think winning on Tuesday could be tough

92 days into a 247 day season - only pride and the avoidance of William's SLWBR status (or whatever the correct acronym) remains. Would be pretty tragic for any Leeds club at any part of it's history let alone this one, the season of the triple defence.

woops

When a senior figure sends out a don't panic message it invariably means things are on bad shape, but then we all know that.

In reality this tell us nothing and means nothing. The only thing that matters is the win/loss column because that drives everything at this level.

I believe the Kirkstall gym for the players has reopened today, so at least we will get to see if this makes any difference. JJB and co can start to train like 'werewolves' again.

Just to add a little more to the pile, we are bottom of a league containing a team which suffered a 6 point deduction.

Are we even planning recruitment for 2017? If he had any sense he would at least have said that we have plans to build and recruit so there wont be a repeat of this seasons debacle. The fact he silent on that and this is a dont panic everythings fine message (when patently its not) speaks volumes. Theres clearly something rotten behind the scenes and a head in the sand attitude is a recipe for relegation. What was also telling was the list of objectives for the club with having a team we can be proud of (not a succesful winning team) bottom of the list. Ridiculous everything else to do with the club flows from the performance on the pitch and the fact thats not the clubs primary focus tells you all you need to know about why we sit bottom of the league and are arguably the worst team in the division by any measure

The Cas game is huge for GH to continue this narrative. Win, and we're three points behind them in 8th, which an optimist would see as easily attainable if we hit sort of form. Lose, and we're 7 points behind Cas, at least 6 behind 8th, and the season looks over. Then I think we'd see some dramatic changes, but if we limp past Cas we won't.

A loss on Thursday and a loss the week after vs Wigan confirms our status and we will be the first team confirmed in the middle eights. I think the statement he's made today may change slightly by then.

It told us nothing we didn't know and for me was just a way of keeping fans opinions towards him at bay a little bit on Thursday if we lose again. Still the letter means he's woken up a little that this season is a shambles even though he won't admit that. Still I wanted to hear something from the club and while for me it meant very little he realised we needed to hear from him.

We won't be "confirmed" in the middle eights with two more losses.

I know it was an e-mail, but I can't help hearing it in Corporal Jones voice. I didn't expect a great deal out of this season and so far we're living down to my expectations. I'm not panicking uncle Gary, but I can't help thinking some f'd up the succession planning

We could be anything from six points to nine points behind with eight games to go. Fair enough I have worked it out wrong but if we are anything more than four wins behind that's too much for me. Especially with the way our games are:

Castleford H, Wigan MW, Warrington A, Catalan H, Salford H, Wakefield A, Widnes H, Hull FC A, Wigan H, Hull KR A.

If we lose to Cas then middle 8s it is.lets not forget We havn't won a game away yet or won two games in a row.

if the training ground at Kirkstall is a major factor for this terrible season I wonder if he is looking for a different site because Kirkstall is totally inadequate its a notorious floodplain.It will flood again .Ive known the beer garden at the Bridge Inn flood several times in recent years

Some people are unbelievable. If we were at full strength and still getting beaten every week, then that would constitute a crisis.

The circumstances to which we have arrived at our current state of affairs does, in no way, prevent our situation from being a crisis.

The remedy might be simple, it might not, but either way we are without doubt a club most definitely in crisis.

100% correct mi old mate.

Regardless of any excuses we are bottom of the league with a shocking defence regularly conceding 30 + facing a relegation dog fight less than 9 months after winning the treble.

If that's not a crisis then what is?

Unless he was going to announce sacking BM or wholesale changes to the squad, the message was always only going to be a positive spin. I think on the player recruitment side he is trying to let everyone know not to expect wholesale changes. In a salary cap world and with most players contracted for beyond this season he's very limited in the number of forced changes to personnel he can make.

Even if he said they'd be signings/departures most on here wouldn't believe him anyway until they saw them happen or would question the quality of who they might possibly be ("another Aussie reject on one of GH's Aussie jaunts", "some cheap option because GH is so tight"icon_wink.gif.....so it'd be pointless from him to say it.

The salary cap doesn't effect coaching appointments. You'd hope Leeds with it's heritage and potential was still a plum job - if only an attractive package was available.

Well they are still sending players round to open local supporters club branches like nobodies business

From what little most of us can actually tell there needs to be a review of coaching across the board, junior development and fitness/training even if nothing else.

This club is a marginal business, turnover is pityful when compared to normal businesses - Gary is tight but he needs to be.

The question for me is where the money being spent - if you look at the coaching structure on the web site there are 25 coaches/conditioners/physios that seems like a lot? If everyone of these is a direct report to McDermott then that is an untenable and poor practice. All these bodies and the club struggles with youth development and first team defensive structures?

If you look at the administration there seems to be a lot of bodies for such a small business.

Recruitment is an issue - there have been some really good ones: Senior, Buderus, Peacock, Ali but there has also been some shockers Bell, Millard, Falloon, Mullins, Clyde. Perhaps GH needs to hand this over and perhaps this is where Sinfield comes in?

This is a great club but as often happens when the processes are really stretched they haven't been robust enough. Maybe the current management team have taken the club as far as they can and they need support in the form of fresh ideas and culture revision

Time to smell the coffee, we are preparing for a new adventure in the middle eights (despite Macs numerical aspirations). Providing our badly scarred newbies with confidence boosting wins against Championship opposition will create the basis for 2017. Great succession planning that is doomed to failure.