Sutcliffe returned from a serious injury and after twenty minutes of game 1 had to do his and McGuire's job.
Give him some time at HB with McGuire and I think he will improve .


As for the coach ,this is the first season he's had to really do his job. He can no longer rely on Sinfield to cover his inadequate game plans or baffling bench use.
He can't just flog players into injury like Ablett,Delaney and now Ferres . He needs to be using players like singo,Garbutt,keinhorst ,baldwinson etc.
At least Mullally is getting a chance but will he get dropped unfairly for a clearly struggling player or to let one of the coach's flogging boys back in as soon as they can stand ?.

We have had 4-6 players missing for virtually every game.not helped by the coach's unexplained dropping of two props or Garbutt suspension.
We still have McGuire,Ward,Delaney,Hall out along with Briscoe and Falloon still not match fit .

I think we have a lot of improvement to come but the players need to be more organised in defence, massively improve the 5th tackle options (McGuire and Lilley ) and our the effort in for support play, runners and looking for offloads.

Face facts guys. Cas has 8 players missing. We were missing just two. We need a Brown or Brough. And a new coach. It's that simple

McGuire,Hall, Ward and for some unknown reason we went without Garbutt and Singleton .


I'm not saying it's why we lost but it one factor along with poor execution,no game plan, no leadership and poor bench use.

We do not need a Danny Brough, we don't need to introduce personalities like that into a team that is trying to find its identity.

If we need anything we need a Dunneman type, oh and we need some patience. Not saying Mac is infallible, but if we were going to replace him it'd have to be with the right guy, change for changes sake isn't the answer.

It needs someone who is working within the NRL - that is the superior competition and where all the innovations are in our game. To suggest otherwise is futile IMO - they don't have to be Australian but they also don't need to be John Kear. The culture needs to change up somehow.

In all honesty, it kind of feels like we are trying to follow what Wigan did a couple of years ago, with a lot of antipodeans trying to stay competitive. (Granted theirs were of a higher quality, but they fell on them lucky).

I'd much rather follow what Wigan are doing now, for all Wanes faults, I like his next man up trust the youngsters mentality, supplemented by a few choice signings.

We have too many Aussies at the moment and only a couple (Moon, Cuthbo) who are top quality.

JESUS , Garbutt was idolised on here a few weeks ago

Garbutt and Delaney I wouldn't mind keeping, but then that's only 4 in a 17, as opposed to the 6 we are likely to field when everyone is fit.

If I rephrase, Moon and Cuthbo are the only two I don't think we could find/develop a same quality replacement for.

We're missing McGuire and Ward. Please don't count Hall because he's been appalling for 2 years. On paper we have a fantastic team. We need a decent coach to get the best out of them.

Would that be the Hall that scored the try to win the league leaders shield last year, or the one that got us in the GF? The one whose early hard work put us in the front foot so often last year.

It's not all about number off tries. Granted Hall hasn't been very good so far this year but who in our team really has, to claim he's been awful for two years is ridiculous.

Same with Mac, give him a chance to pull us round this year like he has previous years, if he can't manage, then we maybe need someone else, but he's earned the chance.


As an aside to this thread, wasn't it The Sleeve that said coaches have a certain shelf life, that's why Mac replaced Bluey, Brians been here a long time, maybe he's outlived his shelf life with this group of players, doesn't means he's a bad coach.

Yes, the same Ryan Hall who's worst game was THAT Huddersfield game last year. The same Ryan Hall who has been owned by Manfredi on the last 2 games vs Wigan. The same Ryan Hall who couldn't catch a cold against Saints last week before going off at half time.

We don't have time to wait for Mac to fix it. He needs to go

We have played 7 league games, admit most quite poor, since winning our first double and treble. Sacking our most successful ever coach seems a bit OTT. If we are poor all year, Gh and BM are not daft, they can see what we see and more and maybe we will have a Warrington type clear out but for my money BM deserves at least 1 year from now.

In the GF granted Manfredi gets the better of Hall for his try, but then Hall outdoes him for the ball for Walters try. Also don't recall Hall dumping Manfredi in a tip tackle at a key point that cost his team vital territory.

Wallace Arnold or Sherrings !

That is the sensible answer and what will no doubt happen. If we start next year like this then questions need to be asked about what direction we need to go in but i still have faith in the guy to turn things around.

Exactly this.

Stevosfalseteeth, go have a nap or something. Your constant ranting, dummy spitting and slagging off of the entire club is beyond embarrassing mate.

i wouldn't get drawn in by Stevosfalseteeth's regular despondent and negative posts as they all could possibly be made by an alter ego of a certain well known wind up merchant that peruses this forum when things arn't going too wellicon_wink.gif

Tough one this. I like McDermott. If all he's done over the last few years is let a very good bunch of players do it their way (which I don't completely believe), then that was obviously the right thing to do.
Players have gone, but nothing like Sinny and JP, a very difficult, if not impossible, task to deal with that immediately. Eventually Leeds have lost the players that made the difference, now we need to find someone to actually control the team on the pitch and someone to lead the forwards into the face of the opposition.

The most disappointing thing for me has been the lack of players the club has produced itself who are real quality. We have now 6 Austrslian forwards at the club, some of whom are dreadful. In 15 years Leeds have produced 1 hooker who was any use. Arguably the most critical position in modern RL and our production line has been so poor we've had to turn to the smallest player in the competition to fill in there - though not on defence obviously.

I would keep McD at the club, let him oversee the whole thing, but get the best coach we can find to do something new. We obviously can't play the way we used to, we don't have the right guys to do that. Needs something new and a new head coach working with McD might be the answer. Cos frankly it's awful at the moment. Our best display against Saints was error strewn and lacked real quality against the second worst Saints team I have ever seen.

agreed DHM some good points. what was the worst Saints team? because i can't think of one going back the 30 years i have watched the game and i know their 70s side was good.early 80s?

Actually that's the worst Saints team I've seen. The one we annihilated in 04 (closely followed by Wigan doing the same) was actually not as bad.

Not willing to settle for mediocrity when it can easily be resolved. Obviously your happy with failure.

i see your thinking but they did have the likes of Cunningham,wellens, long and Sculthorpe amongst others back then, class players.All steady eddies accross the park pretty much now.Sums up SL as a whole sadly these days

The noble cover-up phrase of a whiner.

Do you honestly think a change of coach is the answer to all of the issues we've got at the minute?

I see a lot of people on here calling for an Aussie coach, has any of these people been watching the Aussie game this year? I have and it has been the most boring rugby I have seen in years. Yes there have been some close games making it quite intense but the style of rugby is staid and not enjoyable to watch. They may have the measure of SL clubs as in the WCC series this year but their attendances are shrinking year on year, punters are voting with their feet. Would I sacrifice our style of rugby for the Antipodean style? Not a chance!