GH has an issue with one particular agent David Howes - this goes back to the early days of the Rhinos when Howes was a Director.

McDermott is just a very strange guy with a really odd view on rugby and life in general. Perhaps he needs more exposure to a working environment where its participants are not regimented so strictly. He seems like a fish out of water if take him outside very strict controlled situations - press conferences are but one example.

I'll do my best.



So am I. He's not playing the victim card is he, the one he accused me of playing last week when him and his 2 partners in crime were all on at me?
Unreal.

But i'll do my best anyway.

What's wrong with his press conferences? They're more entertaining that ANY other coach in Super League.
And does it matter what his views are on life & rugby? His record of winning trophies speaks for itself, doesn't it?
Kevin Sinfield has some odd views, didn't stop him becoming the most successful Leeds captain of all time. A record that'll probably never be broken.

Perhaps it's you who needs more exposure to people with different views.

You simply cannot help yourself - but there you go.

I suggest you watch his press conferences more closely - on Sky he never looks at the interviewer which I have always thought very strange.

His outburst at press conferences when it is suggested he might have got something wrong are bizarre for a senior coach. This Boxing Day "It was only an opposed training run" is an example. "These players are all warriors" so its ok!!

His consistent use of "Outside of our control" last year in virtually every press conference until August was very odd. Perhaps a dialogue of how things are going to improve would have been more appropriate?

As usual the point I was trying to make was lost on you - you cannot push against the tide. If all the really talented kids now have agents you can't exclude those kids and expect to sign the very best talent. The world is changing - if I had a very talented kid I would want him to get the best deal out there and I would suggest a good agent or solicitor as Sinfield/McGuire use will get a better deal than a lone parent.

McDermott needs to realise kids have options and they will stick two fingers up to such an authoritarian approach as his. What works in the army doesn't always translate to the outside world. His views are very insular and lack the experience of the operating outside of the very controlled environment of the Army and RL.

As for his success - he manages the club with the biggest resources in the league and he has got to one GF in the last 4 years. Last year he managed that resource into the middle 8's - I will leave it at that.

I don't take issue with most of your post. But he was a Royal Marine not Army. Whilst it is a controlled environment and a disciplined military force, the Royals have always regarded their ethos as being more about self motivation and a willingness to push themselves. And in so far as there is any overlap, I don't think these qualities are incompatible with pro sport. On the wider point refs BM's performance as a manager, this season has to be make or break for him. He has done well with the "golden generation" team, but now that the transition is in full swing, he has to show that he is the man to oversee the rebuilding of the team. On the showing of last season he isn't off to a great start. How much influence or not he has over recruitment may limit his ability to build the team he wants. But regardless, he will be the one to take the fall if we have a repeat of last year.

I genuinely can't recall any comments from sinfield that I would consider odd. Although I spend some time out of the UK, so I may have missed them.

I agree with your point about recruitment - all fans can ask is that the team play to their potential that is McDermott's job. No fan minds losing if the team has give it everything and gets beat by a team that plays better on the day it happens. I am not sure you could say that about many of the performances during 2016.

The most intense game I have seen during the SL era was the play off game in 2007 at Knowsley Rd. Leeds got beat but they gave it absolutely everything they had - that is all you can ask.

He doesn't look at the interviewer much but that's not anything really, some people aren't as comfortable on camera or with a microphone in their face, Tony Smith is another.



Not going to deny he has his moody moments in interviews, but in reality so do pretty much most coaches in RL, Wane, Cunningham, Powell. Anderson to name a few all have their moments. Also in other sports, Pep Guardiola post match interview last week caught a lot of headlines.

Those on here that are most critical of the way he conducts himself......god I can only imagine what they'd be like in the same situation in a press conference with someone suggesting they were wrong, likelihood would be they were much worst than McDermott based on what goes on on here with difference of opinions.



That's not even what he said.

2 separate articles released today by different publications...

Hetherington ''Squad still needs to prove itself''

Burrow ''We have nothing to prove''

Does anyone at HQ actually have a fcking clue these days?

McDermott actually said:

'Public Training Run'

which lies somewhere between 'Opposed Training Run'
AND
'Finishing Off Xmas Booze and Turkey <Burp! Fart!>'

... in terms of performance and effort.