I think McDermott’s reaction to both the Grand Final and playoff semi win in 2017 clearly showed that he knew the squad was poorer. IIRC he described it as the best win of the lot not long after having won the treble. And he was clearly emotional after the semi final win. I don’t think he reacts like that if in his mind the squad is strong compared to 2015.

Nice one
I think that's realists 1 Heterington goon squad 0

Nice one
I think that's realists 1 Heterington goon squad 0

How many times does it need to be said Marty? And why are you contradicting yourself on giving the same line various times? You cannot fix the problem over night, it takes a few years. Until that period is over, from recovering from McDermotts inept handling, then it will be said. If it persisted after that then you would have a valid point, but we are not there yet.

Exactly where we are, should have been exactly expected by all, had they opened their eyes through those McDermott latter years.

Poor replacements of key players Jordan Lilley for rob no pace at all.
Myler for Danny McGuire ?
Sutty for sinny no kicking game and not a patch with playmaking and place kicking.
Galloway for jp donkey for an all time great.
Not replacing hardaker with the same quality.
Singleton for kylie
Letting all the second rowers age together.
Signing ferries
Handley for hall ?
One person had his hand in all of these desicions.

All fair points Chester but can I please ask who you would have replaced the likes of Sinfield, JP, Maggsy, Burrow and Hall with based on other SL clubs signings?

Weve seen good even great Leeds squads come to an end before and supporters reaction have been just the same as now without social media what goes round etc .

Marty - hall didn't matter as much as the others.

We gambled on Sutcliffe coming through in 2016 which was fair enough as we still had McGuire, but he was utterly out of his depth. Instead of getting someone else in we went with moon, who again was carried by McGuire in 2017.

Why nobody seemed to realise we needed 2 halfbacks for 2018 is beyond me. Then having seen that fail we sign a reserve grade full back as one of our main playmakers. Utterly bonkers.

As for props, Galloway was a dinosaur in the NRL who hadn't looked like a first grade prop for years. Peteru had barely played when we signed him. These guys were supposed to replace JP and Kylie??? Garbutt has since left as well, so we're 3 class props down with only Ava looking the part as replacement.

As an aside I bet GH kept thinking he'd unearth another Kylie - in fact he was the exception that proved the rule that if you pay peanuts....

Then there was the whole hooker debacle which still isn't sorted.

In the meantime players like Austin, David Fifita etc have come to SL and we haven't signed one of the many good English players who have come off contract since 2015 - pretty much every player in SL would have been potentially available since then.

Now we've gone from a club that players might have been willing to play for on slight unders to one where they probably want a premium to join.

And few decent juniors over the last five years - Walker, Newman, Oledzki, maybe Smith.

All in all a complete and utter shambles.

Good post and agreed. Weve missed a trick big time not signing one of the very good English players since 2015. I think Mellor is an astute signing but we need a JP like signing. Imo he was possibly the most important signing we made.

I doubt he'd want to join a struggling side or Leeds in particular but if you want a genuine leader I'd go for James Graham.

That’s all pretty much spot on, and why those blaming Sinfield for this mess are way off the mark IMO

Isn’t it more customary to pin all the crap to the person who’s just left rather than the one who’s just arrived?

Sinfield has made some mistakes since he got here, but didn’t create the unholy shoitestorm he inherited.

Yes agree he may want to finish his career back here. Would do nicely for 2 or 3 seasons.

As sad as it makes me to say this but GH takes most of the blame. However Sinfield isnt blameless if we go down this year as imo we should have brought Wane in. Only imo however

Great post!

He might not have a choice if he wants another 2 or 3 years at top level. A cracking signing though.

Marty
I think Brisbane has answered the question for me.
I also agree about the hooker problems we groomed hood and mcshane two great prospects.
They worked with buderis all time legend and were allowed to leave_
McShane is now the real deal and imo. Just what we need.How can he keep Powel happy and not us.
Wheels fell of a bit when Aiton was allowed to leave offered 1 year more wanted 2, he was what we need like mcshane, ball playing hooker with a kicking game.
If you have both halves that can kick as well as the hooker and in the past fullbacks with kicking games it makes the team impossible to shut down and the kick chasers can keep the pressure on.
Mostly this passed few years stop myler kicking stop leeds, to me that was parcels only fault and moon just punted it in the air.
Lastly we have struggled the last few seasons due to missing the points sinny used to get I’ve lost count of the games lost due to missed kicks and the lack of league points puts pressure on the team.

The players in this squad are still better than this precarious position they've got themselves in

Yes I agree with that. Better than joint bottom. And that's where a top coach could make the difference but we're stuck with Agar...

The players are better but as a team they suck in attack and defence no structure in either we have no leader Merton is a hothead Watkins was the worst leeds captain i have ever seen and myler the worst organising half who gets a game by default every week.

I'm not sure they are any better at all, very little quality in this Leeds team.

Who is Merton and a bit of punctuation wouldn’t go amiss

Merton?

Clearly Merrin

Pretty good summary to me.

On their own many of the signings would be ok, but when grouped together over a period they just haven't been good enough for the players they were replacing.

To me there's are some bad decisions and there has been done bad luck. Ferres should have improved our squad, but just has been ravaged by injury.

We also seen to have signed ok players like myler, and then not had soave for some real class like Hastings, widdop or Austin.

Overall the buck stops with hetherington. He's the common factor in the whole mess. It's on his head