top 8 every year?

Granted he's tied to them for 5 years but doesn't mean he'll see it through. Even if it's not Leeds I'd be surprised if Cas hold onto him for the full duration he signed for (like we've mentioned about McDermott and shelf life, Powell would have been at Cas 6 and a half years if he stayed the whole contract).

Powell's started at Cas with a bang but let's see how the remainder of their season pans out before getting too exuberant about his coaching prowess. I'll be mightily impressed if they continue playing as well as they have but I suspect they'll dip badly.

He's a Cas lad though Printer and that will come into play for him imo or until the Tigers do what they've done in the past and keep losing their better players forcing a rebuild year after year.
Powell would be perfect for this next stage of our transition imo he did it so well after Lance had failed even though very much raw as a Head Coach.
Whoever has the task it's a huge one because as we all know whether its 1 2 or 3 years there is a lot of pivotal players & Club Legends to replace.

Granted he's a Cas lad but think it'll be hard to keep them competing with the current top teams. They're losing quite a few players for next year most crucially Clark. Might eventually consider their being a limit to how far he can take them and think one of the top 4 represented a better chance of winning a GF......and surely any coach would want to achieve that.