As I have said in another thread...It would seem that I was wrong about Mac. I thought he'd do OK for a couple of years and then as players left he'd struggle, but I believe that other than Saints (who have gone all Harlem globetrotters again) Leeds are the team to beat this year and it's HIS team.
They will murder us if he plays his full squad!

Sorry to deflate your ego, but I don't actually read everything you write. Wow. You were wrong eh? You sure?

Why do you bother? Seriously? Why?
You add nothing other than tales about players we nearly signed.
I don't step back and hide from my errors. Does that surprise you? I didn't rate mac with us......

Are you suggesting we are a bunch of knobs and he a winker?

This is for everyone that didn't rate him, or indeed may have.

What's changed in Mac for him to have victories under his belt?

Do things like this show he could coach all along? Does it show there's only so much you can do with a team you have?

I'm very interested in what people think.

Mac had my backing 100% when it came to motivation of players. He was gruff and tough, pulled very few punches and spoke his mind, which I appreciated.

He was hamstrung by the number of English players that would come south for him and by his lack of expertise/knowledge in the Aussie market. He could see the kids coming through and understood it would take maybe another 10 years....and he was frustrated that it was 10 years he didn't have.

He hated losing and that's why he seemed reluctant to leave Harlequins RL, but his family had to come first and rightly so.

As for now and at Leeds. I believed that he was a great motivator but not a brilliant tactician and not a lot has changed in that opinion. for the first 3 seasons, his team struggled and only when they played like the 'Leeds of old' in games they were in danger of losing did it all come good. The difference between him and a coach that has "lost the players" is that even though it seemed he was coaching them badly and they had to revert to old style to win, he had their 100% support. That's his USP.
Surround him with good tacticians and he will deliver 17 guys who will go that extra mile.......

I think he is a good coach......I think he will make a great coach in time, so long as you give him the back-up staff he needs.

I'd have him back at London in a heartbeat!

I still firmly believe that when London and Mac parted it was the right thing for us - it's just we needed a replacement who was an improvement, and that still hasn't happened!

As a Leeds fan I'll just add my two cents on the matter. BMac has improved out of sight as a coach in the last 3 years. Tactically now we look better than I have ever seen us in SL, both in attack and defense. The only thing he seems to struggle on is the use of his interchange, often overplaying forwards leaving one bench player playing around 10 minutes or sometimes not at all. The way we play under him though I wouldn't change him for anyone at the moment. When he was announced as Leeds coach a lot of Leeds fans were far from happy and I was part of a small band who believed it was a good move. This was no offense to you guys but in the last couple of seasons I do think you over performed when you had a squad that was of bottom 2 calibre. That's just my opinion though from an outside perspective and I may be wrong. He was a young coach back then though and since he has developed in his time at Leeds, will definitely have developed since he was at your place.

Anyway, good luck for Friday and the rest of the season. I don't like seeing what's going on at your place and hope you manage to pull through at some point.


Also, GF and RB, it feels like old times

shame I can't ban you on here

There's a little "fan" club of mine that is currently pestering the mods.....I'm too negative apparently. I blame the price of happy pills down here

Ref: C Leatherbarrow
Vid Ref: P Bentham
Touch J: J Child
Touch J: R Hicks
Reserve: M Woodhead
Time K: G Kershaw
M Com: D Milburn
VR Op: I Smith

Think this game should carry an R18 rating......could be nasty!

Does that mean that Mac has learnt more from somewhere/someone or by mistakes, or he always had it in him?

Re: the interchanges. That's a very common thing over here Harrigan. One player playing very little time if at all.

GF, can you get this Harrigan fella banned on here please, popping in wılly nilly?

I'll see what I can do

BM has turned Leeds into a fantastic set of defenders and he's done so by creating a structure based on putting people in the right place rather than what's traditional for their position.

Obvs. Leeds can attack too but I think that's due more to personnel than coaching.

1. So can anyone coach Leeds?

2. Did we have the personnel when he was at London?

Quote ="Rooster Booster"1. So can anyone coach Leeds? 2. Did we have the personnel when he was at London?'" No, the statement about the personnel is rubbish. We have a lot of structure in attack now and it's better than I have seen in the SL era. every attacking play we throw men at the line and dont get too consistent with the guy we pick out too. For instance look at the highlights from last Friday and our second try scored by Ben Jones-Bishop... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOot_XI ... T6XCtjPf2A Look at the depth, layers, runners and ball movement we use. Then look at the player who gets the most plaudits from his team mates. It's Kallum Watkins and he doesnt even touch the ball. He does create the space for Hardaker and BJB though. It's something we rarely have done in the past and only really started last year. A full season under this structure and we are starting to look good with it though.

Quote ="Rooster Booster"1. So can anyone coach Leeds? 2. Did we have the personnel when he was at London?'" No, the statement about the personnel is rubbish. We have a lot of structure in attack now and it's better than I have seen in the SL era. every attacking play we throw men at the line and dont get too consistent with the guy we pick out too. For instance look at the highlights from last Friday and our second try scored by Ben Jones-Bishop... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOot_XI ... T6XCtjPf2A Look at the depth, layers, runners and ball movement we use. Then look at the player who gets the most plaudits from his team mates. It's Kallum Watkins and he doesnt even touch the ball. He does create the space for Hardaker and BJB though. It's something we rarely have done in the past and only really started last year. A full season under this structure and we are starting to look good with it though.

I'm not saying Leeds are uncoached with the ball in hand - that would, of course, be daft. I'm saying that personnel are more important than the coaching when your personnel are Hardaker, BJB, Briscoe, Watkins, Moon, Hall, etc. - hence "that's due more to personnel than coaching".

This is very likely to be due to players being settled in structures for a long time. Everyone at Leeds knows what everyone else is going to do because they've played together for years.

Leeds's structure in attack is very vanilla. Who doesn't use dummy runners with a full-back playing as a second stand-off on plays late in the tackle count?

I am far more impressed with the Leeds defence.

When BMac came in, the player said that McLennan had left them with no game plan, no structure and attempt to play completely off-the-cuff rugby. With no pre-season and a load of injuries, Mac managed to get the players motivated to back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012.

In the last two seasons we've had several good youngsters break into the first team - Stevie Ward, Brad Singleton and Liam Sutcliffe for instance. Watkins now looks the best centre in SL by a mile, and Zak the best fullback. Both were given their chance in the team by BMac.

I was worried early doors 2011, but I wouldn't swap him for anyone now.

That said, his biggest challenge is ahead. Between now & the end of 2016 he'll likely have to replace McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Sinfield and Kirke.

Thinking of having a mad half hour and placing a bet on Broncos to win
I can get 66-1 for a win within 1 to 12 points and 500-1 for 13+ points





















Wasn't going t be that mad just a pound I found on the floor.......

Yes, our defense is very good so far, but if you think our attack is how you described it then you are sorely mistaken. We have dummy runners, movement off the ball, layers in attack, different options on the line. This seems to be more about the fact that McDermott didn't deliver that with London and you seem to have a hard time grasping he has made us look better with the ball than ever before. I know a lot of fans didn't like him down here but just as young players improve and mature, so do coaches.

I think some may have forgotten that Mac went to Leeds as an assistant in the first instance. I'll give him the credit that he deserves for what he has achieved at Leeds but his stock as a coach was pretty low after his spell in London, hence why he took an assistant's post( albeit at a bigger club). At the time the anger of some Leeds fans at his appointment as first team coach, based on his spell in the capital was pretty understandable.

Back on topic of this game, I am expecting the worse, but as long as the team look like they are trying, I won't be peed off with a young, inexperienced side that has been thrown together at the last minute.

The Broncos "performance" that still rankles me, is the 0-60 hammering by Leeds in 2006 (on Sky too, iirc). What a shambles and in our first year as QRL too.

Amazing that Leeds still have 5 players who played that day (we have none).



Anyhoo, COYB!

That was a bad one alright, I seem to remember Keith Senior running through his opposite number ( ? Tim Hartley)that night as if he wasn't there. Probably wasn't as bad as the farce of a performance against Wigan last season but it was pretty grim

If you look at Leeds Rhinos since Mac went there, you'll see that only two of players numbered 1-18 have been signed by him. He has been able to promote from within in the main although he has made two or three top signings in getting on board the Briscoe brothers, Joel Moon and the PNG Hooker Aiton.

Reminiscent of his spell for us almost all of his other signings have been forwards such as Hauaraki, Amor, Griffin, Richard Moore and A'Church and I don't think any have regularly displaced the Stalwarts and not many are still there if you look at it. Basically his proven internationals are doing the business and his "spots" have not.

His failing at Quins was that he was incompetent at signing talent and his generosity in long deals for old players whilst failing to retain the younger talent. He seems to be better now at Leeds than he was here but you can't help feel Leeds golden generation of players won't last forever and he's not really replaced more than Senior so far plus one or two of the older imports.

He's had two great play-off runs and he's maintained the success the club had prior to him joining with repeated grand final wins but no success in the cups and a 4th or 5th place in the league has been the case since he went there. If he can get the club to finish in the top three you can start to argue he has been an improvement on what was there before. I still remain doubtful he can spot talent however.

If he was still here I bet Orr, Randall, Temata etc would still be in the squad.

I have had a few punts on tonights game - us to cover the 22 point HT handicap and to lose by 40 or less FT - plus I have had Moore first try scorer for us and the new Tongan Vea to score at any time. Also Matt Cook man of the match and finally us to win by 1-10 points, but beer money only on the last one.

I think we will make a bigger effort tonight than recently because the players won't want to embarrass themselves on Sky TV and I think we will play a basic, conservative game and handle the ball a bit better than last week. I'm reckoning we will get about a try in each half and maybe one bonus one and if we can keep the Rhinos below 50 then it will not be pleasing (under 34 would be very pleasing) but might win a few quid.

Cookie did the business for me as 12/1 last week any time but alas he's now 6/1 which is very tight.

Rammo

McDermott doesn't make the signings or deal with the contracts at Leeds.