Bless. Stop the sexy talk, and I wouldn't need to indulge.

I agree that Sinfields comments about McDermott go way beyond that of ass covering or towing the party line. There is being complimentary to your boss, and there is gushing praise on him. I think Sinfield is closer to the latter.

FWIW, my opinion the reason sinfield gushes so much is that the togetherness and belief that McDermott brings to the squad is unmatched. I think that the playuers want to play for each other. I think where we are missing is a real technical #2 who can work on the other aspects of the game which McDermott is not necessarily so hot on

That's my take on it too. Alternatively maybe there is technical proficiency there but it is deliberately being withheld for the playoffs with the coaching team taking the view that Leeds can get to the playoffs through grunt rather than exquisite rugby. Although that could be wishful thinking.

I have no idea how that proves anything about a clique.


Yes, I had.
It underlines the fact that your meaning is not the same as everyone else's.


Your giving (or not giving) of the aforesaid gnat's chuff is of total disinterest to me.

McDermott moved Sinfield from loose forward to stand-off, Sinfield has since generally defended one man in from the wing lightening his defensive duties in order to extend his career - IIRC Sinfield publicly lobbied for this positional change through the back pages of the YEP. Probably the same back pages where some time later he sung the praises of the current Leeds coach.

Some might form a subliminal connection between the two articles although obviously they would be entirely wrong to do so.

I wonder if you have the link to the former article?

Yeah it's not like Tony Smith played Sinfield in the halves in the 2004 GF, 2005 WCC & 2005 CC..........oh wait.

Given that McGuire was missing for the first few months of his reign then Sinfield moving to 6 was obvious.......but lets ignore all that common sense nonsense and invent that he forced his way there through a combination of demanding it/butt kissing.

i love re visiting these old posts and seeing how certain things pan out
this one from a couple of years ago was a belter,i have deleted his name in order that his massive ego remains intact

Put the text into google an it comes up pretty damned quickly

Watching as a neutral, I don't think Brian got his tactics right tonight. St Helens were there for the taking with that side out.

I'm sure a few of the 'McDermott Out' brigade may resurface tonight.

for the live of god Mcdermott sort your interchange policy out!!

good to see this one brought back after one close defeat.

So what would happen if Mac went?Under Mac are team real under achievers?

I couldn't agree more with this thread

More so it should be accepted that any coach that ONLY wins 2 grand finals during his 3 year tenure should be relieved of his duties immediately

Just wait until you suffer losing 5 GF's on the trot and with a side and coach that your fans love and respect eh



Get a life guys

You get a special first Troll of the year award.That has gone to Huddersfield trolls last couple of years,but they are licking their wounds now.We haven't had many saints trolls at this time of year they used to troll a week before the GF and you know what?we didn't believe em then either

If you read my posts correctly i am actually praising your club and not trolling

To me you have not been on here very often and just coming on here carrying on your beating of Leeds when you didn't expect it.It is a form of trolling.

Could you please show me my posts that you believe that i have in your perception have been of a trolling nature?

You are correct that i haven't been on here very often but then again why would i come on here other than after one of our clubs games against each other?
How could you deem that as trolling as I don't even post on my own forum that often either


To make it easier for you to comprehend i will sum up my thoughts in more simplified terms for you in regards to what i have posted thus far

I would love Ryan Hall at the Saints
I can't understand why your fans dislike Brian McDermott as he has won 2 GF's in his first 3 seasons as coach

Is that easier to comprehend in it's simplified form ?

IMO BMcD had a game plan which, in all fairness, was pretty decent - nothing fancy, grind down the relatively young and inexperienced team with a stronger, dominant pack, wait for the mistakes then exploit them.

Problem was Saints weren't making that many mistakes and soaked up everything we through at them. This is where BMcD should have instigated 'Plan B'. The trouble was we didn't have a Plan B and he kept to the same rigid formula right up to the final whistle. This is his strength as a coach but also his weakness, it will win us games but also lose some. Rough with the smooth so to speak.

Fair comment. But what would your Plan B have been and at what stage in the game would you have made the change. Bearing in mind it was a touch of brilliant play that won it for Saints in the last few minutes. Had Sinfield dropped the goal Plan A would could have been successful.

Mac was unable to use Aiton due to illness which must have upset his week long practice and on the night he lost JJB and subs Clarkson and Singleton offered no impact. Yet we were still in the game to draw or win until the final moments so I can understand why he felt our extra experience would triumph in the end.

However had it been my shout I would have made changes after the controversial Saints no try (when Hall took their man out as he was about to score) when IMO the writing was on the wall and it looked like being their night. So I would have brought on BJB at FB moved Hardaker to centre, Burrow to SH, Sinfield to 9, Ward into the pack for Clarkson and Mags to 6. Ok I know this is a lot of changes but firstly these changes would have players either in their favoured positions or where they have experience so all would have been comfortable. And secondly this change around could have upset the Saints defence as we would have some extra pace in the halves and at FB (where Hardaker had not the answer or the pace to overcome their kick chases) Had we made these changes there was no guarantee that we would have won because as I said it was to be their night and Mac would have been roundly criticised for panicking.

The Saints were very good on both defence and attack and in Lomax they had IMO the MOM and the best FB in SL. They also went out of their way to slow down our PTB and to also tire out our back three with an excellent kicking game and chase. That none of our backs looked like making a break speaks volumes for their defence but this was assisted by our slow PTBs and slow half backs.

Having BJB warming the bench gave BMcD a bucket load of alternative options - the most obvious being the one you've already mentioned where he comes on at FB for Ward with Zak taking the centre role.

With the 'through the middle' approach not working (which was clearly obvious by the hour mark) we should have been looking to ship the ball down our very talented 3/4 line at every opportunity. If we'd still had lost the game then fair enough but BMcD had options that he didn't even explore which, IMO suggests he dropped the ball on this one.

Think the issue is being too conservative against the top teams (even after knowing Saints missing men McDermott still said Leeds were underdogs which I don't think anyone else would believe). Something similar happened vs Wire when we should've scored more points but weren't adventurous or create enough in the final 20 even though we got there enough times.

After some batterings against the top teams in his first few years and issues with not getting field position because we weren't going down the middle I think he'd changed his approach and instead of the trying to score off every set kinda approach we're seeing a play for field position, grind it out approach.....which does have some merits at certain parts of a match. But you also need to do something a bit extra to get past the better teams try line.

We just need to be not too respectful to the top sides and go into our shells so much.

We certainly had more than enough ball and field position to post more than 10 points.Ultimately, our forwards did their job by getting us in the right areas often enough and defended well through the middle.Its down to the halves to bring the backline into play and they didnt do that at any time really that i can recall.It all looked dis -jointed with no real creativity at all. Either Burrow would dart at the line, Sinfield would hit a forward with a crash ball or McGuire would run up his own backside trying the dummy, step and go that teams read like a book these days since he lost his pace.

I recall highlighting something along these lines towards the end of the 2013 regular season. Whilst some were just constantly on about the forwards I said what the 2013 season had really shown us is that one of the golden trio had to make way (at least to the bench) because we were making enough yards and made enough visits to the opposition 20 to score more points than we actually did.

I think Aiton has been a good addition this year and was a important loss for us on Friday. Also with Hardaker improving as a creative FB then it's not all gloom on that front going forward.

Aiton has looked a very good bit of business so far and i do think he could have made all the difference on Friday. Burrow had a good game as an individual on the night but we do seem more balanced and less one dimensional as a team with Aiton on the pitch.

I wouldn't worry too much this year.
Leeds are still one of the best teams in the comp and it wouldn't surprise me if they win the gf AGAIN.
I think every saints player knew Leeds where favourites to everyone including the majority of saints fans and went uo there with a point to prove.
Leeds can easily raise their game and beat anyone in te league.
That said. I thought before the first super league game saints where favourites and now I'm more confident they will win gf, ccf or both