Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Fri Jun 01, 2018 2:35 pm  

Ex-Swarcliffe Rhino wrote:

They did.

I changed it back.

Not much on this site makes me laugh anymore but this did.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Fri Jun 01, 2018 2:54 pm  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

I agree with someone else who said they're fine with us not winning anything this season. We won what was probably an unexpected title last year with the Golden Generation running on fumes, so this was always going to be tough. We've had a fair few injuries as well and BM has an ever ageing squad with very few forwards at their peak. Any coach would struggle with that.

I'm still not convinced that BM is the right coach to rebuild the side moving forward, at least without getting a good technical coach in to rejuvenate the way we play. IMO our "unstructured" style is increasingly ineffective and also to be frank boring to watch.

The more years that pass the more I have come to the conclusion that McD has done at least as well as anyone would have done and probably far better. We criticize the lack of structure in the team, the individual failings of players etc. But still we won stuff, lots of stuff. Other teams are no better - not consistently anyway - they all have better patches but then so have we.
The game has changed. It's not one team, it's all of them. Defences are stifling and attack is unimaginative and based on pressure, field position and scoring from 5 metres out. This is the environment we now watch RL in. It's why Cuthbertson in his first season was a spectacular breath of fresh air.
I'd say we get crap rugby to watch because the sport is full of players who are extremely limited in capability. It's like watching A team rugby from the 80's. Any coach can only do so much with so little.
Who can blame McD hanging on to some great players when there is so little to replace them with.

Is it time for him to go? Who knows. I don't.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:06 am  

8 years in charge at the rhinos.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 6:58 am  

Actually DHM, I'd say if defences were up to scratch like the NRL then within 10m would be the hardest to score from.

I think the sport as a whole is suffering from too much focus on size and strength, and whilst in terms of the physics of passing most players are far better than they were twenty years ago, in terms of understanding what they are trying to do most are far worse. Its almost impossible for even the fastest runner to score long distance tries because so many players are quick, and they're fit enough to get back in cover. The sport also generally punishes teams that take risks - kicking early, Stevo's beloved chip over the top, speculative passes etc just generally give away possession in bad positions.

I look at a lot of NRL games and the highest reward generally goes to those teams that don't make mistakes, play for field position and pressure the other team into mistakes. There is almost literally no way the likes of Jason Robinson or Martin Offiah would even get a gig in the NRL. Andy Gregory would get smashed off the pitch crabbing across the field. Even a Hanley would struggles as he'd be way too small for the pack. That's just English players, and there are plenty of Aussie equivalents.

IMO the sport as a whole needs to take a long hard look at entertainment. I'd cut interchanges right back, and look at any means necessary for reducing stoppages, as IMO they're what enable these monstrous athletes to completely dominate the game. When did the rules change such that an injured player nowhere near play stopped the game? Why so long to form a scrum or have a discussion with captains about every penalty? If the defence takes ages to pack a scrum, allow a quick tap and sinbin anyone who should be in the scrum who makes a tackle. Whilst we're at it why not just play decent advantage like in RU - the advantage lasts until it has obviously gone. Etc etc.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:39 am  

Good post Brisbane, i would add the age of time it takes to keep looking over VR decisions especially in SL.

Honestly don't see too much that can be done but i would love a complete clean up of the ruck and the wrestle that would go a long way to speeding the game up and helping the general flow.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:45 am  

DHM wrote:

The more years that pass the more I have come to the conclusion that McD has done at least as well as anyone would have done and probably far better. We criticize the lack of structure in the team, the individual failings of players etc. But still we won stuff, lots of stuff. Other teams are no better - not consistently anyway - they all have better patches but then so have we.
The game has changed. It's not one team, it's all of them. Defences are stifling and attack is unimaginative and based on pressure, field position and scoring from 5 metres out. This is the environment we now watch RL in. It's why Cuthbertson in his first season was a spectacular breath of fresh air.
I'd say we get crap rugby to watch because the sport is full of players who are extremely limited in capability. It's like watching A team rugby from the 80's. Any coach can only do so much with so little.
Who can blame McD hanging on to some great players when there is so little to replace them with.

Is it time for him to go? Who knows. I don't.

Personally I think that is very short sighted. Technically it is wholly correct, but in the bigger picture it is wrong. Where are we as a club from when he came in to where he is now? we are massively backwards. Yes we have won things, but that has been at the sacrifice of everything we built on to win those things in the first place, something that he has a coach can not deal with the way previous ones have. We now have to start again to repeat it, and that won't start with him at the helm.

In terms of your other point on standard, again you are correct here. But again I put this down to the likes of McDermott and the other British coaches that do not have the standard in them to coach to the levels we used to have. It isn't that the standard of player that has dried up, its just simply they are never delveoped like they were due to the coaches at the top at clubs.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 8:02 am  

Gotcha wrote:

In terms of your other point on standard, again you are correct here. But again I put this down to the likes of McDermott and the other British coaches that do not have the standard in them to coach to the levels we used to have. It isn't that the standard of player that has dried up, its just simply they are never delveoped like they were due to the coaches at the top at clubs.

Is there a correlation between the number of ex-forward coaches - Wane, McD, Radford, Cunningham, Betts, McN - & the dour RL they coach, against the more entertaining, but not necessarily successful, brand coached by ex-HBs like Powell & Holbrook?

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 8:20 am  

tigertot wrote:

Is there a correlation between the number of ex-forward coaches - Wane, McD, Radford, Cunningham, Betts, McN - & the dour RL they coach, against the more entertaining, but not necessarily successful, brand coached by ex-HBs like Powell & Holbrook?

Interesting point, am now trying to remember the coaches of yesteryears great teams.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 8:47 am  

Doug Laughton was a great forward and his teams played entertaining stuff.

Re: For the live of God,Allah or whoever-McDermott GO!!! : Tue Jun 05, 2018 9:31 am  

Marty Grrrrrrrrrr! wrote:

Doug Laughton was a great forward and his teams played entertaining stuff.

I thought about the older coaches - Noble being another very successful ex forward - but concluded they had exemplary players in a time of poorer defence coaching & conditioning. They is a dearth of the players like Offiah, Davies, Sorenson, Tait, Devereux, Myler, Pauls, Vaikona, Vainikolo, Withers, Peacock, Lowes; who would be superstars today.
Both Laughton & Noble have failed to replicate their successes at clubs with less talent at their disposal.