I think Davidson is lucky to survive the re-organisation at all, probably the most unfit looking conditioner I have ever seen

he gets slagged off but we've won plenty of grand finals with him as conditioner, including 12 months ago

Did we win it or did Cas bottle it? I take your point though, but his methods have got tired as the squad stopped pushing on for better/higher/faster...

we won it.
I don't think macdermott flogging players or playing injured players helped him, however it was time for a change. possibly it got to comfortable for him and the players

We won it, saying Cas bottled it seems a bit disrespectful to McGuires
Flawless halfback performance, he schooled them.

Kirke gone too. Bit of a pattern emerging with these gym owner types, Kirke,Achurch and Chris Feather owns one in Sydney too.

We played a to a solid GF game plan, everything was in our favour going in though.the Hardaker storm, Cas never experiencing such a big stage and being favourites, the weather too all played a massive part in Cas playing like poop really compared to what they produced for most of the 30 rounds of the season.

McGuire was class though and a great way to sign off for us.

Has Barry Eaton left the club?

No he is head of taking the club into the community and developing amateur coaches or something along those lines

We won that GF. We absolutely schooled Cas in how to play in a big game. McGuire smacked all their s, pulled Luke Gales combover + said "try again next time ya set of petulant little b-tches"

If anybody knows the inner workings, they would know how much Jason Davidson brings to the club. And how much Sir Kev values him being around the place.

Things move on and maybe he hasn't moved on in terms of knowledge and technique - the team didn't look as fit as teams with significantly less access to facilities and support functionality.

maybe. or possibly being flogged to death by the previous coach took it's toll

Anybody know anything about Chris Black, the new head of physical performance, is he highly regarded?

These are full time elite athletes is playing 80 minutes 30 times a year really a flogging?

playing for long periods and non use of subs yes. and given the ages of some who were made to play 60/70 minute spells again yes.

Really - they play once a week and they are conditioned/or not to do that - surely a player who 30-32 should be capable of 80 minutes especially with the current intensity of SL

depends on the games and weather.under long periods of pressure and red hot weather people need rests. or do you consider them robots??

The game has so many stops and starts now I wonder how much of the 80 minutes is actually in play - every try/attempt on goal eats up a minute of the games as does virtually every scrum. There are plenty of opportunity for rest during the game and compared to some in SL e.g. Roby their physical input is minimal

Simon bell still head of youth?

right. so they are robots who can run, tackle and play for long periods in whatever weather and never get tired. yeah ok

I don't think the players were flogged as much as people seem to think, but the the body is put a huge amount of stress during a top level RL game, which takes at least 3 or 4 days to recover from. An RL player probably gets 2 days at the most, so putting the body under that amount of stress every week for 8 months without sufficient recovery time is what results in injuries. Not many injuries in RL occur as a result of a single incident, they're the result of putting the muscles, joints and bones under constant stress without a required recovery time.

That's not what I said and you know that - they are elite athletes who should be able to play 80 minutes 30 times a year - how often do you see Cameron Smith not playing 80 minutes for Melbourne, Queensland or Australia?

Cam Smith isn't your typical RL player though. If it were that simple you'd see it more often

you're sounding a bit stupid here Sal. Barely any forwards play 80 minutes at any level of the game. The physical demands of the game are too high. Its also impossible to play that many games without having niggles and picking up injury. If you don't think that's true, look at how much tape everyone has on.

McDermott had a philosophy of getting as much out of his trusted players, rather than give game time to fringe members. He was pretty much alone in his approach. Most other coaches spell props on a 20 minute basis, to refresh people in a battering role. Maybe his different approach is why we won so many grand finals.

Either way, a few seasons of bad injuries across the squad suggest that the players bodies have had enough.