Field lof dreams attitude of the marketing group seems to be seaping into the coaching staff (IMO that is)

I have to question when we will start seeing evidence of this inner steel.

would prefer to see outer steel.

Would prefer a player like Steele

It's clear we don't have a big squad, and it's not choc full of fabulous players, so when our key players are injured we struggle.
Chad is key to our success, when he was injured Ben Kaye was unable to replace him.
Add to that Danny Orr being injured, and Luke Gale failing to pick up the reins, our key playmakers and organisers being missing means we fail to perform.
Plus, we lose the top try scorer, and our best prop.
Chad and Danny come back, almost certainly before they are ready - and Danny was a sub at Hull, and we were notiiceable bettern when he came on.
Hopefully both Chad and Danny are fit enough to lead the team to victories in the last two games - I guess we'll see how committed the team are next week, I expect them to be ready and to perform better. And of course I'm one of the faithful and wear rose glassed all the time.

There are curious decisions (no Clubby instead of Matt Gafa) which possibly don't help our cause, but it's difficult to conjure wins on the back of a strong work ethic when the workers aren't fit.

It's difficult to see a clear out, as contracts are contracts, even if I wanted to see one and I don't - but we will lose some players both because they aren't want by BM and due to quota constraints.

good post, too much doom and gloom on this thread, for half the season we were a good once injuries hit we fell away, unless we find someone with very deep pockets i cant see it changing. Sad but true...................

D'ya reckon.

Watching Wire beat Hudds in the final brought it home to me that Mc may have limitations in his coaching(quality and availability of players may also be a factor)

Warrrington from the KO had a plan to go around a very strong, compact Hudds defence led by 4 big props by going wide early, playing ever ball 2 out, and using chip kicks, cross field kicks which Hudds had difficulty dealing with. (Wire also took on a big Hudds pack with only 2 recognised props. Smith even left Rau out of the squad). Just to add to Wires woes they had no recognised stand off, Bridge is filling in at Centre, King although a centre has been playing wing......... and still they out thought Hudds

When we played Hudds at the Stoop, Mac added an extra prop to the pack in putting Karl T at 13, with the clear intent of taking Hudds on at there game- and for the 3rd time we got pasted

I wonder if Mac is a member of the real old school player mould? it was hard and tough for him, so players need that even in training? and as much his Marine days!

Once for a feature I travelled with a referee to a few matches, who was an ex player, he seemed to let some offences go as he did the same as a player?

Indeed.

I think Briers is a special player though and I think he plays the game as he reads it rather than follows a coach's direction (though clearly Smith didn't want an arm wrestle down the middle of the pitch).

I'd like to see QRL go down the route of putting the ball in the hands of running backrowers and centres.

Being in the Royal Marines doesn't necessarily make anyone a great rugby league coach . . . otherwise I'd be one, and I'm clearly not.

... sad, niggle, niggle.......yet not many week's ago any adverse or negative comment about Big Mac would have been shouted down.

Sorry it does not hold water........think our ever so average squad need to consider shouldering the blame & maybe looking over their shoulders as well for the P45's that might be coming to them sooner rather than later.

Quote ="stormingbronco"... sad, niggle, niggle.......yet not many week's ago any adverse or negative comment about Big Mac would have been shouted down. Sorry it does not hold water........think our ever so average squad need to consider shouldering the blame & maybe looking over their shoulders as well for the P45's that might be coming to them sooner rather than later.'" viewtopic.php? ... =#14434530

Quote ="stormingbronco"... sad, niggle, niggle.......yet not many week's ago any adverse or negative comment about Big Mac would have been shouted down. Sorry it does not hold water........think our ever so average squad need to consider shouldering the blame & maybe looking over their shoulders as well for the P45's that might be coming to them sooner rather than later.'" viewtopic.php? ... =#14434530

i think we have a very gifted coach/manager who has done some marvellous things down here, who has instilled a sense of purpose and discipline into the squad that has shown it can produce decent results. what we need is to develop some consistency and depth of squad, the former which is down to players and staff primarily and the latter down to making enough £££'s (although i understand that we're at salary cap limit or thereabouts already?!).

people calling for him to be booted have very short memories or very high expectations. we have lower crowds than salford last season for eg (and they was from national league) and look where they are this season.....they're also competing with a big football club, we've got more competition but we've also got a lot of people who could be fans. but backing brian should be a no-brainer, he's the best we'll get imo.

We're competing with Manchester United more than Salford are.

yes, my mistake

do you genuinely believe that?
I suspect if we offered the job out worldwide, a top flight club in London would be an attractive proposition to some quality coaches- My thoughts based on nothing!

In real terms i.e. league positions there is a grave possibility this year that Mac may have taken us backwards. I’m acutely aware there are lots of other factors involved- so it is a cheap shot

THe clubs above us have all (it would appear not having seen the figures) invested much more heavily in their first team squads than we have. hopefully in a couple of seasons our academy will have produced a good proportion of the first team augmented by quality imports. However we are nowhere near that atm and we continually punch above our weight.
I still think this is one of the best, most balanced, and most stable sides we've had in a while, just that other teams - who have years of stability - have improved quicker.

Expectations such as making a playoff system offering 8 PLACES? Memories of 3 seasons of failure?

This is assuming we get tonked by Cas, which we will do.

the overall standard of the league has been increasing, we were as high as 2nd earlier this season, we've been shown to be thin in squad terms towards the back end of the season and also hit a bad losing streak/lack of confidence as a result.

good to see that you're such a died-in-the-wool r/l fan that you're happier shouting for our coach to be removed than looking at why it is our admins can't even get 5,000 people along to the ground to support the team and build our capacity to develop. but what would i know eh? i'm simply casual compared to you........

Rubbish. Higher standard of the league? Is this your first season? The standard has been abysmal this year, the worst that I can recall. Poor games, lack of skill and generally very dull. We were second yes, we were found out, we had a few injuries, we had players come back and we put in 2 more embarrassing performances. You can make as many excuses as you like, you say it yourself, we were 2nd at one point, a few injuries and a bit of a lack of confidence doesn't make a team that were as high as 2nd in the ladder suddenly go into freefall and lose 9 out of 10 games.



Correct, nobody wants to watch a losing side playing the terrible brand of rugby that Brian McDermott is determined to force Harlequins into playing. You are a casual fan yes, I will be renewing my season ticket next year and giving the club the support it deserves.