he's a very arrogant man. he would never have walked. ever.it could be Leeds offered the mutual consent but he refused.who knows?
2015 was sublime. people say cas reinvented rl last season but that's crap. we were as good if not better that year. not dismissing cas last year either. they were great. however last 2 1/2 seasons have seen us play some turgid boring stuff. no game plan, no shape and no tactics. yes we won it last year and he deserves credit for getting us to peak in the last 4/5 games but the rest of the season was dire.
def time for a change but I wish him well, some superb memories along the way as well some very odd decision making and press conferences

Agreed, a very ignominious departure, it will be interesting how the "injury ravaged" squad perform now he's gone.

A lot of people, myself included, saw that as a perfect time for him to draw a line under the era. We had won everything, the cornerstone of the success in Peacock and sinfield were moving on, and he had been in the job for 5 seasons as long as any coach had had the gig in my lifetime anyway;
the only way was down. 2016 was shocking.we were ok last season and took advantage of the other usual suspects being off their game to get into a position to be able to mug Cas in the final, that was an unexpected bonus but this season is back to a 2016 like effort and some of the performances are suggesting even the players are growing tired of the regime. Time has certainly come to part ways, but again i agree its a shame it has to end so abruptly but only GH and Mac know what has been said at the minute, maybe we will know in time.

Good riddance to the arrogant/miserable sod !

not this nonsense again

in your opinion. you only need to watch his interviews. plus speak to the players

Doubtful. Sheens has recently extended his contract with us. And peacock has no influence given he's only at the club 1 day a week.

If I was to guess, think he'll end up at Toronto or if New York ever take off there.

I do watch his interviews and I don’t see that at all. I see someone who constantly puts the success down to the players and the management and his other coaching staff, hardly arrogant. What it is these players, who continued to stay at the club year upon year (despite us hearing every year he’d lost the dressing room) saying exactly.

By not letting Brian McDermott complete the season, after so many seasons of great success (including last season), Gareth Hetherington has behaved appallingly. Other people I know have been wary of Mr Hetherington's heartlessness.

Little wonder that Ian Lenagan, Eamon McManus and Simon Moran take actions regarding the future of Super League independently of Mr Hetherington.

I do hope that Brian McDermott ends up in Toronto or New York, where he will do well and be appreciated.

If you were playing something close to your first 17 then, I'm sure that most people would agree with you.
However, for one reason or another, in 2 of your 3 poor seasons, you've not been anywhere near full strength.
Maybe this is down to conditioning (and ultimately this is probably under McDermotts remit) or, perhaps you have too many pensioners in your squad but, given the side that Leeds have had to put out most weeks, it's not a major surprise that you've struggled.
As mentioned in my earlier post, Sinfield has been impossible for you to replace and you could say that he should have done better and I suppose that only he and GH know what the plan was and whether decisions were made to go with youth or whether GH wouldn't spend to replace and those on the outside dont know the answers here.
However, the way in which he appears to have been sacked does seem harsh, really harsh.

All that would've been a fairly good comment, given his most recent link with with the US national team but you have this sad obsession with calling people by their full name and again you've got it wrong. His name is literally just Gary not Gareth?

People need to watch McDermott's press conferences which were funny and informative and anything but arrogant rather than his post match interviews when he was still hyped and emotional from the game.

That's three of the sports longest serving coaches gone in a season, Betts, Wane and McDermott. Watch out Radford and Powell.

I think Dennis Betts would be a great appointment for Leeds. Vastly under rated coach. Did his best at Widnes with limited resources and lost his star player Kevin Brown, who was never really replaced. Given the squad depth and cash behind Leeds I think Denis would do a great job.

He comes across as having a very dry humour and plays with a straight bat most of the time. Honest and Proud if the players put the effort in, but there is no creativity in that set of players and it was never going to be found somewhere with McDermotts coaching.

local rl reporter Peter Smith just confirmed on Twitter Leeds wanted a mutual consent departure but he refused to go so they had to sack him.
not convinced despite what he says, that Hetherington hasn't a plan. he's to canny for that

God forbid no

He is extremely arrogant, his interviews are awful and hard to listen to. The way he speaks is condescending and as though he is above everyone. The way he speaks to Angela Powers is out of order as well. She may be a terrible reporter and come out with rubbish but instead of just answering the questions normally he’s rude. The whole pretending to not be bothered about losing games was embarrassing as well.

It’s no wonder that a few senior players didn’t like him, he’s arrogant, stubborn and disrespectful. He’s obviously a good coach but no more than that, he’ll go down as extremely overrated and was successful down to Sinfield, Peacock, McGuire and a few others. Plenty could have down similar to what he did with the squad he had.

Whatever you think of Betts' talents (and I don't think much of them) it would be near-on suicidal for him to be given the Leeds job. Even if you did think he was by far the best candidate on the entire planet the signal it would send to fans and sponsors who Hetherington has an eye on for next year when the stadium is complete would be terrible.

Coach who won titles had good players SHOCKER. Bet no other team sports have had such an experience.

Who are all these senior players who didn’t like him? Yeah I’m sure a few players didn’t like him (he’s even said so previously) especially those who didn’t make the team but I’m sure that’s the same for every team. You think every other SL coach doesn’t have individual players in their squads that don’t see eye to eye with the coach? With Leeds it’s magnified because of the size of the club and because some sections of the supporters have been hell bent on getting him out for the last 7 years.

Can’t see it being Betts.

Don’t know if he’ll come as there’s conflicting stories on what his views towards GH & Leeds are after he left but I do think GH will go for Powell. The way he spoke after Cas had won the LLS about him and the job he’d done was quite telling I thought to come out speaking of an opposition coach and he mentioned him first today when talking of the great roles previous coaches have done at Leeds.

Considering it’s been a few days since the Wigan game and GH probably had it in mind prior to that game then I don’t buy him acting like they don’t already have someone in mind.

Like I said I don’t know if he’ll come but I do think he’ll be approached.

McDermott has every right to be very sure of his abilities and people have a right to question them. But his record stands behind his view of the world and, as I said earlier, if you look at his actual press conferences they are genuinely interesting and engaging and quite unlike those from any other coach I've seen at Leeds or in SL. For the definitive view on McDermott there is always the Donald McRae interview - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/ ... nald-mcrae

McDermott has every right to be very sure of his abilities and people have a right to question them. But his record stands behind his view of the world and, as I said earlier, if you look at his actual press conferences they are genuinely interesting and engaging and quite unlike those from any other coach I've seen at Leeds or in SL. For the definitive view on McDermott there is always the Donald McRae interview - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/ ... nald-mcrae

Think it’s mostly either Leeds fans who wrote him off and having to find ways to discredit and slate him rather than admit they were wrong and opposition fans who are jealous of his success.

The thing is Powell and Hetherington go back a lot, lot further than just that coaching spell at Leeds. Powell was the very first signing Hetherington made for Sheffield Eagles back in 1984 and were together there for the next 12 years, with GH as coach for most of the time, before being reunited in 1997 at Leeds. So Powell and Hetherington have a history of working together over two decades up to his exit at the end of 2003.

Even Powell would have to admit that the decision for him to move aside in favour of Tony Smith in 2004 was the correct one in retrospect. Probably for both parties but particularly for Leeds.

He was pictured last year at the World Cup hanging out with Hetherington and Rob Oates so the rumours of him still having an issue with the Leeds management strike me as a little off. That's not to say he would leave Cas to come back, but it must be tempting.

Well these were the comments I were alluding to from Hetherington made last December

"I believe the 2018 Betfred Super League season will be the most open, competitive and entertaining competition to date and I credit our local rivals for bringing about a significant potential shift in the game," said Hetherington.

"The game is played pretty much the same throughout the world, but what Castleford did last year deviated from convention by introducing an efficient attacking style of play which proved to be highly successful.

"In winning more games than any other team and scoring a record number of tries, they brought a refreshing style of play to the competition and I do believe it will be emulated by all of the Super League clubs next season and could change the face of the competition.

"We have seen many advances in teams' defensive techniques and tactics over the past decade and many coaches have focused on perfecting this aspect of their teams' performance which make it difficult to score against, but I now detect a change in the mindset of coaches who believe that a team will have to score four or maybe five or six tries to win a game next season.”

Thought it was quite something for GH to come out with that about an opposition team and coach and shows he’s clearly a fan of what Powell is doing and thinks it’s the way forward.

Another one from him in July after the Regular rounds had finished

“We’ve seen the most competitive Super League season to date and witnessed just how difficult it is for teams to win consecutive games or put a string of wins together in 23 rounds.


“Yet Castleford have just defied that and gone way out in front.

“They’ve also done so with a superb, very entertaining brand of rugby and that really should be acknowledged.

“It’s an outstanding achievement by Castleford and, of course, one would assume they’d now go on and collect the League Leaders’ Shield.


“They should get all the credit, particularly Daryl Powell and his coaching staff.

“It is one of the best achievements of the Super League era as not only are Castleford likely to win it by such a big margin, but they’ve done it in such style as well. It’s a very unique and impressive feat.”

Two public statements in a few months on how well Cas and Powell had done praising their style of play, very telling I think and with talk like that I can clearly see him approaching Powell.