Whilst I think its fair to give someone a chance from time to time but now isn’t right. Steve has clearly demonstrated this afternoon that he can’t get the best out of a mediocre side. Whilst England aren’t mediocre I can’t see him getting the best performance out of a good side.

Troublesome times ahead?

Should have chose McClennan he's proved he can !

So, let me see if I understand your argument correctly - Steve McNamara is a poor coach because he can't get the best out of a mediocre side?

I would say that if Bradford are a mediocre side and McNamara has coached them to 4th in the table half way through the Super League season that makes him a pretty decent coach!

Let's also not forget that the Bulls were without Langley, Orford and Kearney and gave Addy a run out as well as a pretty much untried half back partnership. The score was what, 26-12 to Leeds? Not bad for the Bulls considering they were without key players.

It may have been a different story if;

Reardon and Lynch hadn't dropped the ball on the way to the line
Nero's try had been given - wrong call IMO, nowhere near a push.
Silverwood and his touch judges had spotted the blatant forward passes in the Leeds try.

Lol! What's ur definition of a push then?

A shove. A push != minimal hand rubbing.

Minimal or not, it was enough to move Donald off the ball when he would otherwise have contested th ball. It was a push, you'd expect th same call had it been us doin it.

Thought Sherife was also a main factor Bulls lost. He was awful tonite. Cant blame mcbanana for those performances!

Or you could look at it the other way and say

Mcguire try, well because it was a try,

Hall Try, im still trying to figure out which of the passes that went clearly backwards, not even flat but clearly backwards silverwood thought was forwards (a bit of an evener for missing Sinfields for Mcguires first that one im sure)

Smith try, by keeping hold of it

and Bradford have lost 44-12 to a Leeds team without Burrow, Lauitiiti and Peacock, and not scored in the 2nd half against a team who who lost Burgess after his first stint, Kylie for about 60 minutes, and JJB for most of the 2nd half in energy sapping heat

Your definition of a push is a shove not a push?

I agree Bradford would have won if they had scored more points than Leeds.

I'd say within 14 points of the champions by a side missing both its key playmakers and its biggest forward isn't a bad effort.

You mean Webb, Lauititi and Peacock?

Which of those 2 are key playmakers then?

This whole where Bradford are at the moment really doesn’t count. For example Hull FC have looked like Grand Final winning material at the start of the last two seasons including this one.

The big three in this country at the moment (in SL) and have been for a long time are Wigan, Leeds and St Helens. Teams that the rest struggle against come play off time.

Anyone can get in the top 8. Didn’t Hull KR do just that last year?



You want to just read what you've asked mate

I think you need to re-read what he put to begin with

i think rather than go round in circles watching the fairly depressing sight of people being convincingly owned by Damo we should just understand the difference between the numbers 2 and 3

Then we can move onto the fact Leeds were without both Webb and Burrow who are clearly two key playmakers, aswell as two of their top 3 forwards

Leeds top 3 forwards : Peacock, Eastwood, Sinfield


I make that 1.


Stretch it to 5 and add Leuluai & Ablett. Still 1.

That's all down to opinion that one mate.

Im not sure many fans would take Leuluai or Ablett ahead of Lauitiiti, and Sinfield played Stand Off, and plays as a back in the forwards. Or either of them ahead of JJB for that matter.

Im not saying Bradford didnt have injuries, simply that you are stretching it to use injuries as an excuse to getting beat 26-12 and nilled in the 2nd half against a team without its first choice scrum half, full back, Prop forward and strike 2nd rower

From what you hear on SS Ablett is more valuable to them than Lautiiti.

If Smith can't get them up to scratch what chance does Steve "McClaren" McNamara have. Brought in because he met the crieria, English and cheap.

Or because he's good at bringing through and training young english players?

Or because he has the eye to tweak a player's techniques and perhaps their position to get the best out of them (Michael Platt from a liabilty at full-back to a strong running centre)

Don't get me wrong, i'm not claiming him to be a tactical genius or a motivational one, but he has a good record of training youngsters and mentoring them well.

You can’t hear from Southstander because it’s a message board. But you can read from southstander



Peacock is arguably Leeds best prop. Lautiiti can change a game as he has done many a time. Webb is the same likewise.

However thanks to Leeds having strength in depth it can make them three players look average. I don’t hear as many ‘Ryan Bailey is crap’ calls on this thread like you normally do. But now he’s a champion all of the sudden.

You can't hear those, you can only read them.

OK, so where we are now in your reasoning is this

1. Steve McNamara is a bad coach because he can't coach Bradford to any success

2. Bradford are in fact a mediocre side

3. When somebody points out that McNamara has coached this mediocre side to 4th in the table at the half way stage in the SL season, that doesn't count

Is that about right?

In which case, could I ask which criteria apart from the results he achieves should we measure a coach on?

Ta