By who?????

Clutching at straws or what.

I hope Brian makes it I really do, but it's a huge gamble and you know it. Far more of a gamble than McLennan was regardless of his 9 years.


The way you lot have turned on McLennan and suddenly view McDermott as the new messiah is frankly pathetic and puts the f in fickle!

not at all, i wasnt talking about McClennan, i was talking about Royce Simmons, a guy who failed in the big time, spent 9 years as an assistant because no-one else would give him a shot, Saints take a risk on him and no-one questions it purely because he is Australian.

Brian McClennan did a wonderful job at Leeds, im not criticising him at all, simply saying that when we appointed McClennan it was a risk and he had less experience than McDermott, but again as an Antipodean it wasnt really questioned, Tony Smith, again, has less of a pedigree than McDermott when he was appointed.

It is a risk, but you have to take these risks to stay at the top. Im glad we have given McDermott a shot, i think he deserves it

I'd have taken Potter over McDermott every time. I hope I'm wrong and he's a great success but given he's achieved less coaching first grade than McNamara has I'm not holding my breath.

of course he has, he has been managing Quins not Bradford, and he has done a decent job with them, not to mention the great work he did as assistant at Leeds,

What on Royce Simmons C.V shows him to be a better bet than McDermott?

excellent post.rated him as a player and a coach.and i think he will do well.its about time clubs gave our own lads a chance at coaching.lets hope more clubs look at home rather than overseas all the time..

He's been an assistant at a team which has won two NRL Grand Finals which is pretty similar to the current Super League winning coach, Michael Maguire. Of course there are no guarantees of success and I will wait to pass judgement on Simmons. However, had Saints appointed McDermott I'd have gone ballistic lol.

He also failed at Hull and was fired from Penrith, nobody wanted to give him a shot for 9 years.

Mcdermott was assistant to Tony Smith in 2004 when Leeds won SL by a record margin, with a record points total, a record amount of points scored and a record points difference, and in 2005 when they went to the CC final and GF. He then did a decent job at Quins, especially in blooding young british players.

Why does Simmons deserve the benefit of the doubt and you giving him a chance before you pass judgement but McDermott should immediately be derided without a game being played?

Its become an intrinsic part of British RL, where anyone giving a shot to unproven British talent is immediately denigrated whereas unproven, or even just previously not very successful antipodeans are given a fair crack of the whip and defended to high heaven

I completely agree. You are totally right.

you don't say adey


it's a sad shame when you have to resort to posting to yourself,or in fact by repeating yourself in groundhog day fashion

We actually have a better coach than Leeds now

Has he left because of results or is it his decision ?

Can this seasons Championship winning team be credited as Brian Nobles then? Maguire didn't make wholesale changes to it so it must be Nobles work? Seems that way having read through this thread and noticed people slagging off McClennan. McClennan did a superb job at Leeds leading us to back to back titles and nearly got us into the GF again this year despite our team being ravaged by injuries.

Good luck to McDermott I say. We have given him a shot and I hope he takes it. Why his appointment has been criticised so much when Saints have hired a coach who, from the limited information I have gathered, lost more games than he won as a head coach 10 years and hasn't been given another shot since has seemingly got away with none I do not know.

I think too many people are blaming McClennan for Leeds not winning anything in 2010 when I would say injuries, bad luck and poor performances (including some from the coach) were more to blame than JUST the coach. I would also say that I don't think its a co-incidence that both Leeds & Saints have both looked tired, sluggish and slow for large parts of the season and I think it's to do with having been consistently at the top for 6/7 years with little to no rest.

From 2003 - 2010 (SL regular rounds & playoffs & Challenge Cup games)
Saints - 275 games played (9 finals, 1 WCC)
Leeds - 271 (8 finals, 4 WCC's)

Wigan - 268 (3 finals)
Bradford - 256 (4 finals 2 WCC's)
Warrington - 251 (2 finals)
Hull - 251 (2 finals)

There isn't much difference between Leeds & Saints and Wigan but when you then take into account that Saints have played in 9 finals and a World Club Challenge and Leeds 8 finals and 4 World Club Challenges compared to Wigan only 3 finals I would suggest that continually playing in those big games has taken its toll over the years. And when you compared Saints to Hull or Warrington, Saints have played nearly an entire season extra since 2003. That has to have some kind of effect.

As for McDermott, I'm a tad underwhelmed but only a tad since we knew he was McClennan's eventual successor anyway, I just think a season as assistant under McClennan would have been preferable but hey I'll judge him at the end of the season.

I am glad that we are giving a british coach a go, the players he has at leeds as apposed to what he had at quinns is massive, he did a good job as assistant, and to be fair, Mclennan had no great day to day coaching experience and Tony Smith was not a big name when he came to Leeds. Hetherington has not done bad in the past at selecting managers, and only time will tell. I would rather have a british manager than an australian assistant or a aussie coach who has failed to achieve anything in SL and wanted to go home but could not get a job, so settled for Bradford.

That was in 1994. If he hasn't learn any new tricks since then, we truly will be fooked.

well im guessing he has, and as i say, i have no idea if Simmons will turn out to be a good appointment though. I was just pointing out the mindset we seem to have where his appointment is accepted without a murmur, yet McDermott's is first of the four men of the apocalypse.

Beauty's in the eye of the beholder.
Both appointments look like they have pros and cons. (Most) Saints fans will naturally be optimistic, saved the odd one (you know who you are), whilst speccies from other teams will look for the weaknesses to boost their optimism about their own teams chances. Same with the McDermott appointment and the reaction from the Leeds fans compared to everyone else.

So now James Lowes is confirmed. Brilliant stuff. No trophies at Leeds for a year or two anyone?

Agreed

nor for Saints

or Bulls

or either of the Hull clubs

or Quins

or Crusaders

or Reds

or Giants, Tigers and Wildcats.

The others to fight it out for the trophies

Let's just hope that statement doesn't come back to bite you on the

.

Regards,

Warrington Wolves - Challenge Cup Winners 2009/2010

Do you think that Lowes was a key part of bringing those trophies to Wire then? Good one.

That certainly would explain why Quins, Wakefield, Cas and Salford looked so full of energy and fight last year and won so many games. Oh, hang on.....

When did missing the playoffs for 3 years count as a decent job?

I think Leeds will do worse in 2011 than they did in 2010, not just because of McDermott though. They may get better after 2011 but that's a while away.

Anyway, as a token of appreciation of supplying them with a British head coach, we in London would appreciate Ben Jones-Bishop coming back here for another year or five

He was part of the regime and regardless of what he brings he will have a similar role to the one he had at Wire. It's McDermott who we will judge.