To be fair to Sinfield he only started his job at the latter end of 2018. The damage had already been done by that point. Now his actions since have not inspired confidence but neither am I one to say get rid immediately.

As for Directors of Rugby. Normally I’d agree it’s not a good situation unless their remit is on the academy structures rather than first team, otherwise what’s the point of a first team coach. But in this case the plan is clearly for Sinfield to take over from Hetherington as CEO at some point in the next couple of years so this is part of a transition. So I’m fine with that.

Just not fine with sacking 2 coaches in the space of 20 odd SL games when the main issue isn’t the coach, it’s poor recruitment.
I do have to agree with Printer a bit as well. The documentary last year didn’t show Sinfield in a good light in my opinion. It showed an ego and an expectation that I assumed wasn’t there and certainly wasn’t earlier in his career. And I think his dislike for McDermott after that incident has played a part in some of his decisions now.
Which he needs to get over if he’s going to last at Leeds now.

Another one of these posts from people who think they are in the know, listened to a load of rumours and pure hearsay and think they have the fingers n the pulse.
Blokes been in the job less than a year, but yeah it's all his fault he must be ruining the club.

If some sponsers want to withdraw support because of a bad run then let them go, dont have them back when things are on the up or charge them double.
The same idiots that what Sinfield out are the same idiots who want Hetherington out.

I agree it is Now, But he came back to Leeds Mid July 2018 so like i said the problems are collective at Leeds you cant just blame Sinfield, You say it's is job for a smooth transition maybe it is, But it certainly hasn't been for the last 3 years where Leeds retention to there standards haven't been good enough over the last 3 years,
Players who have left, retired or been force out the like of Rob Borrows 2017,Danny Maguire 2017,Zak Hardaker 2017,R Hall 2018,B Delaney 2018,Joel Moon 2018,Mitch Garbutt 2018, and then Kev sinfield 2015, Jamie Peacock 2015,K Leuluai 2015 plus a load more,That's a fair bit of quality players there have lost and not replace with better in my opinion.

How was its Sinfields Job to get a smooth transition from those players leaving, he hasn’t been in the job for a year yet, the last of those pivotal players left in 2017

I’ve just posted this on SS.com - a lot of people ate slating Sinfield for not doing his job when they don’t even know what job he is doing.

nor does Sinfield, but hey, he cheated to a lot of wins.

No one is saying he isn’t doing his job, they’re saying he’s doing it badly which he has done.

Where Sinfield, some at the clubs and many Leeds fans have it wrong is thinking things were broken before he came in. In 2017 we were 2nd on 40 points (1 less than the treble year in 2015 with Sinfield and co) and then won the GF. In 2018 we were top 4 after 10 rounds with our only losses away to Widnes the game after the WCC as if often the case and by 1 point to Cas. Even then in rounds 11 & 12 we lost to a single point again to both Wigan and Hull.

We did this with hardly any props and no real established quality goal kicker. Those one pointers scored the same number of tries, just didn’t have the kicker. On the props in those opening 10 rounds, Galloway played 0 and retired, Peteru played only 15 mins of the opener, Garbutt played 2 and Cuthbertson played in 2 also. Another important forward for us in Ward managed 3. This caught up on the squad badly in the 2nd third of the season. It was a bloody great effort to actually be 4th at that point in the circumstances, great effort which has disappeared from them under Sinfield’s watch.

Leeds didn’t need to reinvent the wheel or make huge changes, they just needed to steadily transition the quality of the squad now that the stadium work was drawing to a close and cash could be spent again. McDermott should’ve been backed with the sort of money that Sinfield has......more Leeds fans should be questioning why weren’t marquee or big signings made until McDermott was gone. What should’ve been done for 2019 was proper quality replacements for Galloway, Moon and Hall and one or two extra in the forwards with the money they were on plus the newly introduced willingness to spend big on marquees and other departures like JJB and Ablett who should’ve retired but Sinfield gave his mates new deals and one of them hasn’t played and the other barely has, not saying that would e had us winning trophies but we’d be in ok shape compared to this mess. Then at the end of 2019 you can move on 4/5 more and bring in better replacements for 2020 and likewise 12 months later for the start of 2021 aided by some of the youngsters on the verge of coming through now and perhaps then would’ve been the time to look at McDermott’s replacement. That would’ve been a gradual and smart transition, not Sinfield coming in trying to force change too quickly.

Said a while back that Leeds were becoming a job for the boys club under Sinfield with new deals for the likes of Ablett and JJB and off field roles. Called it that McGuire would be back in 2020 on the coaching staff.

Low and behold now Leeds have apparently tried to re-sign McGuire for the rest of this season with him getting an off field role in 2020 but HKR have turned it down.

The last thing Leeds need is more ex-players from the Golden Generation banging on to the current squad about what they did. In sporting terms its ancient history. You may as well get Schoey or Lewis Jones to do the team talks.

Even though HKR have also apparently offered McGuire an off field role too for 2020 you’d suspect he’ll take up Leeds offer due to his connection to the club and Sinfield.

If so that’ll leave us with Sinfield as DOR, Burrow as u19’s coach and part of the first team coaching staff, McGuire on the coaching staff, Chev Walker too, Peacock in the commercial department....you can bet JJB almost certainly will get a role somewhere when he retires at the end of the season and wouldn’t bet against Ablett joining the youth setup either as he’s previously worked with the juniors with Burrow.

McGuire said after McDermott left that Leeds were a player led club, just happens to be the players that have recently retired or left that are those dictating things and decisions helped by certain members of the club hierarchy and key sponsors (who are fans) who have pushed to have these guys running things based on their admiration for them as players.

Just seen Sinfield’s interview pre-match. Absolutely embarrassing, got confrontational and angry when Carney asked a simple question why Furner was no longer the right man saying that’s in the past now, yet couldn’t stop blaming stuff on where the club was before he came in.

Saying the club was rotten before he came.....garbage, you don’t win a GF just several months prior if a clubs rotten. It has become rotten under his watch now though. He’s several weeks away now from being back 12 months and we’re much much much worse off. In 11 months should be enough time to at least see the starts of getting rid of this alleged rotten culture yet it’s the worst and as low as possible.

The pre match interview was terrible, an embarrassment to himself and the club it didn't seem to make any sense, tried and failed to avoid fairly simple questions what I took from it is he seemed to think that the sacking of Frner would give a bump to the squad..an electric shock wouldn't get that side moving frankly.

Embarrassing and worrying from Sinfield.
He’s rightly a club legend but that interview showed he’s either out of his depth and struggling or too arrogant/egotistical to be in such a role.

Terrible interview, I guess he's not Rhino's 'press officer' !!

Quite, and no wonder the culture and things have become rotten SINCE his arrival. On the decisions he’s made since he came in like sacking Furner he says things should remain private, but has had no problem being public when criticising the way things were before he came back. Turned into a big hypocrite.

To admit that a number of coaches have actually gotten in contact with Leeds and he’s told them all that they’re right behind Agar for the time being for stability is laughable. The sooner a new coach is hired the quicker stability will arrive, having Agar for a few months and then a new coach just takes longer for stability to arrive. Telling that he was sat next to Agar during the game, doesn’t want to be the coach himself but wants to there right in the coaches ear during the game. That’s why he’s in no rush to get a new guy in because they probably wouldn’t want him interfering.

After seeing that interview I think Sinfield needs to go and Hetherington take full control again and get a top coach appointed ASAP.

Having read all post comments, I may be wrong but, has Kev Sinfield asked himself, have i been set up in this position for a/the purpose of the one to blame - take all blame while GH & others have a veiled smile to me & say keep going Kev, you can cop for things later - people are mainly focussing on you & not me !

Sinfield has been desperate for this role for almost 10 years and others at the club too thinking he could do no wrong. Hetherington always stuck with McDermott through tough times having to fight off a number of disagreeing voices at the club to back him. If he could’ve kept having his way then he and McDermott would still be the lineup, Hetherington certainly wouldn’t have given up a lot of his duties mid season if it was down to him.

Simply comes down to what I said, some people at the club thinking the golden generation were the answers to everything and that they’d be as successful off the pitch as they were on it.

I'd say if we lose to London next time out they'll have to replace Agar. Entirely unfair on him but he has been given the ultimate hospital pass, acting as caretaker coach to a squad which is completely imploding. With no even implied authority why would anyone expect players to respond to Agar when they haven't for McDermott, Sinfield/Lowes or Furner before him?

I also think Sinfield is very much on borrowed time. Whilst I disagree entirely with printer's assessment that everything was rosy under McDermott (it really was past time for him to go), the evidence so far suggests that Sinfield is making a complete hash of things.

What we need is an experienced coach, and they have to be given absolute authority over team selection. Included in that is getting some of the toxic players away from the club. Send them on loan or DR or whatever, but I'm absolutely sure we've got some individuals in our team who are a terrible influence.

I haven’t said everything was rosy under McDermott but neither was it anywhere near as bad as some fans and Sinfield makes out.

We had a bad start to 2016 and although people, yourself included hate hearing it, losing time in preseason did cost us. Preseason time is invaluable to any team and it put us a few weeks behind all other teams. When we got it sorted then from the start of June we went 7 from 9 against SL opposition for the remainder of the year. We got 40 points from a possible 60 in 2017 and started 2018 with 13 points from 18.

That’s 67 points from a possible 96 against SL opposition in close to a 2 year spell....around 70% of points available won plus a GF and playoff semi won just several weeks before Sinfield’s arrival isn’t a club that was rotten. Even when we started losing we were losing 1 point games because we had no decent kicker against Wigan, Saints, Cas and Hull. Sign him a couple of props and a kicker and those losses become wins and were in a decent position. This mess Sinfield’s created couldn’t get close to a DG loss right now.

I dont agree with this poor recruitment statement. On paper Leeds have a very good squad. They have marquee players.
The issue is not the individuals it’s the lack of team unity.
Could be seen on the pitch yesterday. No leadership and no plan.
Structure is non-existent. Both in attack and defence. They aren’t working for each other. The old heads aren’t used to it and the newbies are finding it difficult to integrate.
Off the cuff stuff works with a team of tight knit players who know each other well. It doesn’t work with a team of individuals.

Giving Sinfield this job was bound to be a failure. He’s inexperienced and had unrealistic expectations on him from day one.
If he wanted to be involved at Leeds he should have started off as assistant. He should have gone elsewhere as Peacock did if he was set on such an executive role.
He’s no one to blame but himself for his failure.

If they had some decent go forward in their pack, many of their problems would be solved (well, up to a point anyway).
They havent been able to win the forward battle in any of their games so far and the Bradford game was a clear example.

Mistakes will always happen but, these become magnified in a losing side and one that is severely lacking in confidence.
Sacking Furner so soon into his tenure was a huge mistake. After all, he had nothing to do with the last few seasons and was only part way through making the squad his own.

It just seemed a crazy decision and should they put another coach in there, mid season, just what is he expected to do.

The fact that they have a couple of marque signings would infer that they are spent up to the cap, or close to it and unless a new coach can quickly get some of the squad out on loan, there wont be much of an opportunity to change the playing roster until the close season.

The irony of Leeds and their reserve side (KR) doing battle with London for the wooden spoon could really spice up the end of season relegation battle.

The Magic fixture has become massive and Ward at London will have had this one in mind since London were promoted.

A couple of observations.

Why was Sinfield sat with Agar and the other coaches ? You don't see Radlinski or Wells do it. Is his role different to that of the usual Director of Rugby ?

I have read on several occasions on these threads that Leeds have an element of "toxic" players they need to get rid of. Who are they ?

I might be wrong, but aren't Radlinski and Wells in more of a 'player welfare' role (the job Agar was originally brought to Leeds to do)?

Not too sure on what Radlinski's role at Wigan is but Wells at Cas Tigers is responsible for recruitment. Andy Lynch has the players welfare role at Cas.

I see two types of Directors of Rugby - The likes of Wells and Radlinski who are not directly involved in coaching and the likes of John Kear when he was at Wakefield and Tony Smith at Warrington - At the end of the day it is just a job title, different clubs will have different expectations and responsibilities for those roles.

Leeds is a Hetherington egotrip, Kath and Agar messed up Hull, now Gary and Richard are messing up Leeds, with Gary already messed up the RFL. The Hetheringtons are not good for RFL.