Did McDermott force him out? Remember Sinfield and Peacock had so much influence and alledgely McDermott has wanted Burrow gone for a few years yet has to play him and make him captain to due "club politics".

If he didn't keep ignoring Sinfield's instructions on the pitch he might have stayed. One particular incident when Leeds got a penalty and Sinfield asked McShane to pass him the ball so he could kick to touch and gain 30/40m.....McShane ignored him and ran it hoping to catch the defence asleep but was easily tackled and gained only a few yards.

Since he's left I've also seen him have some really poor games, especially in defence.

Regarding MacShane – its all relative. MacShane has a great pass both sides and on today’s evidence excellent kicking, plus he can make a break from dummy half. On the negative side defence is ordinary – in the world club challenge – the Manly game when we lost - MacShane needed to make a front on tackle in front of the posts and was left with the imprint of the Manly forward’s boot on his shirt as he was run over the top of . It also seemed to me that whenever he made a telling break form dummy half 50% of the time he lost the ball in contact when he was tackled. I miss Paul Aiton’s appetite, energy and terrier like tenacity around the ruck. We would have had a better chance of winning the tight games this year with Aiton sniping around the ruck.

But we were too miserly to offer him an improved contract. Fault there lies with GH and his wallet.

Always liked mcshane he was much more like Buderus than any one else we have had since
Better than Aiton in my option just needed a good coach to calm him down. Probably why he went under Darryl Powell who knows how to nurture players. Hmmm I wonder if McDermott should have a chat

McShane was brilliant yesterday.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing....at one time many (including myself) thought we had the hooking position nicely covered for the long term future with the 'luxury' of being able to alternate/rotate with the promising McShane and Hood. However, we soon seemed to have moved on ...and neither was missed.

I think the main element we are hoping for in a quality hooker is a good defender who can tighten up the middle channel (and have skills on attack: Buderus MK2 please) - we are like a sieve up the middle at the moment. I'm not sure McShane would fit that bill.

If he is developing into a decent halfback then maybe we should lament his loss...a la Gale. But again hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Do people really believe this stuff? For years Hetherington's tight rein on salaries has enabled Leeds to have a squad greater than, on the face of it, the salary cap allows. Internally it's quite open, people know where they stand relative to other squad players. And every now and then a player would leave because of it. To our great fortune most of them went off and were horrendous failures which merely played into our hands.

Whether or not the time is or was right to reconsider the approach as the heart of the team for the past decade retires is open to debate. But even in their most delusional moments surely no- one thinks Paul Aiton, solid and dependable as he might have been, was the player to cause us to throw away the cap policy which has been so successful.

Think their was more to it than that. Think we were hesitant because of two things, firstly the drug issue from his NRL days was still hanging around and secondly his first season was almost a write off with his "illness" so had to wait to see how much he was worth retaining and at what price......Catalans seemed to get in early and go for him regardless of those things. Recall one interview from him around the time of his injury where he sounded almost disappointed that he decided to leave but he'd already agreed to his Catalans deal.

Spot on.

You can call GH tight if you like but his job is to have the highest quality SQUAD he can. Spaffing all the cash on a couple of players has never been the way to go.

There are too many with short memories on here who forget the state we were in when GH arrived compared to now.

Though on the topic of mcshane, I always thought he was a very talented player but it was clear he went renegade at times.

Always got the impression McD liked the half backs and fb to be creative while the forwards were more platform building and defence focused.

That was why mcshane never quite fit in my eyes.

Exactly what it is. We all agree Sinfield was a great leader and great game manager so when you have a young hooker who comes and decides he's going to ignore what Sinfield tells him then no wonder he didn't last.

McShane left before we won the treble. What is the point of this thread? If only I had money, I'd be rich

Perhaps to your detriment then. If sinfield was such a dictator on the field and others weren't allowed to take initiative does that explain why they are lost this season. Non of the others have been allowed to think for themselves and so haven't developed individual game management skills.

This is Paul McShane we are talking about, he had a decent game but he isnt even the first hooker id take from Cas.

Suspect you may miss your smiling skipper, Mr Brough even more than we miss Sinfield when he finally hangs up his boots and hang dog face. We at least have McGuire still knocking about. He may be the most dominant figure in any team in SL

No doubt we will miss him. What we will miss is his boot. I'm asking whether the fact that sinfield was calling all the shots- and any initiative, for example by mcshane, was frowned upon go some way to explaining why you are struggling this season.
Personally I don't think sinfield was that amazing a player ball in hand- but he made your squad tick due to his leadership. If mcshane and others had been allowed some leeway would that mean you would have more players able to provide some ideas.

Fair point. My view and I have no inside track is that Leeds were after a hooker who was a better defender and the fitness, higher work rate of Ailton was a. Preferred option. They wanted him to stay but Catalan offered more coin. Think they just miss sinfield's experience and leadership along with JP. I think Leeds players are encouraged to think for themselves more than most.. McShane has always had talent.

Possibly, but then again we might not have won as much either. And it's not like players can't have some leeway, McGuire has leeway to do things, the kick vs Hudds for the LLS for example amongst others. Just sounds like McShane was determined to go against even the most straight forward instructions and plans to prove a point, and this is from hearing it from McShane himself although he paints himself as being hard done to.

McShane does lots of eye catching stuff but he is still a limited player. Prone to silly choices, not greatest passing from dummy half and often painfully slow in getting to the ptb.

Heard the guy speak a number of times whilst he was amongst his clinger ons, the guy genuinely thinks he's on a par with James Roby or Daryl Clark.

As it turns out letting Aiton go wasn't that bad it was the cost cutting faloon that is the issue the bloke I have no idea how he got a gig in NRL.

He has been injured most of the season anyway, and the drug ban is still hanging over him. I heard last week they were deciding if he was gonna take the 12 months or fight it.

I'll quote McDermott from a few years ago while McShane was still at the club, during a coach education session where he was showing various video clips of different plays and game situations - "There goes Macca thinking he knows everything again".

Spot on. I was being generous saying he thinks he's on the same level as James Roby.....truth is he probably thinks he's as good as Cameron Smith (the Aussie one). Might look good in a CC 5th Round game, but I'm glad he was nowhere near a GF for us. You need guys whose objective is to do all they can for their teammates, not a guy who was only interested in how good he could make himself look.

Who did Castleford play in the 5th round?

Which hooker put in the best 6th round performance in the weekend televised games - I'd say Danny Houghton followed by McShane.

Both are light years ahead of what we can play at hooker this year.

Houghton bossed it.

Houghton is a great player.