Funny. I know Stevie Ward quite well, and what you're claiming (Mac only got on with JP & Kev) is utter rubbish.

Ok then.

I agree with everything you put there pretty much, Ferres is a quality player he has worked hard in a mostly beaten team and in time will get chances to show his qualities in attack. I don't rate Walters either from the evidence so far, He may well improve a bit in time but i don't see him getting to the top level of a SL back rower, no better than Clarkson standard for me.

I'm a bit undecided on Burrow, i have been one to write him off before, saying we should release him to Cas, and he has come good again and provided the difference come the end of the year. He is still handy to have in the squad provided it is just the bench role, i still think he is a weapon when the pack is dominant and on the front foot, can't say that has happened this year yet.

Fancy asking him what the issue is then? I don't accept this training ground issue, I can understand that being a factor but there's more to this than meets the eye.

Burrow has been brilliant for the club and one of those players that the opposition just can't or don't know how to handle. He has been a game winner for us in several massive games including finals but i agree he looks tired and just hasn't got the legs anymore to zip in and under the opposition defence. same goes for McGuire. His time is up. I'd love to see both of these legends involved in the club in youth development or whatever but it is time for them to hang up there boots.
McD is no top class manager. It was the team that he had under him that made what has been a golden era golden. I don't see anymore tactical or strategic thinking out of him than we got out of Bluey. The last good manager Leeds had was Smith.

Time to have a proper clear out and rebuild from the top down and the bottom up. I don't mind the break from winning trophies if it gives us the opportunity to bring in a fresh new culture built around a strategic and tactical management and playing approach that matches the players we've got and the teams we are playing against. It's no good relentlessly trying to smash a triangular group of players through a square hole. We don't have a square team anymore!

Wouldn't b0ll0cking him for not playing how he wants be an explanation for dropping him?



Nonsense. They'll be players who don't get on with the coach (McDermott admitted a few years back that they'll be players in the dressing room that won't like him and I imagine that's the same for most coaches) but to say only Sinfield and Peacock got on with McDermott is stretching it when you consider the likes of JJB, McGuire, Ablett, Delaney etc. at the club and McDermott has always spoken well of and who are in his "favourites" club so to speak in terms of being picked and played long mins and trusted more than others.

No. It's called constructing a Players exit by not playing him to his strengths.


Not nonsense at all. He's not a people person. He thinks hard graft is the answer to everything and people who don't "Fall in Line" are in his bad books. But it will never be made public knowledge & we could partake in P1ss1ng contest tennis all year, but it will get us nowhere. So lets leave it there.

Players need to be flexible in RL and play other roles when needed. Ablett to centre in the past for example. Achurch had all the qualities to play prop except he didn't fancy it.



I don't disagree with that summary of him at all, he's even admitted in the past that he's never really been a people person, but to think ONLY Sinfield and Peacock got on with him when their's several other players who fall under his "hard graft is the answer" at the club is far fetched.

I know some players don't like him (some players didn't like Smith and McClennen too) and I know in some cases (Paul McShane) where they really had a bad relationship.

It's just not going well in the Sheds is what I'll say, and something needs to change. Nobody more than me, hopes it's soon.

Backing Middleton_Loiner up - I've heard that last season only JP, Kev and Mags were on good terms with Brian, but even that changed when Kev announced his retirement. This year it's got worse with little communication from Brian to the players.

It's definitely believable given the stories we've heard over the years. If he really has lost the dressing room to this extent, it will be hard to get it back.

i'm doubtful myself on this story as a whole, but there is certainly some truth there, he did invest a lot of trust in Sinfield and Peacock that was clear to all. but he knew all last year they would be gone for 2016 so you have to assume he has changed his tact regards approach towards his squad.If he hasn't, he only has himself to blame.

If he'd lost the dressing room, GH would have binned him by now.

Stevie tell you that?

I think he has lost the dressing room, but not to the extent said above, otherwise I agree here that GH would have binned him already. Instead he is evaluating options, which tells me Hetherington doesn't see it has bad as people have mentioned.

Or his intended target isn't available until next season?

Possibly. The contract situation with Mac is strange, to say the least. How much would it cost to pay off a man with 'a job for life'

No, but I'm sure somebody itk like yourself can tell us all how someone you claim has lost the WHOLE dressing room can still be in the job?

If he's on a rolling contract, whatever his notice period stipulates.

In other words, probably not very much.

Yep, hence the evaluating options, rather than just acting now. I do think the dressing room is getting worse though. A loss this week, and just can't see him how something isn't going to change.

I agree with regards to last years claim. He may have lost the dressing room in this pre-season or during the 2016 season, but the idea that about 90% of the squad didn't like him in 2015 seems far fetched because I simply don't believe they'd have won a treble (and completely overhaul their attacking style in the process) if their were THAT many guys who didn't get along with him.

I think also GH would've acted and announced a change of coach for this year (like Powell/Smith & McClennen/McDermott) if basically the whole squad didn't get on with him and the only two that really did were about to retire. Also quite a few players especially the youngsters have signed new deals in the last 18 months, not exactly the behaviour of guys who couldn't stand the coach of the club.

I've never seen or heard anything from McDermott or certain players such as JJB, Leuluai, Ablett or Delaney to suggest they have a bad relationship with one another, if anything his relationship with JJB seems even better than the ones he had with Sinfield and Peacock. Realistically it's probably more like half the squad at most who might not have gotten on with him and whoever has spread the story has exaggerated, you can kind of guess who, the younger ones and fringe players who hardly got picked or got off the bench when picked.

I have no idea how many players get on or otherwise with McD, however some may need to be careful what they wish for. Let's pretend leeds get geoff toovey in. On current form I think he would be into see gh inside 2 weeks with 2 lists. Here's the ones I want to keep. And here's the 10 to 15 you can get rid of.

I was told that in the week before the Hull KR game at the end of a session the coach invited the players to get things off their chests with any gripes they might have.

Allegedly our man of steel said that the players on the right hand side would like permission during the following game to bring picnic baskets onto the pitch as the diminutive scrum half come bench hooker could only pass left.

The said player that accepted the coaches invitation to speak his mind spent the following game playing on the right wing.

If any of the above is true it's all rather worrying.

The irony of Hardaker complaining about others passing the ball.

That isn't what G1 said. I think the point he made is probably true, minus the picnic baskets.

too true. Hardaker does not pass either left or right and constantly dies with the ball and this season has been one of our worst defenders and seems incapable of matching our defensive numbers against the opposition's attack. He is lucky to get a gig on the wing.