Quote ="The Penguin"As many of us have been saying for a while, the club had the opportunity to turn things around in August/September last year, by chucking McDermott. They bottled it, let the squad thin out, and then embarked on the brilliant idea of an actual marketing campaign when the squad is at its weakest since 2004.
I am not someone with the 'inside track'. I don't hobnob with the players after the game, so I can't speak for them. I'm purely speculating, but I don't believe they have any confidence in McDermott. Ever since the second half of last season, they look fragile, make a litany of mistakes and look clueless going forward.
Recruitment has been poor - we were supposedly near the salary cap limit last season, meaning we must have paid/ be paying the likes of Williamson, Dorn, Randall and the now departed Robinson a small fortune; While Hull, Catalans, Crusaders and Huddersfield plundered the NRL for high quality players.
Ultimately, the stable door as bolted. Sacking McDermott won't work now, the club had its chance and blew it. Its up to him now to live up to his ridiculous rhetoric, and try and string some good performances together when the injured players come back. There are those of us, that even if this happens, will never have faith in the man because he shows no tactical nous and has brought in a string of poor quality players; I refuse to believe he has no say in recruitment.'"
I've refrained from contributing to this forum since last year, when I sought to argue that Brian McDermott was failing our club as our coach – poor signings, under-performance on the field, and personally behaving like 'a miserable git' in front of fans and the media.
I recall receiving very little support for this point of view then.
However, the climate on this forum seems to be changing somewhat, now the new season has started and our team is performing pathetically in comparison with the flashes of inherent potential they showed early last season.
If David Hughes chooses to stick with Brian McDermott as our coach, I predict it's ultimately inevitable the RFL will kiss goodbye to our franchise, given that we continue to attract vanishingly small crowds to our home games.
This is such a shame, given the huge potential for growing support for Rugby League in general and Quins RL in particuar across our capital city.
