IF (long way to go yet i know) we go on to win the super league title for the third time on the trot this year and Mcdermott decided to walk away from the club how highly would he be regarded by fans compared to coaches of the past?

Lets face it, he has never had an easy ride from the fans,especially on here at times and for the most part i guess that has been down to our approach to regular rounds of the SL season.But, when it has mattered his teams have (Wembley aside) produced the goods.If we do it again this year his record for just 3 years in the job would read:

3 Super League Titles
2 Challenge Cup Finals
1 World Club Challenge

That is an unbelievable amount of success in such a short period of time and would surely put him right up there with the best coaches.Yes, he has been fortunate to come in at a time when the club had the best group of players it has had in many a year,but you still have to go out there and do the business and its hard to argue that he hasnt.

Mac has also had a rough ride for not giving youth a chance but if we look at the list of players who have broken through as first team regulars, or are on the verge of being, then it doesn't ring true to me:
Ward,Hardaker,Watkins,McShane,Sutcliffe,Singleton,Foster,Minns,BJB is not a bad haul when you consider the squad has been full of settled pro's during his tenure.

Im not saying Mcdermott and his ways of doing things have always made sense to me. i have been as baffled as many with some of the things he has done but he keeps producing the goods and i think its time he got a bit more credit.

So, for me if we can pull off another title victory this year and Mac left the club he would go alongside Tony Smith as the greatest coach the club has had in the modern era.Not bad going for just a three year reign.

Where would he rank in other people's estimates?

This should be interesting...

I would be glad to see the back of him. I think this year to be fair would be a greater achievement than his previous two years where it was all there for whoever was coach. This year although not much different, has been that bit harder because of the injury situation.

As for your comment on youth, IMO wrong, but going over old ground. Hardaker, Watkins, McShane, Singleton, nothing to do with him, and Ward was identified as a future star long before he was here and whoever would have been coach. Sutcliffe, Foster, Minns, would never have got a look in had the injuries not occured.

I think the guy has too big an ego to walk away from anything, so I think the point is pretty irrelevant anyway.

I will apologise in advance to those sensitive souls that see no wrong, no matter what.

What, so Mcdermott didnt introduce those players you mention as first team regulars? Im not saying he went out and signed them or nurtured them through the junior sides.Just that it was he who made them established first teamers which is the job of the first team head coach or am i wrong?

Sutcliffe was already on the verge of breaking through regardless and many of Wigan's young players making waves right now would probably also be waiting for a first team chance if injuries had not occured to established first teamers, it is how it goes.

Me too. Let's bring in someone crªp instead, i'm tired of winning.

Or somebody good, there is pleny of good coaches out there around the world. Leeds is not the only place in world rugby. Our previous three coaches have all been better than the current one.

Thats fair enough.One of the reasons i made the thread was because i know there are people out there who have made up their mind on Mac being useless and he could stay for another three seasons winning six on the bounce and they would still want rid.

You will not have to wait long for that to change

I actually think he's got as tough a job as anybody before him if not harder.
He came in when expectation for success was higher than ever he's had to oversee the departures of Senior ,Webb ,Ali and also the core of the squad getting older.
I will always be gratefull to him and imo his place in the Clubs histort etc etc should be a no brainer up there with TS ,Bluey and Muzza for bringing success.
Onto how and why he attracts so much criticism at times is imo his obvious policy of favouritism with selection ,his bench rotations ,and up until we hit rock bottom with injuries some of his use of the U19 lads.
I have always commented on each individual situation as it arose but overall our success under him deserves plenty of recognition but that doesn't mean IF we think something is wrong or question some calls he makes that what happened over the last 2yrs makes him right or unquestionable nor does it mean we are gonna repeat that success either.

Mac will struggle to get the credit as he has took on a team who knows how to win at the right time.
Leeds' overall poor entertaintment value at home during his tenure (3 years and counting) doesn't do him any favours either with me when fairly compared to what I paid to watch under Smith and Bluey.

McDermott inherited a good side - 10 of the team that won the 2009 GF are still getting picked in the starting 17. So how good a coach he is difficult to assess. He needs to build a winning side without the likes of Peacock and Sinfield to be judged a great coach.

What cannot be denied he has been the coach for two of the finest wins in the SL era: the play off win at Warrington in 2011 and the play off win at Wigan in 2012.

Just as an aside, BMcD has yet to coach a team to a higher league finishing position then when he joined a club.

That would be a semi useful statistic if league positions were the be all and end all of the competition.

Yes, but you are missing the point. It is only about the Grand Final, and that is all down to him and nothing to do with the group of players he has had at his disposal. Come on man.

If it's all down to the players, how do you judge a good coach with this team then Gotcha?

I'm interested to know what you're looking for...

Hey - I never said it was useful.

I've never met him, but get the sense of a bloke with a strong moral code - same as Sinfield and Peacock - which I presume is why they have such mutual respect. I think that synergy is very important for the team.

His coaching methods are unusual and (I'm guessing) draw heavily on his military background. Although not perfect (what is?), I prefer this to the textbook Australian approach. I think there's a resilience in this team which none of its peers can emulate.

Sport generally is full of s. I like the ethos of the Rhinos at present and I'm happy for my sons to support the club.

He doesn't have to be the most technically gifted coach.

This team has had its success by something special within the camp. Sure they've bags of ability as have Wigan, Warrington and Hudds, but Leeds have something extra within the group. Brian McDermott is not the best coach out there, but he seems to fit into the group and is now part of the special bond and culture at the Rhinos.

You can pick the best coach on the planet and he may not fit into the Rhinos mould, so when the going gets tough and the squad needs to come together e.g. playoff rugby, that spirit may no longer be there. So for that reason Brain McDermott deserves to be right along side every single one of this special group.

If you want someone that rants and raves and gets consistency out of his team e.g. Shaun Wane, go for it, but you won't get that special team spirit that annually comes together.

I was at the Leeds Rugby Foundation dinner in July 2011, a time when Leeds really did have the backs against the wall. McDermott was doing a Q&A on stage, I thought this is going to be interesting! Boy, can McDermott talk! Every word you believed the guy, he was such a brilliant speaker and had such a presence and aura about him, I can see why Leeds get a lot of belief in the big matches.

I've been McDermotts biggest and worse fan over the last couple of years, but that is how I think he works.

Tony Smith had to build a team around a core of exciting youngsters and did so, but went two years without winning anything (unless you count the WCC against a half-strength Dogs side).

Brian McLennan came in, took on the team that Smith built and pretty much just kept it pointing in the same direction before his laissez-faire culture caught up with him and the players.

McDermott came in and had to correct the course that the team was heading in under McLennan and has done so. Two titles in two years speaks for itself. His job is to win trophies, and he's done so.

I'd put him somewhere below Smith but above McLennan if I were ranking them. As with any coach though, the test of their time at a club is often revealed by what they leave behind (see the mess Noble left Bradford and Wigan's youth structures in, for example).

Firstly, If I bedded Katie Perry would it be the greatest achievement of my life? Maybe, but lets discuss it when it happens.

As for McDermott, Leeds' success under him deserves respect and recognition. I believe that although good players / teams win games, you will struggle to win competitions with someone poor running the show.

Many of McDermott's decisions are strange, but come grand final night, those games where we left 2 subs unused, may have helped condition the rest of the players to deal with the adversity of playing with low numbers. Who knows how it works, and maybe it is fluke, but to fluke it 2 years on the bounce, something that has only been done by 1 coach before him is unlikely, even if it was with a similar core of players. I guess the key question is could the same coach do it with a differnet group of players? Who knows? Smith hasn't as yet been able to win a title with an arguably much more talented group of players at Wire, and he's been there 4 years

Seems like a my way or the highway style of coaching, but proof is in the pudding and 2 league titles in 2 years is just that. Week in week out performance has probably been at its most inconsistent the last two seasons so not the best for the fans. Disappointed with the CC effort this year, really need to win that comp again!

Has his coaching style benefitted the club in general or has it alienated some players?

IMO I think if he gets us to the GF hen he'll be here next year too. Overall you can't knock the final result of the last two years in a results based business!

Silverware he has been successful , it will be extremely interesting to see how he performs now we are at the business end of the season . On balance the team is probably not as strong as recent years, in our favour is the other top teams seem some way off the pace.
I don't see anything at the moment that we can't overcome , like several other posters I would prefer to visit the giants we must be due a win against them.
I would think that how the team performs will have a big influence on who goes and who stays next season.
Also whether we bring in some new players.

Is 7 years a long time? Because you've been telling us all since 2006 that we would not be winning anything.

As for the thread title, as time goes by McDermott's legacy will be highly reverred. However, I still retain doubts about many of his methods and think the real legacy has been carved by certain inidividlas over ten years (Sinfield, JJB, Burrow, McGuire and others).

The real legacy is Hetherington. He is the consistent between 2004 and 2013.

Only jesting Gareth - I think they have a good a chance of winning it this year as they had the previous two. No team really stands out for me.

In years to come, all that will be remembered will be the trophies. Therefore Brian Mc will leave behind an outstanding legacy.

I agree with Gareth: The real legacy comes from GH. The last three coaches have all been very different, but all right for their time. I doubt they would have been as effective in a different order.
In fact, change that last three to last four, because Powell created a lot of the foundations for this.