A really bad one as well. We were the worst team in Super League before his arrival. He saved them from relegation, and we still never learn.

I couldn't care less what was said before, who is right or wrong, just everyone move on and accept what is in front of our eyes, the club is poorly managed from an on field point of view, which if not careful or maybe even is, will move to the off field very soon if not sorted.

We can not get out of it by persisting with the current set up.

Hetherington must take his share of the flak too. his recruitment has been awful.
the squad is full of championship standard players.

Agreed, and I think its unfair that BM gets all the stick. We just came off just about our worst season ever, and our "recruitment" consists of just about replacing one of our better players, plus two project Championship lads.

The only rationale for recruitment I can think of is that GH, BM etc all bought into the excuses for last year, combined with the hope that McGuire (in particular) would come back to his best and one or more kids would develop enormously. Without some very odd reasoning the lack of at least starting the rebuilding by bringing in a couple of quality players just defies belief..

don' think anyone was expecting something as strange as last night

Why he started lilley on the bench i dont know, every week the halves get switched around during the game. For a team so badly lacking structure they need some consistency in that area. Lilley and mcguire should have started 6&7 with Sutcliffe BR, Walters is beyond average

Well, I arrived in York teatime, left the missus and headed over to Castleford without prebooking a ticket and hoped there was a pay at the gate.

I made it to the ground in time, there was a pay at gate. Got my pint, and I was buzzing for the game. Jeezo, that was as miserable a performance as anybody could have ever seen. I was gutted, so left when they racked up 50. After watching that I wish id never gone. It left me traumatised!

Been a crap couple of weeks. My 2 loves Hearts ( season ticket holder), and the Rhinos have both bent over and took it up the farter! Hearts are murder right now, so was hoping seeing the Rhinos in the flesh for the 3rd time would make up for Hearts being pish.

But no, right now they are both murder. Hopefully pop down to Headingley again later in the year, it cant get any worse that that. (Lets hope no anyway!)

I travelled to Castleford last night expecting a best case scenario loss by a 20 point margin. Should have adjusted my weekly tip accordingly. When I was inside the ground and heard the team line-up (the forwards and bench options in particular) I was expecting a 40 to 50 point hammering.

What I wasn't expecting was a performance which stunk to such a degree. There was little appetite among the players for the game last night for reasons which point directly towards the coach himself. In the absence of any game plan or strategy, the very least he should achieve is to motivate the team sufficiently to show some interest and give it a dig.

The highlight was my nephew pointing at Mullally when he'd just come on and opining how that donkey gets a game in a Leeds shirt. Ten seconds later he's the beneficiary of a rather spawny try



So much for the opinion from one particular individual last week that Leeds had sorted out their defence during an untroubled off season of planning and preparation with just the attack to work on to get back to 2015 standards.

With more players out & a weaker squad last year Cas did ok. It's an attitude thing now at Leeds & that is down to the coach.

If Gale had have been out as much as Mcguire you would have been in the bottom 4.

The problem with excuses (especially when they are promoted by club management) is the players believe them and that affects their attitude and appetite when things aren't going smoothly.

Cas and Wigan in particular were hit by injuries just as much as Leeds last season but they rode it and got stuck in. Leeds OTOH moaned about bad luck with injuries, floods and having to train in unfamiliar gyms alongside tanned mincers. If that isn't an attitude problem right there, I don't know what is.

McGuire was finished last year.

The team therefore didn't miss him at all.

Brian Mac is past it and we need a shake up. But I'd say recruitment has been massively below standard for a few years. Which isn't all his fault. Yes give the young kids a go, but I personally don't even believe they have kept the right youngsters. Liam hood, Alex foster, Elliot minichello I thought had way more potential than the likes of josh Walters.
Signings we have seem pointless like Andy Yates, Corey Aston, anothony mullally (who looked an absolute joke last night celebrating his try then rediculous double movement attempt).
I know it's a salary cap spot but I cannot see how we have lost sinfield, peacock, leuleui, Aiton, hardaker, achurch from our squad and only signed garbutt and parcel of any real quality and he full on cap. I'm not saying that we aren't full, I'm saying that should not have been allowed. I know other players' contracts will have been increased etc etc but how can the squad we had in 2015 have had the same wage bill as the pathetic squad we have now. It's the worst squad Leeds have had for years.

I do believe we have to promote from within but there needs to be a balance.

I don't think masses needs to change. A new coach with a bit more of a game plan, widdop and George burgess for example could turn the side around.

I think Mac has been a good coach, I just don't think his off the cufff style works with a team who doesn't have anyone in there to organise and keep a level ship. Therefore he should leave and accept defeat.

It was a comparison of time absent, nothing else.

I said exactly the same re-excuses but was repeatedly shot at for saying as such.

Mate Cas won games with Millington & Mcshane as their HB pairing & competed throughout the season.

You are right Tad. The lack of onfield leadership was not addressed when Sinfield retired. To lose JP at the same time made the need to recruit all the more important. We do not have a skilled enough organizer at the club with the ability to read a game like Gale. Our play is all too predictable without an decent organizer and the reserves are championship standard at best.

To be without 8 first choice players is a real handicap. Had we been able to play Ward, JJB, Ablett, Garbutt, Galloway, Ferres, Burrow and Briscoe we would not have let in that score and would at least have competed. However I am not saying we would have won due to the serious lack of a game manager.

As it was Cas made 50% more carries than us resulting in complete dominance in meters, tackle busts and clean breaks. We made almost 50 missed tackles which is down to the players and in a game where the youngsters had a right to expect senior players like McGuire and Watkins to step up to the plate their displays were just awful. Keinhorst, Parcell and Singleton tackled their hearts out but the quality around them was below standard.

With the senior players back and a new half back recruit we could compete. Until we sign an organier I would be tempted to play Burrow and Lilley at half back as on last nights showing McGuire is either not match fit or sadly is now past it and Sutcliffe is a back rower playing out of position.

Fair enough, but I also disagree with your assertion that Cas would be a bottom 4 team without Gale. They are far better than that, as is Powell as coach.

I'm trying to remember who it was during the off-season who opined that only one or two Cas players would be good enough to get in the current Leeds team. Oops!

If they lost Gale this year they would be no chance of silverware.

It's not sour grapes, just my opinion.

If anyone can be ar$ed looking at my previous post on the Cas board I always have and alway will have soft spot for em.

Lets not forget 'Arguably the best centre in the world' and him going missing again last night and signing off with being squated aside by Shenton in embarrassing fashion for the last try. Too many of our top players appear to not have the fight in them anymore when the going gets tough like it did last night.William made a good point in that after a while the team just buy into the excuse peddled out by those at the top.

Woah calm yer turbos i wasn't implying it was sour grapes mate far from it just making a point re-Gale.
What they have are a Coaching staff who can adapt a gameplan to whoever is in/out of their 17 mate.
Yes Gale would be a loss but they've had plenty of players running riot like Mcshane Hardaker etc.

Cas are a good team- just because they're called Cas doesn't automatically put them in the 'whipping boy rabble', as I once heard said (the same does not apply to Wakefield by the way!) but we were shocking. We let Cas play, gave them space and easy ball, fell of tackles and were clueless going forward.

Back in the early 2000's we had a massive shake-up, removed a lot of the old rot and revivalist the entire team and look what happened? We need to do the same now - remove whats left of the old guard and start again... whats the worse that can happen; get our @rses handed to us by Cas?

I said last year if you added Gale to their injuries I think bottom 4. Not this year. But no trophies if he's not fully firing.

McGuire is irrelevant as a player now, so I do not understand the comparison. Gale is head & shoulders the best GB SH now, so he would be massively missed, but I have enough belief that Powell would have worked out a system to avoid the bottom 4. Dependent on other hypothetical injuries, but McShane, Chase, Roberts, Millington, Dorn, Milner could all step up. You just sound like a bitter Rhino.

Blimey! After the shambles of last season and the drift away of regulars who couldn't handle what the Leeds team had become, we finally have a returnee! Welcome back Fat Boy



Take yer time G1, El Diablo, Nantwichexile, Gilder, Soprano, etc



Have Leeds qualified for the Whipping Boy SL Rabble tag yet?

Not my words. Oh no. These are the words of our COACH!

(Source Sportinglife.com)

[i"Leeds head coach Brian McDermott on their heaviest Super League defeat: "There is no simple answer. As crazy as it might sound, I didn't think we were that bad in the first half. We were not miles off, I just think Castleford were white hot."[/i

Wow. The man has done a fine job for the Rhinos over the last few years and that should be recognised, but this is plain delusional.

Of course, the fans will be calling for his head, but that's not how business works - and Leeds Rhinos is a business. The only time Gary H will get rid of him will be when the numbers of fans on the terraces start to dwindle and there's a financial impact on the club. Until then (and as long as we turn up to watch the dross currently served up by the coach and players) BMD stays.