Just posted something similar on the VT, but the fact this Leeds team is 1 win from the GF and 2 wins from being Champions is an absolute embarrassment to the game over here.
We've spent the whole season bumbling along with performances varying from absolutely woeful to average at best, yet we're in with a real shout of being Champions (I actually think we'll win it and have done for a while).
This version of the Leeds team would get slaughtered by every other Championship winning Leeds team of the Super League era - the overall standard of the league is shocking and something needs to change real quick before the damage is irreversable.

A large number of Hull fans were giving James Child horrific verbal abuse, a lot of it homophobic based. Yes he had a poor game, but that's no excuse for the language used. A reasonable Hull fan stood next to us seemed embarrassed of his fellow fans and said "they are always like this". This is unacceptable and needs to be clamped down on by clubs and the RFL.

you seem very confident ,you've a bit to do yet before you get the chance to prove how good you are and I'm not talking about beating Leeds

The score last night was not too dissimilar from the Semi. Granted you guys won the cup of the back of it, but just remember we're now on course for a trip to Old Trafford, where as the recent cup winners are now in serious danger of not finishing in the top 4. Plus,apart from the Semi aside, your recent record against us hasn't exactly been good now has it?

A fairly entertaining if sometimes niggly and spiteful game. We were on a hiding to nothing with scheduling so I'm very pleased we were still in there fighting right to the end. If not for a dubious yellow card and a couple of in game injuries we might have nicked it, but thems the breaks. Leeds just about the better side on the night. You got the two points you needed, we showed I think that we aren't going to roll over like we did this time last year, so both sides can be reasonably happy, but we will both need to be a lot better going into the semis. I'm sure we will be, although we have got to knuckle down and make sure we get in them first. Could really do with a favour from Salford tonight.

Thought McDermott was spot on to highlight the issue surrounding the play the ball with his praise of Child for penalising Leeds' Jones-Buchanan after moving off the mark and placing the ball on the head of an opponent in a blatant attempt to 'win' a penalty. That was the incident he had in mind, right?

Therein lies the problem - there is too much of it going on and no team, no coach is exempt from their responsibility to clean it up. Referees have a role also but coaches and players could and should make their lives easier not harder.

In the press conference afterwards he readily admits Leeds are guilty of it too, which only highlights the problem if the coach can't stand it but admits even his team do it also. If you don't do these things in today's game can you compete? If Leeds stop any of that type of stuff will they benefit or just be left with the moral high ground but defeat as other teams continue to do it?

Ateotd the refs can only penalise what they see. If they get conned by a player that isn't their fault. The only way this will change is if all clubs get together and say we need to change this for the good of the game.

totally agree the play the ball area needs sorting, at every play the ball you never know whos gonna get pinged

brilliant interview by macdermott and I agree with every word he says.
the ptb needs sorting. child had an awful game but boy it must be bloody hard at times

Quite correct, the whole things a shambles. Especially when the tackle is complete ,this practice of turning the tackled player on his back. Thus preventing a quick play the ball, it obviously favours teams who aren't fit enough or quick enough to get back and form a defensive line. All teams do it so I am not pointing the figure at anyone. However i have a suspicion that it all stems from Nathan brown at the giants and mc guirre at Wigan

All coaches and players need to come together and address the issues that are contributing to the demise of the product on the field. I always like teams to play a 'pure' game without cutting corners and looking for penalties, in the long term the team and its players are 100% focused on the elements they can control and perform better/more consistently.

Like last season, we'll win more of the major trophies on offer than leeds will this year.

Aren't you the one who claimed last year pre wembley that leeds would win a major trophy again before Hull did?

I'm confident leeds won't win the GF if they play us or cas on the way

Exactly. He made himself look stupid bleating to the press about things his own team does

None of which happens in the NRL where there are 2 refs and players have learned to adhere to the rules or suffer the consequences. It doesn't happen when thaler and bentham are reffing because the players know they can't get away with it

Isn't that a bit of a forlorn hope Seth? Why would professional coaches do that when their careers and their players careers depend on getting every possible advantage to win games? If I was cynical I'd say that coaches will try and push rules to the limit to gain an advantage if they can profit by it. We see it at every play the ball with all the protagonists trying to get an advantage so you get players locking each other in and lying in the way and peeling off as slowly as possible making an awful spectacle.

I also remember when coaches wanted to bring in the interchange rule and have unlimited substitutions. It was dressed up as a safety measure but it was really just a safety net for coaches to ensure no tired players were vulnerable on the field. In the end the NRL got rid of the rule because they saw it for what it was.

The governing body needs to grow a pair and decide that it's going to sort out the PTB. It can be done. It never used to be as bad as it is now. I think it will take rule changes to make it happen.

Well not really seeing as though he said Leeds were guilty of it also.

The one on Hulls line when he literally just let go of the ball was quite pathetic.

It probably is but as a mutual coming together to save a game thats deteriorating rapidly i live in some faint hope. From a coaches perspective ive found it more beneficial for my teams to focus on the pure aspects of the game and maintain that ethos with pushing boundaries to gain an advantage being detrimental in the long run. A prime example being the number of times you see the first marker tied up just leaning on the player playing the ball, and they get cut apart behind the ruck, if their focus was on the ball and their positioning instead of slowing the PTB theyd be more effective.

Think the Maguire way of coaching is largely to blame. It was successful so was copied. We now have some bloody awful cynical tactics.

Hopefully the Powell model will be successful and that will be copied instead. It would least improve attacking play if not a lot of the PTB antics.

I'm more than happy to bookmark that little gem for future reference.

The only way to solve this is to have two refs, but with the dogs abuse they get its tough enough to have a full set for 1 per game...

People won't like it but the supporters actually share a large portion of the blame here.

I've said it before - the PTB can easily be fixed and doesn't need a rule change, just the actual rules to be applied. It could be fixed quite quickly, simply send out a memo to all teams stating;

- Once a player is tackled (elbows hit the floor) or referee calls held, all defenders must release the attacker and clear the ruck IMMEDIATELY - this does not mean manouvering back to the marker position as part of clearing the ruck, it means get out of the way via the quickest route - failure to release and clear immediately will result in a penalty EVERY TIME
- Attacking players must regain both feet, place the ball on the floor and play it with their foot. This means getting to both feet, not only 1 foot and 1 knee and then lifting your knelt leg/foot over the ball that has remained on the floor - you must regain both feet, lift the ball from the floor and place it back down to be played by the foot. Failure to do so will result in a penalty EVERY TIME

There's an arguement that making the defenders release will lead to PTB being too quick, but the requirement to regain both feet and play the ball properly would slow the PTB back down to negate that. The 'voluntary tackle' rule would also need to be correctly applied to stop attacking teams simply diving to the floor in attack to get a quicker PTB.

And whilst I'm fixing the game, on the same memo, I'd also tinker with the stripping interpretations to get rid of the other current lottery of is it a strip or a knock on. The onus is on the attacker to have full control of the ball, only if there is a clear stripping action would there be a penalty - this would require the attackers to carry the ball in 2 hands, again slowing them down to redress the balance of the defenders having to release and clear once tackled. If you're carrying the ball into contact with just 1 arm, and it comes out because the defenders attack your ball carrying arm, or put pressure on the ball, it's a knock on - the attacker needs to protect the ball. Only if there is a clear raking at the ball should it be a penalty.

This would no doubt lead to a penaltyathon for the first couple of weeks, but the players and coaches would soon fix that and IMO the product would be much better!

Problem solved...

I agree.

When asked about refereeing over hear at a recent fans forum Geoff Toovey said there weren't enough of them for the quality to be good enough. He said in our league we often get young refs that were promoted beyond their ability because of the shortage. The game needs to make refereeing more attractive - i.e. less abusive. So fans do need to wind their necks in.

However I think if refs said they were going to all start enforcing the rules at the PTB and blowing up more things would improve after an initial few weeks bedding in - provided interpretations weren't then relaxed later. Superted has it right.

I remember in 88 or 89 a new directive came in that any contact with a players head would lead to an instant sending off. Players got a blanket 8 match ban. It soon cleaned the game up. Maybe a zero tolerance approach is needed to PTB offences now? I'd also add in moaning to the ref as that is getting way out of hand.

This will not improve whilst ever players cheat and try and con the referee - players need to clean their act up - simple.

No ref, no game