Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 1:25 pm  

The time is right for the prodigal son to return. Come back Jimmy Lowes.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 2:12 pm  

The most frustrating aspect is that had Furner sorted our defence we'd actually now be doing better than many fans expected. But with zero improvement in that regard I'd have to say that the task seemed beyond him.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 3:34 pm  

RuddyScoosers wrote:

I can recall many Leeds fans constantly calling for McDermott's head even when he was winning trophies. There was a 'McDermott Go' thread over on their board that lasted about 7/8 years demanding his removal even when he was being successful.

Well the Rhinos fans finally got their way and forced him out and have things improved since his departure? They certainly haven't, Leeds have gone backwards at a rapid rate post-McDermott and are firmly in the wilderness right now. I doubt a new coach will do much better with some the current players at his disposal.

Some Leeds fans want to sack at least one person every year for as long as I can remember, every coach for about 19 or so years has had some Leeds fans wanting them sacked each and every year.

I’ll guarantee there will be a Sinfield out thread within a year of him joining as DOR.

And one for the new coach as soon as they lose a game. We haven’t got the tag Whinos for nothing.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 3:47 pm  

christopher wrote:

Some Leeds fans want to sack at least one person every year for as long as I can remember, every coach for about 19 or so years has had some Leeds fans wanting them sacked each and every year.

I’ll guarantee there will be a Sinfield out thread within a year of him joining as DOR.

And one for the new coach as soon as they lose a game. We haven’t got the tag Whinos for nothing.

With Agar taking temporary charge, it's in all of your interests to start your petition a.s.a.p.
His record isn't too good.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 4:07 pm  

Seen this report

“The Daily Telegraph understands Furner will take legal action for unfair dismissal, arguing he has not breached his contract.

Leeds have struggled this season, winning just four of 14 games, but Furner was hired to shake up and reinvigorate a lacklustre Rhinos playing roster.

Furner constantly urged Leeds powerbrokers to offload up to five modestly performing players but his calls were ignored. It is understood the club had too many players signed on long-term deals to sack them.

One well-placed source said: “They signed David to fix the roster but then wouldn’t let him do it. He is seeking unfair dismissal in court.”

Think that paints an image of what was wrong. They offloaded several players since he’s arrived and tried with several others. But Furner has to be realistic about how many guys you can get rid of in such a short period of time in a salary cap sport where other teams have their squads sorted. Think plenty of the players were well aware that Furner wanted rid of them and has shown in how they’ve performed.

Yes this squad isn’t good enough long term but at the end of the day you still have to work with what you inherited to an extent because like I said their is only so many ins and outs you can do at once. Did strike me at the time that Furner was appointed that he signed a 3 year deal, yet Sinfield has said on several occasions it’s a long term fix with regards to the squad and patience required. Even if they get the recruitment spot on for the next two years it would be a push for us to be challenging before Furner’s 3 years were up so he was clearly the wrong man at the wrong time.

Whoever comes in next needs to understand the patience part and that it takes some time to overhaul a squad, as Furner clearly didn’t and it lost him the CURRENT dressing room being in a hurry to get to his future desired dressing room.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 4:39 pm  

ThePrinter wrote:

Seen this report

“The Daily Telegraph understands Furner will take legal action for unfair dismissal, arguing he has not breached his contract.

Leeds have struggled this season, winning just four of 14 games, but Furner was hired to shake up and reinvigorate a lacklustre Rhinos playing roster.

Furner constantly urged Leeds powerbrokers to offload up to five modestly performing players but his calls were ignored. It is understood the club had too many players signed on long-term deals to sack them.

One well-placed source said: “They signed David to fix the roster but then wouldn’t let him do it. He is seeking unfair dismissal in court.”

Think that paints an image of what was wrong. They offloaded several players since he’s arrived and tried with several others. But Furner has to be realistic about how many guys you can get rid of in such a short period of time in a salary cap sport where other teams have their squads sorted. Think plenty of the players were well aware that Furner wanted rid of them and has shown in how they’ve performed.

Yes this squad isn’t good enough long term but at the end of the day you still have to work with what you inherited to an extent because like I said their is only so many ins and outs you can do at once. Did strike me at the time that Furner was appointed that he signed a 3 year deal, yet Sinfield has said on several occasions it’s a long term fix with regards to the squad and patience required. Even if they get the recruitment spot on for the next two years it would be a push for us to be challenging before Furner’s 3 years were up so he was clearly the wrong man at the wrong time.

Whoever comes in next needs to understand the patience part and that it takes some time to overhaul a squad, as Furner clearly didn’t and it lost him the CURRENT dressing room being in a hurry to get to his future desired dressing room.

If true that looks bad on Furner as a coach IMO, he cannot expect the club just to offload contracted players, he should accept its a longer term project and use his coaching skills to get the best out of the players he has

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 5:08 pm  

ThePrinter wrote:

Seen this report

“The Daily Telegraph understands Furner will take legal action for unfair dismissal, arguing he has not breached his contract.

Leeds have struggled this season, winning just four of 14 games, but Furner was hired to shake up and reinvigorate a lacklustre Rhinos playing roster.

Furner constantly urged Leeds powerbrokers to offload up to five modestly performing players but his calls were ignored. It is understood the club had too many players signed on long-term deals to sack them.

One well-placed source said: “They signed David to fix the roster but then wouldn’t let him do it. He is seeking unfair dismissal in court.”

Think that paints an image of what was wrong. They offloaded several players since he’s arrived and tried with several others. But Furner has to be realistic about how many guys you can get rid of in such a short period of time in a salary cap sport where other teams have their squads sorted. Think plenty of the players were well aware that Furner wanted rid of them and has shown in how they’ve performed.

Yes this squad isn’t good enough long term but at the end of the day you still have to work with what you inherited to an extent because like I said their is only so many ins and outs you can do at once. Did strike me at the time that Furner was appointed that he signed a 3 year deal, yet Sinfield has said on several occasions it’s a long term fix with regards to the squad and patience required. Even if they get the recruitment spot on for the next two years it would be a push for us to be challenging before Furner’s 3 years were up so he was clearly the wrong man at the wrong time.

Whoever comes in next needs to understand the patience part and that it takes some time to overhaul a squad, as Furner clearly didn’t and it lost him the CURRENT dressing room being in a hurry to get to his future desired dressing room.

It seems a genius idea to tell 5-6 players I don't want you and then expect at least 3 to 4 of them to then go out and play their best for you, plus the said players will be mates with most of the squad some of them close friends, so you have got their back up straight away. Surely he best approach would be to highlight the said players and fair enough say there down the pecking order and they can either fight their way back in contention or free to move on, but at least stat everyone in a clean slate. He clearly completely lost the side and they are not playing for him. First half against Huddersfield Hull kr and Cas showed there is ability in the squad.

Performances where shocking and showing no signs of improvements, results shocking, Dean Lance mark II and thank god we have not left it eighteen months like him.

Players have to respond now I am sure they have been given a warning aswell that performances are not acceptable and cannot hide behind the coach now.

He had

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 5:52 pm  

rollin thunder wrote:

It seems a genius idea to tell 5-6 players I don't want you and then expect at least 3 to 4 of them to then go out and play their best for you, plus the said players will be mates with most of the squad some of them close friends, so you have got their back up straight away. Surely he best approach would be to highlight the said players and fair enough say there down the pecking order and they can either fight their way back in contention or free to move on, but at least stat everyone in a clean slate. He clearly completely lost the side and they are not playing for him. First half against Huddersfield Hull kr and Cas showed there is ability in the squad.

Performances where shocking and showing no signs of improvements, results shocking, Dean Lance mark II and thank god we have not left it eighteen months like him.

Players have to respond now I am sure they have been given a warning aswell that performances are not acceptable and cannot hide behind the coach now.

He had

The other side of the coin was for these 5 players to knuckle down and prove Furner wrong and at the same time show some loyalty to the club. It will be interesting now how the team performs from now on in the short term and try and get the club back on some sort of positive track at least.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 6:49 pm  

rollin thunder wrote:

It seems a genius idea to tell 5-6 players I don't want you and then expect at least 3 to 4 of them to then go out and play their best for you, plus the said players will be mates with most of the squad some of them close friends, so you have got their back up straight away. Surely he best approach would be to highlight the said players and fair enough say there down the pecking order and they can either fight their way back in contention or free to move on, but at least stat everyone in a clean slate. He clearly completely lost the side and they are not playing for him. First half against Huddersfield Hull kr and Cas showed there is ability in the squad.

Performances where shocking and showing no signs of improvements, results shocking, Dean Lance mark II and thank god we have not left it eighteen months like him.

Yeah people criticising saying he hasn’t been given long enough, yes on one hand he could’ve turned it around, but equally or more likely he could’ve set us further off in the wrong direction and it takes us longer to come back from.

Pointed out several weeks ago that McDermott with pretty similar group in 2017 came out after being hammered by Cas 66-10 early in the season and said they could still win the GF and they did. Furner on the other hand was trying to get players out as soon as he got the job and had yet to arrive from Australia and hadn’t given them a chance. The difference the backing of your coach can be huge.

Re: Leeds Rhinos sack Furner ! : Tue May 07, 2019 7:15 pm  

With regret this is the right decision. The lack of any clear signs of improvement from last season, in fact in terms of defence signs of things actually getting worse, were going on for too long to ignore. And the performance on Friday at Salford was probably the most abject yet.

The truth I think is that the squad isn't great and some players have been over-rated for some time. It shows to what degree McDermott was holding it all together there; that's not entirely a good reflection on McDermott because he should have been better at succession planning on the playing side and had a stronger coaching team around him.

Sinfield's actions remain questionable in several respects. Trying to drive contracted players out by not picking them is bonkers, leaving those left under-motivated when they do play and clogging up the salary cap. The removal of Garbutt still makes me angry - partly because he wasn't replaced but also because he was consistently a top performer. People say he was "always" injured (he only really had injury problems in 2018 out of his years at the club) but they stuck with other contracted players like Ferris who have never come close to matching what Garbutt delivered pretty much every time he hit the field.

Who next? Not Wane, clearly not Agar. Powell and Smith will be linked no doubt, if we fancy a journey to the past. Powell would probably do a good job and I don't feel he holds any grudges with Leeds based on the evidence of his ongoing relationships with the Leeds directors.

It needs to be someone with the right skill-set, clearly with a strong defensive pedigree but also very strong soft skills. The current team are seriously lacking in morale, enthusiasm and play like they are scared out of their wits. It needs the sort of coach who can remove some of those inhibitions - a bit like Smith did in 2004 when he helped to change the mindset from a club of losers to a club of winners.