Re: Brian Mac : Sun Aug 05, 2018 9:46 pm  

Have Sinfield and Lowes been introduced to each other yet? Certainly didn’t look like it when the camera was facing their way!

Re: Brian Mac : Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:30 pm  

Its clear that the most basic problem was lack of quality, but the squad we have was BM's creation, so as head coach he's at least partially responsible for that problem anyway. He was here for 8 years, there's no doubt at all he could have pushed for more recruits this season once it became clear we were awful.

Re: Brian Mac : Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:16 am  

It was alleged by some that the problem was that BM had lost the dressing room and a simple change of coach would solve the problem. Our performances especially in defense are now much worse than say against St Helens not long before Mac was sacked despite having now have more players to select from so this was obviously not the problem.

A lack of top class recruitment seems to me to be the main problem. Replacements of equal quality were needed for Sinfield, Mags, Burrow and Galloway. To expect to be able to muddle through was a serious management error especially when the serious injury crisis added to the problems. For this I hold GH to be responsible as he holds the purse strings and I do not recall any announcements that this role had been passed to BM.

For Hetherington to sack BM mid season was wrong IMO and was a failure to identify the real problems and smacked of panic and naivety. Sinfield was a great player and fine captain for Leeds but has no coaching or management experience so to expect him to avoid the middle rights and win the semi was unrealistic and has failed.

To now make serious recruitment money available for Sinfield is necessary but unfair on BM.

I also have concerns regarding the position of Director of Rugby as it diminishes the role of the coach. A top Aussie will want full control. So Sinfield should be a hands on head coach which is a gamble or we need a proven coach of quality.

We still need an organising 6 as Myler cannot do this on his own and play the new signing at centre. Big mistake to allow Warrington to beat us to the best 6 that became available.

Re: Brian Mac : Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:39 am  

Still not McD's fault whatsoever eh JC??

Re: Brian Mac : Mon Aug 06, 2018 10:44 am  

We do need better recruitment & GH needs to take a lot of responsability for that.
By the same token though Mc.D had plenty of say in who came stayed & who moved on its a myth to think GH 100% controls all that.
The Club as a whole got too complaicent imo & even if we'd brought Wayne Bennett in it'd take more than a month to polish the turd we're left with.
It was right Mc.D got sacked 4 or 5 1pt losses glossed over how 1 dimentional we were under him & how blinkered & predictable he & we had become.

Re: Brian Mac : Mon Aug 06, 2018 3:42 pm  

RHINO-MARK wrote:

Still not McD's fault whatsoever eh JC??

I have never said that. If he was responsible for recruitment then it is his fault but as I have said I feel sure that Hetherington has been fully responsible for recruitment.

Sacking McD has shown that the problem was not with him but lies with the lack of leadership, quality and balance in the squad which I have constantly stated. I have wanted us to sign a class stand off since Sinfield left the team when it was clear to me, but not you, that Sutcliffe was nowhere near up to the job.

The change of coach and management has brought a further deterioration in our performances especially our defense. 3 bad losses, a draw and only one win against a terrible Widnes side shows it is not just about changing the coach. Myler has been a good signing as a replacement for Burrow but if we were not going to replace Maguire we should have kept him.

Sinfield selected Handley and Sutcliffe over Keinhorst for the semi-final which I think shows an error in judgement and I would have had Golding on the bench as Walker has a history of getting injured and he would also have been cover for Parcell.

Lolohea is a good running stand off but not a controlling one like Blake Austin who is the player we should have signed and rather shows Hetherington does not want to make serious funds available to top players.

I wish Kevin all the best but he is wasting his breath thinking that preaching about the past Leeds ethos will produce a turnaround as it only means something to the Golden Generation who have either left or are on the way out.

Re: Brian Mac : Mon Aug 06, 2018 4:04 pm  

Apart from the money problems we had at the Bulls there are certain similarities. We lost good players and replaced them with mediocre players for 2 or 3 years on the bounce. You suddenly turn around and think to yourself the whole squad is now mediocre. This seems to be the case with yourselves. Don't let it go too far if you can help it.

Re: Brian Mac : Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:07 pm  

Juan Cornetto wrote:

Lolohea is a good running stand off but not a controlling one like Blake Austin who is the player we should have signed and rather shows Hetherington does not want to make serious funds available to top players.

I agree with this we missed out. Watched a lot of Austin at Canberra, fantastic player who is tailor made for SL. Warrington have got a real player there and imo he will have as big if not bigger impact than Barba has at Saints.

Re: Brian Mac has left the Rhinos - with immediate effect : Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:25 pm  

Is Austin an organiser? He seems and out and out runner to me. He's not in Barba's class, but he's a huge improvement on Tyrone Roberts.

Re: Brian Mac has left the Rhinos - with immediate effect : Tue Aug 07, 2018 2:56 am  

Austin's not an organiser - he's a very powerful runner. That's why he gets dropped a fair amount (along with being at times a turnstyle in defence). I don't understand this idea of signing a 1/6 and then signing another and making him play centres. If you want a centre, sign one.


Just one aside, Galloway was never a proper replacement for Peacock or Leuluai - he was the dictionary definition of a plodder, who had become the butt of commentators jokes with regards to just how slow he was before he left the NRL.