stop that bolshy talk.

Brian McDermott managed the London Super League franchise between 2007 and 2010.
He won 39 out of 108 matches for a 36% win record.
His full seasons saw the club finish 9th, 9th, 11th and 13th.
We did not get past the 5th round of the Challenge Cup in any of his seasons in charge.
His last 40 games with our club saw us win a total of 8 games.
When he left we had the weakest squad and backroom staff in the club's history.
He is not fondly remembered by me - he was stealing a living from London!

At Leeds Rhinos, a very well run club which were already Grand Final winners, his record is decent:

Brian McClennan: 102 games - 73 wins, 1 draw, 28 losses - win record: 71.6%
Tony Smith: 71 games - 46 wins, 1 draw, 24 losses - win record: 64.8%
Brian McDermott: 69 games - 45 wins, 1 draw, 23 losses - win record: 65.2%

A neutral commentator would note that whilst Brian McDermott has an almost identical record to Tony Smith and McClennan it would be fair to suggest that Smith and McClennan consistently delivered within the regular rounds. By comparison McDermott has had two winning streaks in knock-out football and two other runs of wins to a final albeit mainly against weaker teams as previously noted.

Brian can be commended for his Grand Final successes.

But what I find most interesting is that of the Grand Final starting team of Hardaker; Jones-Bishop, Watkins, Ablett, Hall; McGuire, Sinfield; Leuluai, Burrow, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Delaney and Bailey there is not a single player recruited into Leeds by McDermott.

His only acquisitions were on the interchange bench with Lunt (on loan) and the 31 year old Prop Darrell Griffin alongside other people's signings in Kirke and Ward.

I am yet to see any real evidence of Brian building his own team and going beyond the motivational role in knock out football and if he does he'll truly be earning a living rather than maintaining a successful club.

Cheers
Ramo

You really are clutching at straws if one of your main points to criticise a successful coach like McDermott is not making rafts of signings. His team contained only 2 overseas players of any type - fantastic.

He is getting the most out of a team that was quite clearly in decline under the previous regime. And his treatment and careful introduction of young players is exemplary.

Like I have said before, Sinfield rates him as one of the best, 4/4 finals, 3 huge wins, yet some of our bitter, but obviously more knowledgeable fans, refuse to acknowlege his talent. Very amusing indeed

really?

Yep. The 2010 turnaround was magnificent, this years effort proving it was no fluke. What a job McDermott is doing.

There is an extensive thread on the Leeds forum with many more knowledgeable supporters praising their coach after initially having their doubts. Have a read of it, it's decent.

Still, I am delighted that McDermott left us and we upgraded to Rob Powell. A shrewd move

Listy if Mac had stayed at the club with the resources Powel had at his disposal, what do you think he may have achieved?

I don’t think anyone is disagreeing that Powel’s appointment was a mistake.

????

What?

Plenty. Everyone on here was pleased with the state of our squad at the beginning of this season in particular.



Nearly everyone was chuffed to bits at the time. Fools.

I don't think so.

Is this how you rate any coach? Someone that builds their own team?

If Craig Bellamy came to London, would he win a premiership in his first year or two. The answer would more than likely be NO. Would he be a shıt coach then?

Boosty-Is a coach only successful if he wins the GF? Are there not other measures?

It is possible for a coach to do a poor job at one club and great job at another. Many factors are involved.

Mac put a lot of effort in building up the youth structure and making links with the community and we are now starting to see the benefit of good young players. Mac was also taking the first team squad round various locations and inviting the local RL community to come and watch the training sessions and building further links with potential and actual supporters. Unfortunately when Mac left and in my opinion, under RP this was not carried on with the same enthusiasm and started to distance the club at least in terms of the first team from the community. Later at the Stoop for some reason the team stopped meeting the supporters in the king’s bar. I wonder if this would have happened under Mac’s watch?

Leeds have a very special bunch of players who, when needed, know how to win big games. Had the Sinfield head clash last Saturday meant he had to leave the game, Leeds would not have won.
It's very difficult to make a case against a guy that has won what he's won at Leeds but inconsistencies during the regular season and a lack of results against the other top teams shows a lack of tactical knowledge. It's hardly as though they've blown teams away during their run in either, they have been gritty, hard fought encounters.
It's hardly surprising that a team full of players with 4 GF wins behind them know how to win these close games when it matters, is it? But, McDermott hasn't been able to get those players over their psychological barrier with the challenge cup, despite making two finals.
His real test will come over the next few years as players like Sinfield fade and retire. Because, in my opinion, I could coach a Sinfield led Leeds to the SL title.

You will fit in well around here Sir

This is laughable.

By your reckoning, picking another example of the top of my head, Pep Guardiola was stealing a living at Barcelona.

The season he took over (2008/09) he took them to Champions League glory with a team of Valdes, Puyol, Y.Toure, Pique, Sylvinho, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Henry, Eto'o. Of those only Pique was signed by Guardiola and he was a former Barcelona youth player anyway.

By the end of the 2009/10 (an equivalent period in which McDermott has worked in) he had only signed Dani Alves (suspended for the final) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (left in summer 2010) who made any impact on the first team.

Can you seriously be suggesting because someone took over a group of players who had the potential to be brilliant and brought success he is "stealing a living"? Surely a lot of skill in management is being able to get these players to play together, and in your example getting young players like Jones-Bishop, Watkins and Hardaker integrated into a team of experienced pros.

Mike Rush finished higher in the league than McDermott without the same number of stars! and he is never a top Super League coach!

Anyway this is a London Broncos Forum, why we are wasting so much time about someone in our Past, who left because he was not Good Enough! We should be talking how great it is to see two London lads called up for England Knights!! WELL DONE TO KIERAN DIXON AND DAN SARGINSON!

And therein lies the reason McDermott is so good. He gets the job done.

Who cares. Move on.

absolutely WQ. Any small improvement in performance would be a measure for us.

To back up what you say, there are lots of good coaches who have never won a grand final.

I'd heard from people who had played under McDermott at London that he was a good coach. I listened to them rather than people on here. Fans are very results focused, obviously. So maybe ask them by what measures a coach like McDermott is judged.


He didn't have the artillery at London like he does at Leeds. You need that in RL to fully show how good you are.

I understand where you are coming from RB, but I have to say, regardless of what players say about the guy, he didn't deliver whilst in London.
By deliver, I mean he didn't get the results the fans wanted, or the [uclub as a business needed to attract more fans and sponsors. [/u

08/07/06 to 03/09/10......116 SL games under him and we won 43 of them and lost 60%

. In his last season, he presided over the lowest placed finish in the clubs history...13th out of 14 teams. 3,137 points conceded at a average of 27 a game is a terrible statistic for a professional RL coach....the only reason he isn't the worst coach we ever had is because our chairman appointed Rob Powell, whose team shipped 1,642 SL points in 47 games.....close to 35 a pop. Tony Rea presided over the 2nd worst season in regard to points shipped......and then turned it around the following year and got us to the Play-offs.......that's how I measure "success".....not by word of mouth from ex-players.

I have no doubt that those players who are coached by him say positive things about him....he quite patently a motivator and his teams play "for each other", but whether he is a decent RL coach remains to be seen.....Leeds have 2 of their worst regular season in a while under him and the teams ability to win "knock out games" doesn't change that. Leeds shipped 24.5 points a game in the regular season this year....their worst effort since 2002.

See comment saying Fans are very results focused, obviously.

Players know who can coach, fans recite win ratios, stats without knowing how teams have been coached.

Ivan Cleary IS a good coach, will Penrith fans think that as he finished 15 out of 16?

Cleary is a good coach...he's proved it over time by building his team at the warriors. BMcD inherited a team at leeds and has taught them how to ship points but still grind out knock out wins.....
As for players knowing who can coach......I suggested in my last post, he may know how to "bind a team together" and motivate them.....but his tactics? His tactics are to rely on Sinfield......