As has been pointed out Aiton was knackered and his acting half play has become far too predictable meaning our first receivers are too easily targeted. On top of that he made a couple of key errors and a few headless chicken runs that you would have castigated Burrow for had he made them.

He also managed to beat some defenders, deliver some excellent dummy half passes and make some tackles in the middle of the field.

Something Burrow hasn't managed out of dummy half since 2011.

When the momentum of the game went in our favour, shortly after Sinfield's introduction, the Cas coach (who I don't rate the highly) recognised the shift in game tempo and made a triple substitution.

Our coach shuns such traditional thinking and showed Powell how to use a bench giving two of his subs about 4 minutes combined on the pitch. Genius.

Yup simple point but one you can't ignore.

If you look how Cas rotated their 6 props (including Massey and Boyle) the workload was shared and so were the minutes between them. not rocket science is it.

IMO McDermotts problem has always been and still is that he doesn't react to anything on the field during a game, he seems to have a plan before kick off and sticks to that no matter what happens during the game.

He does react but not always in the right way. If we were winning by a few scores last night then Yates gets more minutes and Walters gets on. How many times has he done the non sub thing when we've had things in control? None that I can remember. It's always usually in situations like last night when we're fighting to get back into it after falling behind on the scoreboard.

So he does react and doesn't stick to his pre match plan, but in a bad way.

100% right the man's a joke. If it hadn't been for Sinfield he would have won nothing at Leeds. Plan A (if he has one) is it, cannot react to or change anything that happens on the field as he can't read a game. He's NOT a coach! The second Sinny stepped on the field the game changed in our favour, although too late. We all knew Cas would come at us hell for leather from the start so what do we do, throw the ball around trying to play champagne rugby. It was obvious to any half decent coach that what had to be done was to tackle, tackle, tackle and wear them down a la Tony Smith Leeds side, and then put the foot on the gas in the last 20 minutes.

Why are we the only team that doesn't have an Assistant Coach? Is it because he's so smug or more likely that no-one will work with this clown!

Nail hit firmly on head.

If McD doesnt trust the 17 best available players to go out and play rugby for Leeds then he should tell Uncle Gary to save some brass and get rid of half the squad

Also noticed on a couple of occasions when we looked like pinning them in their own 20/30 Gale steps up and kicks on the 3rd and 4th tackle to get them out of a hole how many times did or do we do that?
All that experience and big game wins under our belts and we look clueless and devoid of ideas.

I'm not at all suprised, the guy can't coach a winning side for a whole season his league record proves this. We can play good in spurts and get up for big knockout games, but I'm not sure how much we can atribute this to the coach or the players.

I can't see us getting more than 4 points in the remaining games and can see us easily sliding down to fourth before the split. No idea how we will fare in the 8s

I for one hope we get rid at the end of the season. I give credit and thanks for his service and success. But the trophies have painted over his failings. How he has yet to finish in the top four with the squad he has had the last 4 years is incredible.

part of the problem was our forwards either by accident or design are bunched close together. So it's easy for the defenders to pick out the ball receiver. This was also the case in the second half at the wigan game.
Aiton seemed to burn himself out. We desperately need another hooker, warrington have Clark and Dwyer both quick and smart players. I would have taken a chance on Lunt, whilst he apparently is not performing well, we know what he can do.
When we get the full squad back on the field things should improve . On balance the squad is getting weaker year by year.
If we win nowt this year then it will be time for changes. The thought of burrow playing next season does not fill me full of confidence.

Traditional thinking? He can't think. Get him walking, I can't spake!