If you you calculated Smith’s results last season pro-rata over the whole season we’d have finished top 4.

This season we will finish bottom half.

Why?

Lost too many close games (our points difference attests to that)

And lost 3 games to teams we should have won against, those 3 games alone going diferently and our season is totally different look.

Two of our senior players throwing their toys out of the pram hasn’t helped either.

Because he is giving them a game plan that is the way he thinks the game should be played and not actually how it is played. Leeds last year had a reaction to a new coach but it's time to say it's not working and let him go. With a shaun wane or Brian mcdermott in charge I recon the team would be top 5

Not sure Brian Mac would be the answer, he’s hardly covered himself in glory since leaving us.

He also led our team of all stars to below 4 finishes

Granted, but I sometimes wonder whether we should have stuck with McDermott just a tad longer, until the team had been transitioned abit more. In his final season we lost so many games by 1 or 2 points right at the death, but then after he left they fell of a cliff getting thrashed, and, they’ve never really climbed back up. Not properly.

Mcdermot should have gone after the 2017 final, he was nit the man to lead a transition, listen to the latest SL podcast with ryan brierly to how he treats players

McDermott would have been dreadful at seeing younger players transition to first team. The likes of Harry would probably have left by now, not a pleasant individual.

Remember he was the coach that pretty much tried to manage Rob Burrow out of the club and nearly had Sinfield leave during the 2015 season.

Its only because of those two players character and attitude that both didn’t happen

I get man management and all that, but a coaches job isn’t to be their best friend. Remember, Jamie peacock wasn’t glowing about Tony Smith circa 2006.

Players did come through under McDermott, for example you could argue his toughness helped singleton and handley in those early seasons.

I’m not saying he was the guy for it all, just playing devils advocate.

Maybe he knew the transition needed to start then.

He’s the most successful manager in clubs history. We shouldn’t really be debating this!

Well he didn’t really help the transition though did he.

Mcdermott was very successful but he did have some once in a generation players in his sides, in that respect he was very lucky

To be fair to Smith, he moved on some players like Sutcliffe who needed to go.

Several key senior players are out of form or missing.

We are basically limping into the end of this season busted up and down on quality. We need another 3 really good signings plus a very strong off-season for the squad; we could really do with one or two academy prospects putting some pressure on for first grade spots in 2024 too.

Whether RS is a good enough coach or not - we get to find out in the first 5-10 games next season, I reckon that’s his window to show he can turn it around.

Poor pre-season
Loss of Hardaker and even Sutcliffe has messed up and weakened the three quarters.
Teams have worked out how Smith plays
Recruitment has generally been unsuccessful, Nene and MCDonnell have gone well but Olpherts, Roberts, sangare, Hooley and Ruan have added little, appreciate some are projects
Lost Leeming and not replaced
No captain/leader
Some truly awful performances at Cas and wakey
The handling of contracts seems a mess, Austin being pushed out with no replacement and Myler injured.
No attempt to use spare cap this season, could we have deregistered Tetevano? Still paid him but used a quota spot , maybe not , don’t know rules well enough.
Caught on back foot with Walters contract, too casual / arrogant.
We are now retaining players we should release like Donaldson and Fusitua and I’ve lost any faith in Bentley as well.
Lots of basic errors made.
I’ll stop there as it’s depressing

Just on Austin, he wasn’t pushed out he asked to leave at a really critical time of the year, of all the mistakes made this season letting him go wasn’t one of them, neither was not giving him 2 years like he wanted.

Maybe he did, maybe Gh got the monk on , whatever we allowed it to happen and have had 2 spine players
Leave early and not replaced, something is not right with how players are being managed IMO.

Austin made some disparaging comments about Cas in his ill advised podcast, strange thing to do if you wanted to go there.
You may be right but it’s another unhelpful part of a very poor season

Not sure saying we lost games against sides we should have beat, is much of an argument tbh. We didn't deserve to win those games. On the flip side we beat Saints away because Makinson missed an easy kick, so shall we knock 2 points off for that?
We have put some really poor performances in this season, not lacking in effort, but clueless with little cohesion when we have possession. The players shoulder some of the blame and so does Smith.

You’re right the club can take some square criticism in some areas but it’s not responsible for what appears to be petulant outbursts from players who aren’t as good as they think they are. Team first.

Look at our PD (clutching at straws here) and we should be higher up - we have lost lots of close games and rarely been hammered. It goes that way sometimes it’s sport.

Having said that the errors again have been ridiculous (how many seasons have we made too many errors for now??).

To play how RS wants to play you need better players than we have basically.

Anyway I’m not actually sure we are worse than last year; maybe we flattered to deceive a bit. We clearly haven’t made progress though and we’re back to square one in the most critical positions on the field almost.

I agree we have competed most weeks as our points difference shows. There has been no lack of effort. I was replying to the quote that we should have beat Cas twice and Wakey. We didn't deserve to win those games.
Last season we were a better attacking team than this year imo and Smith deserved credit for that.

It's all just a bit sht. And I don't like the use of the word gotten. Other than that I'm all out of long monologues about the state of the team, bleak futures and bla bla bla.

Perfect summary

The problem with the close games is just that, they are close games, when in truth, if we were a decent side, they wouldn’t be close to begin with

Close games and how you win those games shows a culture and togetherness of the squad. A belief in one and another. That is what the golden generation had and absolute belief they no team could beat them when they upped the anti. They won many tight games when it mattered. This team always looks like they will lose tight games they haven't got the belief in each other.

For me therein lies the problem - poor culture amongst the playing group - no leaders that are respected/feared. Not sure I would like to go into a dressing room with Jamie Peacock if I hadn't given it 100%. Instead we have big heads like Newman who hasn't earned the right to shout at anyone does it on the pitch - he is an in-sight example of what is wrong with this squad

Close games like yesterday should not paper over the cracks of a performance being dire, in so many close games this year the opposition have been just a little less dire.