I could never rate the opinion of a communist too highly

Bet your "whipping boy rabble" from Wigan rate him though!

Shut it you Sinfield loving commie sympathiser!

I certainly don't recall much praise in terms of McClennan's coaching. It was one thing that struck me at the time he was here, that very rarely did any player actually mention him in public.

Nobody is saying you shouldn't criticise poor performances. As I've said before, some of it comes down to player motivation. Motivating yourself for the bread and butter of a regular season game away at Cas/Wakefield/Salford in the middle of the season is probably quite difficult after the highs of the previous season, and having already won 4 of the previous 5 GF's. Even the away games at Saints, Wigan and Warrington, you can understand why they don't break their backs trying to win them when they're safe in the knowledge that a big end of season effort when it really counts might be enough.

McDermott isn't the perfect coach, nobody is, but the criticism of him is a little over the top at times considering his achievements.

But when the much acclaimed captain of our Champion side makes it quite clear what he now believes, in comparison to all of the others, should you not reconsider that maybe, just maybe, you have been wrong to lay the the blame for some poor performances in the regular season at the coaches door?

Would you agree that Sinfield is a much better judge of coaching skills of BM than you or I, or indeed any of the so, so knowledgable keyboard coaching critics?

Sinfield said: [i"I have to say that Brian McDermott is the best coach I have ever played under. His combination of tactical awareness, player development and man management is second to none and I am so pleased for him that we have got back to yet another Final. The backroom team of James Lowes and Jason Davidson perfectly complement Brian and together they give us everything we could possibly need to succeed.

"Sometimes things don't go our way in the season but we stay tight and continue to work hard for one another. That happens in life and how you handle that adversity makes you what you are," added Sinfield. [/i

His comments were clearly highlighting BM´s coaching skills; =#4000FF"His combination of tactical awareness, player development and man management is second to none"

This is not some young player seeking to keep his place with a bit of toadying. Most people close to the team are well aware of BM´s abilities so I guess Sinfield chose to make this very strong statement to enlighten the coaches critics who are unaware of what is really happening on the training field. A bit like his speech at last year´s GF.

The last thing you want to do when corporate entertaining is actually watch the event! You want the time to work the client, not watch sport!

Edit: It's for that reason I don't spend on sports for corporate entertainment. Corporate entertainment should either be talking to clients, in which case dinner and drinks is far better that the distraction of an event, or a reward for your organisation in which case travel typically works far better. I'd have to break out my expenses to see exactly what's spent on what events, but it's in five figures annually.

Won't it be an irony, if the cause of the end of the most glorious period of our clubs history, comes because the fans are no longer prepared to pay to watch the greatest team in the history of the club.

Rather than subjectively guessing at light years, we actually have a match of rugby league to objectively measure the gap between the two teams.

Just because he says one thing to the media does mean that's what he thinks. Sinfield knows what it takes to win and part of that is unity at the club with everyone pulling together.

Having said that a lot of people gave BMD a lot of credit for our performances in 2004 & 2005, which dropped off when he left. It may be that he's an excellent coach who knows how the game works and knows how to get a team over the line in first. Mid season results and performances mean nothing. Its all about doing it in the play offs.

No but ..... <insert excuses here>

Or in the salary caps.

True, I'm thinking along the lines that everyone who sits in the stand can have an opinion on tactics and who should play where or what they should do with the ball in hand (and fook knows we see enough of them on here), but what is it that motivates a team of individual players to break their backs for each other and how similar is that man management and motivation to what is happening in every Army unit on every day of the week ?

Maybe he is or isn't the worlds best tactical rugby genius but you cannot doubt his ability to lift a squad at exactly the moment that its needed and more importantly to get that squad to follow him - anyone heard any rumours about dressing room cliques and whispering campaigns recently ?

No, thought not.

That's the thing though, you don't really have to lift this squad of players for the big games because they naturally lift themselves (as any team should do for the biggest occasions). It's when you have to go away to Wakefield on a Monday night, a few weeks short of a CC Final and Belle Vue seems a million miles comedown compared to do-or-die matches at Wembley and Old Trafford and minds may not be fully focused that the coach has to step in and make sure we approach it right.

On the contrary, I think there's a realisation that you can switch off for some games without having any sort of detriment to your season at all, some games are nothing short of a training session and the financials are still largely unaffected.

As a management team they have just about got the whole of Rugby League as a business, well under control, its probably as well a run Rugby League business as has ever existed at all.

YEP - 6th October 2008

Leeds had been crushed 38-10 at Saints in the qualifying semi-final 15 days earlier and skipper Kevin Sinfield said the way they bounced back made it one of his career highlights. [i"It's right up there because of what happened two weeks ago, with everybody writing us off,"[/i he said. [i"There were 17 warriors out there and Bluey can take a lot of credit because two weeks ago there were some lads with their heads on the floor; we were completely shot after the disappointment of what happened at Saints. I know that's what he's paid to do, but he has done a great job in turning it around and keeping a very special trophy at Headingley." [/i

Two-try hero Danny McGuire saluted boss Brian McClennan after Leeds Rhinos retained their engage Super League title. McClennan took over the defending champions from Tony Smith and steered them to a unique Carnegie World Club Challenge/ Super League double in his debut campaign. Speaking after Saturday's 24-16 Grand Final downing of St Helens, McGuire said:[i "We have worked hard this year, we've had tough times, but we've stuck together and the coaching staff have been outstanding. Bluey has been great. He's not tried to change things dramatically overnight, he's just added a few subtle things here and there. He's such a positive bloke and so enthusiastic, you can't help but want to win for him."[/i

See that's your middle ground party line between "he's rubbish" and "he's the best coach I've played for". That quote demonstrates the point being made pretty well.

I am sure Sir Kev meant what he said that Mcdermott is a good coach at that moment in time, over the years numerous professional sportsmen have said this, but once they are replaced it is the King is dead long live the King. We will never get anything like how Sir Kev feels till he retires and brings out his book. I am not a fan of BM, but yes we have got to the grand final again, but how much is down to the players and realising they let the club down or was it GH making that statement that things had to improve or heads will roll.

Over the season Leeds have been poor far to many times, and at times the coach does appear to have lost the plot, in many games he did not appear to know what his best side was. In any knock out comp a side with Burrows, Sir Kev, Danny, Ryan Hall and Watkins will have a chance. But to me we have gone backwards since 2009 when we topped the league and won the GF. The team needs radically surgery in terms of the forwards, and a new half back and I am not sure BM is the man for the job.

I do hope i am wrong but I fear this will be the last GF for quite a while, unless new faces come in.

Spoke to one of the player who told me that while they don't try and be poor in the regular rounds, they know that come sept they should be in the play offs and tapered to peak at this time. Winning the league leaders shield doesn't mean that much

Interesting but nothing in there to contradict Sinfield's quotes about McDermott.

FWIW I don't doubt the players like Brian McDermott. They're very qualified to judge but hardly objective.

My view remains he has severe limitations as a coach and, as he says repeatedly himself, he is very luck to have this group of players.

Whilst we keep reaching finals though it's hard to advocate a change notwithstanding the limitations I observe in the weekly rounds. I've a lot of time for Kevin, I probably rate him much higher than anyhone else on this forum, but on this occasion I will respectfully disagree. Of course his opinion is worth more than mine but mine as worth as much as anyone else voicing thiers on here.

But its the mid season games against Fartown and Wakefield that put money into the clubs and pay the wages of the players. If the players are not that bothered why should the fans.

I am not questioning a Pro players opinion directly i'm just offering my opinion on what i've witnessed at games and like when we succeed they ALL get praise when it fails then they all should get the negative criticism.
I buy a ST (yes by choice) to watch my team and all i ask is that we compete in 99% of the games yes there will always be the odd blip here and there and injuries etce etc but at times this year and last we have been dire and made the same errors lacked structure and been destroyed now i aren't gonna over-look that in the hope we make CC finals and GF's or because of past records.
I comment on each individual game as it comes and will continue to do so and if you check my comments they've included players and coaches alike whether praise or negative.
Rightly or wrongly its about exchanging opinions we disagree /agree on a regular basis i never boo the team or coach or shout abuse at them but i will alwatys comment on games and performance even the plasyers and coaches themselves have admitted when its not good enough so its not just me and a few on here.
It's great to get to another GF and congrats to ALL the staff and players they've earned it and deserve the plaudits but if they under-perform or get pasted next season in march i'll still say so.

Mainly references to his motivational abilities, which few doubted. I'd be interested if you could find many quotes from 2009 though.

I have and continue to be confused by some of McD`s team selections, interchange choices etc.

I recall not so long ago 6 players playing out of position in one game.

But I would draw the line at advocating changing the coach....it would only be remotely viable if there was currently a better replacement available.

What the sample quotes were intended to illustrate is that the players will have probably made complimentary comments towards their present coach at whichever point in time you care to select - even if some fans now can't recall them doing so overly much.

____________

The Sinfield comments as reported on here do appear fairly extraordinary given McDermott's record as a head-coach but I guess he is the one that has finally acceded to Sinfield's wish to only play in a certain position. Even Brian Noble as far back as 2003 inferred this was being put to him by Sinfield at International level - so he didnt select him in 2004 as a consequence.

Having a military back-ground i know full well about the man management and motivational skills all our Armed Forces incorporate and again that's a fair point but saying that surely they shouldn't need too much motivation at this time of year?
I agree there's a steel focus and the coach does deserve some credit for that i dont dispute that and like before i'll heap ,praise when its due without question but as fans surely its not wrong to voice opinions on performances when they are poor whne you've shelled out to attend??
As for rumours there have been plenty especially with the Webb situation but of course that's not apparent in performance or effort at this time of year.