Having taken a lot of stick on here, particularly from my mate Mystic eddie but many others, forcsticking to my view that McNamara was a highly promising outstanding young coach, it was especially gratifying to see his Dragons execute his game plan to the letter, and take systematically apart the runaway best team in SL.

He has gone about his work steadily, getting thempadt the MPG, then after a very slow start, learn his systems and methods and turn around into a highly formidable unit.

Nobody can ever say again that he can’t coach !

Fair play to the guy

He comprehensively out-coached Holbrook today - the game plan was excellent, and he got the team to execute it to perfection.

Yes fair play to Steve Mac for that performance, was good to see.

Love watching Remi Casty play, one guy who deserves a Wembley trip and hopefully a winners medal. His body must ache after every game

He's made me eat my words for sure.
From where Catalans were when he took over, to how they're playing now, it's a fantastic effort from Steve.

Tbh I think Steve McNamara was always a good coach. He was just massively limited here with all the off field stuff that happened, plus injuries to key personnel. Out coached some really good sides when we were struggling, Leeds and Saints in 2009, Wigan at home in 2010 (20-0 down at HT). Even did really well with the England side. Got us playing very good rugby against Aus and took us from being battered each game to competing in large parts. And obviously what he has done with Catalan is nothing short of outstanding!

Good coach and always was. I always said he was too. The abuse he’s had is totally uncalled for. Especially during his time as England coach when he successfully changed the culture and won silverware. He should have had another contract from RFL instead of this over rated has been we’ve got now. Still England’s loss is Catalans’ gain. Good luck to them in the final.

I thought he would have been replaced after the bad start they had but he managed to turn it around. I think his team were on fire today and good luck to them in the final. One thing I noticed he must be getting well fed over there!

Macca has always been a good Coach but lacked the experience of being a Head Coach and man manager when chucked in the deep end in 2006, the off field problems were never fully understood at the time and he took the blame for letting good players go and getting in lesser quality ones.
His time in the NRL allowed him to toughen up on his lack of experience as a HC that he had in SL at the time.

The fact he took on the Catalans job (probably on the say so Trent Robinson) that was becoming a real basket case of a Club.
I like most feared the worst but he is turning the Club round and showing he now has the maturity to be a Head Coach.

Good luck to him in the CC final and for SL as well

I completely agree that McNamara had done enough to earn a new contract with England.
I completely disagree with your comment that Bennett is an “over rated has been”.

Macnamara has done a good job,but ALL the improvement has coincided with them acquiring Drinkwater from the NRL.He has completely changed the way they play and the forwards play an Ozzie type game with the addition of another NRL player Kenny Edwards and with Drinkwater running at the line and having the ability to put guys through the hole the rest of the team has responded.Casty is a good forward in any league and under this new style it is all playing to his strengths.
Great game and result for Catalans.

Macca's problem with us was the timing of his appointment - it was perhaps too early in his career, and worse, coincided with us going into financial meltdown and selling off so many of our better players. If we'd had the entire Australian national sides' coaching team we'd still have underperformed back then and it's a pity so many of our fans couldn't see beyond the on-field results and gave him so much grief. So yes, bloody well done Steve, I hope it continues.

He should never have got the job in the circumstances. A poisoned chalice for anyone I suppose but as a rookie it was an impossible job.

Michael Potter did a better job in similar circumstances IMO.

McNamara clearly learnt from mistakes made with us.

Well done McNamara and Catalans, plainly obvious a coaching victory, Catalans had the game plan to overcome a tough Warrington side and stuck to it. And what a gripping Final. McNamara the coach has graduated.

It was a poor final in terms of actual skill on show, I can only think of one try that actually came from a piece of skill (a 40/20) rather than just capitalising on the other side's handling errors.
To see a team not find touch with a penalty, in a cup final, is just ridiculous.

I'm glad Catalans won though, for Steve and also for the good of the game. History was made yesterday.

Congratulations to Steve and the Catalans club, it was a monster performance from a very good side with a very good coach and it is also a big boost for European rugby -and via circuitous route that includes the UK.

Hopefully the monkey of the Bulls spell is now off his back. His CV will actually look quite good - Assistant when the Bulls were winning things. Assistant down under when the title was won. Won a series with GB and very unfortunate to lose that job. Picked Cats off the floor and won the cup. He is now a serious top flight coach.
He came in for lot of unfounded criticism just because he took the job when Nobby saw what was coming and jumped ship. He unfortunately doesn't communicate in an authoritative way with his accent but I am absolutely delighted for him now and good luck to him in his hopefully long career. Lots of clubs will now take him seriously. Would we again some time in the future - now that is an interesting question.

It is also interesting that Catalan are actually an amalgamation of two local teams. Think I've read somewhere that merging two local teams is doomed to fail from the offset.