They have had a design team on board for a long time. I saw some of the designs a year ago; we use the same designers. It might seem very complicated, but it's very low risk when you get away from the politics & a piece of cake for a firm like Caddick.

The problems on the pitch are down to a lack of leadership & a lack of attacking coaching. The squad might not be as strong but that shouldn't deflect from the lack of ideas & enthusiasm displayed.

All the talk of Toovey leaving the Bulls and going back to Oz.
I doubt he is on mega bucks and for me would be a great assistant coach to McDermott if McDermotts perceived arrogance would allow it.

Toovey won't be going anywhere to be an assistant. He's a head coach. He's also left his family behind in Australia and from listening to him last night is wanting to go back.

Someone at the club told me McD is off to the Bulls.

Stop playing with us.

What as full time prop.

Actually it's Wakefield

He's bought one of those new builds on Stanley Rd just down from Pinderfields, easily affordable on the wages he's getting at Leeds

My sauces are impeccable.

Gold Coast Titans is the rumour.

Thing is for me, McDermott is great when trying to extract performances from seasoned professionals, sure we turned in a few duff performances even with JP, Sinny and co but you always knew that we would claw our way back to form. Its the kind of dressing room he was a part of and responsible for building at the dominant Bulls side, with a defined pecking order and discipline, one that had a huge career defining impact on those players and I reckon his entire outlook on coaching / team matters, I mean why wouldn't it? the Bulls were a massively dominant force back then, the systems worked, they still work now up to a point.

The problem is now, we are very similar that dominant Bulls side, we still have a core of players who have been there, done that and got the trophies to prove it but are growing old at the same time and performances are on the wane, yes we can pull a performance out of the bag for the odd game (Wigan at home?) but the consistency of Leeds over the past 2 years while the senior players have been retiring is embarrassing. We can no longer play the straight up the middle, dominant up front game, nor do we have the attacking speed / nous to play the counter attack game either, we seem to be where a lot of teams are at the moment at a crossroads of bang average.

Something needs to change, the team is bereft of a leader (not McDermotts fault btw) its also dull as dishwater to watch on attack, same dumbass routines and options every other play, its so predicable and this is down to the coaching, coaching that once was able to utilise the departed players to be more than the sum of its parts but now we are left with getting tackled / caught in possesion 10 / 15 / 20 yards out from the try line as a good option or relying completely on a piece of individual magic from Moon or McGuire. We have some of the best backs going and we don't give them any early ball its banal. I wont even go into the non use / use of the subs bench.

Bottom line is we need to adapt and we definitely need to change direction as I feel we are heading one way - down. We need a breath of fresh air to reinvigorate the team and its ethos, I'm not calling for the complete dismantling of the team but minor surgery now will prevent major surgery later. I don't lay all the blame at McDermotts door either, the recruitments he's been supplied are average at best (bar Parcell) or cheap "project" signings on a hiding to nothing.

Feel free to pull me apart.

pull you apart? you are 100% correct. great post

That suggests he's had no part in player recruitment, which I don't accept. Otherwise a good summary.

When's McDermott to Bulls gona be announced then?

He doesn't make it easy to like him does he. 2 unused subs tonight...

he brings it on himself.delaney hardly played either. some players struggled to get off the floor at the end. they were shattered.

If the coach took the blame when he pulls a stunt like this it would be bad enough but he doesn't.
It's left to a scapegoat who was likely exhausted / flogged into a position where a bad performance or mistake was inevitable, this week's being Golding.

Whatever your beliefs on the coach and his competence you can't argue with the fact he makes it harder than it needs to be,especially on an aging team that is still lacking certain roles and skills.

After a poor first half we were pretty impressive in second have but could not finish them off go for the jugular as you say we had fresh legs and just didn't use them. Even for McDermott 2 unused subs is ridiculous.

I can understand not using Burrow as Parcel was playing so well, but I'd have brought Keinhorst on at centre and moved Sutcliffe into the 2nd row. Sutcliffe is such a threat with the ball at times, we need to find a place for him in the 13, either give him the 4 shirt, or build him up into a 2nd rower.

Given how our back row was blowing, I thought he could have brought Burrow on and moved Parcell to loose for a spell.

If he doesn't think the bench is strong enough then it has to rest on his shoulders. This is his squad and the lack of variety within it is because of how he shaped it

burrow could have gone to 7, moon to centre and sutty to 2nd row.plenty of options. he simply chose not to use them.it really is time to say thank you and move on

Absolutely spot on that's what it needed, I suppose Brian macs reply to any criticism would be we won the game what more do you want. Full credit to the team for a display of never say die attitude, at one stage saints looked like they would run out easy winners. We need desperately to get moon back into the centre position with mc guire and burrow playing half backs.
Looks like walker has made the full back role his. Although he has not had a lot of tackling to undertake so time will tell on that. Unfortunately briscoe has gone, whilst he caught the high balls well he should have rounded the saints full back. The briscoe of old would have done it. Looking at the remaining fixtures we should finish second. Could then be an extremely interesting play off game at home.

Who comes in when he eventually leaves?

I'd like to see an Aussie take the role

Like the All Blacks say 'Success is a bad teacher'

Sometimes I don't agree with McDermotts non use of subs but tonight I did. The team had got into its groove, the last thing it needed was disrupting in both attack and defence.

Sutcliffe was playing well at centre so no need to move him and Ward and Ablett were doing there jobs in the middle. So no real justification to use Keinhorst at that point.

The same goes for Burrow. The way Parcell was playing there was no reason to move him just to accommodate Burrow and moving the halves around would disrupt the team as well.