I would say the likelyhood of closing the Southstand and people sacking off turning up and watching on Sky is growing by the week. Getting people to come back in 2018 if next season is anything other than a Leeds resurgence back to the top is impossible without on field success.

My dad has been going on and off for 50 plus years, he's had a SS season ticket for 20ish of those years.

He does a 2 hour + round trip to home games. His opinion right now is "GH is kidding himself if he thinks I'm gonna stand on the western terrace and watch that shower of $hit every week!"

GH is gonna lose thousands of fans. My old man has paid his dues. He can handle losing but not shipping 30 points a week.

I agree Wilko and this is the Dilemma that GH has right now.It seems as though to me from this Email that he is going to gamble that when everyone is fit we will have a strong end to the season so he can put his PR machine into overdrive on how things will be all guns blazing into 2017 now the horrendous early season bad luck is behind us.He may well turn out to be right, but its not a call i would be happy making and it could back fire massively.

I find the way you twist/interpret things very strange - the issue about the assistant was the quality and the ability of the assistant to challenge the coach and influence his decisions. Perhaps most pertinent of all provide the club with an option should things not go well. Can you honestly say Eaton or Plume have the quality and diversity of experience to offer Hetherington with an option?

McDermott himself was quite happy to offer himself as an assistant but seem unwilling to appoint an assistant of similar standing

An assistant is not there as a back up head coach should you want to sack the main one. That is not an assistants job at all. Nor is it going to happen with Hetherington anyway. There is no way on earth Hetherington is going to sack a coach mid-season.
An assistant is exactly that, an assistant. To help organise and run training, physios, analysis etc etc McDermott has 3 of them.
Why wouldn't Barry Eaton or Chris Plume be able to put their own points of view across to McDermott? They're all grown up human beings, they talk and they have meetings about issues. The same goes for Jason Davidson, in fact the last few years I'd say Davidson has had significant influence in McDermott's thinking re training and conditioning.

There was significant criticism of McDermott last season for only having a "part time" assistant. Now there is criticism of him for having too many. That seems rather silly to me and simply another excuse for having a go at McDermott without any real knowledge or thought behind it.

An assistant should be of sufficient quality and experience to be able to assume the responsibility for the first team - can you honestly say either Eaton or Plume could do that?

How can either of these two talk on an near equal footing to McDermott - seriously. You could see your senario at say Warrington where Agar has experience at a high coaching level or Cas where Orr has experience at a high playing level. Neither Plume or Eaton has either. Personally I think its protectionism on the part of the coach no one to really challenge his decisions on an equally footing.

Didn't McClennan leave part way through a season? Leeds had an able assistant in place to mitigate McClennan's/GH decision to change.

Spot on with this.

Just because some people don't like Eaton and Plume as assistants they dismiss them as "yes" men for McDermott when in reality people aren't privy to the conversations they have together.

They say this because the like to paint a picture of McDermott as stubborn and refusing to hear anybody else's opinion except his own, yet we all know he let senior players coach and do halftime team talks.....bit contradictory that on one hand he's as stubborn as a mule and on the other hand he's prepared to let players take on responsibilities and do things off their own back without him needing to hold their hand.

When? Are you talking weekly? or are you talking previously in his employment?

He certainly isn't doing it consistently at all, and is rarely seen the twice a week the under 19's are on the training field, or for that matter with the first team either. He does do video reviews, etc, but not in training.

What needs to be remembered here, and it is not just a coincidence that things behind the scenes started to regress at the same time, is that McDermott looks after the whole of the football side operation, he has control. This was done two years or so back, and was also why Sinfield and Peacock took most of the first teams coaching sessions previously. This is what Hetherington put in place, and what McDermott requested. It was part of the fall out from Barrie McDermott.

The success Leeds had in building through the ranks, was seperating the first team from the youth and development side, and having two equal in control of either side. McDermott has everyone on the coaching singing to his tune or not at all.

Don't forget the drunken gloits who define their whole communal existence in terms of ownership of the southstand along with their [i'Oh we are weeeeeee'[/i presence to the centre and rear and their duty bound reverence to the out of tune and out of sync bollox that moronic band happens to strike up.

I suspect plenty of them are still be sulking and when the current southstand does gets bulldozed, they may not renew their season tickets for that reason alone. The role of the team being utter pants in 2016 may well be enough to sway the rest of the gloits whose support is currently wavering.

In your opinion - you are no more privy to the conversations than anyone else.

Often on Sky coverage they show the dressing room at half time - not once have I ever seen Eaton or Plume addressing the players?

Of course he going to allow Peacock or Sinfield to talk to the players - they were far more important to the team's success than he was - it could be argued he has ridden on the back of their coat tails?

If you look at this season how would you say the coaching is going?

To be perfectly honest in Plume's case I'd either never heard of or forgotten the former Sheffield, Huddersfield, Gateshead, Hunslet player - I imagine the Leeds players don't remember his playing career either.

As opposed to the great playing careers of Brian McClennan and Tony Smith?

No an assistant should be of sufficient quality to be a good assistant. An assistant role is different to a head coach role.


Well firstly they're not on an equal footing. McDermott is in charge so naturally his thinking will take precedence. Any good coach and leader listens to advice from anyone not just his assistants. They have regular meetings, why do you think McDermott just ploughs on regardless or that Eaton & Plume are cowed by McDermott?
I'd think that they'd act like normal human beings act and put suggestions forward and then debate it as a group and come to a decision with McDermott, as head coach, having final word.
I note you're missing Davidson out, do you think Davidson has had any impact on McDermott and how Leeds train?

As for Agar being on a comparative level to Tony Smith well that's like I'm saying I'm on a comparative level to Billy Slater because I once picked a ball up.

What makes you think McDermott needs to surround himself with yes men? And why would you employ someone on equal footing with McDermott? That would mean there are 2 head coaches. That would seem a disastrous way to run a team.


No he left in between the 2010 & 2011 seasons. And was a very different situation since McDermott was already named as McClennan's successor. I'd be all for us doing that whenever the club decides McDermott has run his course, sign a future head coach as assistant for a year under McDermott and then take over. But that's not what we're on about. We're on about a regular assistant who only has to be a good assistant, not a good head coach.

No I'm not, but then again I'm not the one accusing someone of protectionism just because you don't like his coaching set-up. One thing for people to criticise him for what they see on the field....but to baselessly accuse him of being more interested in saving his own skin than the club's best fortunes clearly shows an agenda against the man personally.

I also think people have jumped on the comment he made about Sinfield and Peacock doing some of the coaching in training and jumped to the exaggerated conclusion that they did it for the majority of the time.

For someone who is apparently mainly interested in saving his own back, he's always been insistent and quick to throw the credit for any success down to his staff and players and downplays his own role in a triumph......hardly the behaviour of a "my way or the highway" kind of guy who is mostly interested in looking after his own back.



And when I see Wigan I only see Wane, or Cunningham with Saints or Anderson at Hudds talking. Can't recall seeing their assistants doing the halftime team talking.

IIRC Brian McClennan was the stand-off and captain when the Auckland rep side beat the touring Great Britain team in 1990 containing the likes of Schofield, Davies, Lydon, Steadman, Golding, Skerrett, Betts,
Powell and Gregory.

Tony Smith played in the 1992 Australian Grand Final.

Chris Plume joined Leeds to work with the Rhinos community team before being promoted into the coaching set up.

There is absolutely no need for a top-class coach to have had a good - even a mediocre - playing career. Michael McGuire and Trent Robinson - to name a couple - certainly didn't. But then again the skill set of a coach/manager is entirely different to that of a player.

Whether Leeds's assistant coaches are up to scratch is another issue, but it's separate from whether they have the "respect" that comes from a high class playing career. There are plenty of examples where that "respect" has hidden coaching incompetence.

You are confusing an assistant with a deputy. Two quite different meanings and if they were on an equal footing they would be joint coaches.

Not content with your fixation with McDermott you are now having a pop at his assistants and in danger of becoming obsessional.

The assistant coach is the no 2 in the coaching set up - the deputy or has that changed since McDermott was Smith's/McClennan's assistant

Where am I having a pop at the assistants? What I am suggesting is the coaching set up needs more experience and quality.

The team is bottom of the league, its out of the CC cup and it suffered and embarrassing defeat in the WCC. I would suggest the coaching set up isn't delivering what it should. Am I being unreasonable?

There's a handful of posters who are incapable of being critical of the club and team. Not even season over after 92 days and bottom of a very mediocre SL ladder can shift them. It'll always be something or someone else's fault and out of the clubs control.

The coaching structure of the club has been changed so it all is managed by McDermott - that has never been the case at Leeds since the inception of SL. During that time the club produced the golden generation and a host a talent. That pipeline has dried up by comparison. The question is why change a formula that worked - if that isn't a case of empire building then I don't know what is?

I have no idea whether Sinfield or Peacock did the training I can see Peacock keeping a eye over the forwards.

You need to watch the SKY more closely what you see is the assistants talking to individual players - I never see either Plume or Eaton in that capacity - I see Plume carrying drinks and Eaton with his arms crossed in the corner?

Only this week McDermott says he is happy with things, no crisis - if you believe that and everything that he says in public you are more naive than I even thought possible.

He's not going to know any of that because he's a product of the SL era.

1990 Tour of NZ was an interesting one to say the least. GB won the Test series 2-1 and also beat NZ Maori. They lost several Tour games against NZ provincial sides though, including against Auckland and McClennan.

As for the 1992 Winfield Cup Grand Final, there were five ex-Leeds players who took part including Tony Smith.

Ian Kirke, Josh Walters and Gary Wheeler have all played in a GF....

Paul Sykes, Darryl Griffin and Scott Moore have all played international rugby....

....will that mean we can call their careers great in 20 years time?

Losses on the 1990 tour weren't surprising as it was a weakened touring team. At the time the surprise was they won the tests.

Weren't aware I was bestowing greatness on the playing careers of Smith and McClennan (I'm not familiar enough with either to do that) but I at least remembered them as players which is more than can be said of Plume. If you've got any memories to share then please do so.

You were questioning whether the Leeds players would have any memories of his playing career, not you or I, as the point was being suggested having knowledge of a coaches playing career was somehow significant.

I wonder how many players had knowledge or memories of Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger's playing days. I wonder if Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez sat at home during the year watching clips of Ranieri.

But perhaps they do look back at the great Firenze side he coached and think this guy has been there before he knows what he is talking about? What words of wisdom can Plume or Eaton pass on based on their coaching or playing experience at the top level?