: Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:23 pm  

When judging McNamara I've been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt until now as it was obvious the massive turn over of players would make it a transitional period for a couple of years. Once you get past the point where the majority of the players are his picks i think you can start accessing him on 2 things.

1) The players he has recruited. While this is constrained by finances to some extent, where we don't appear to have spare cash to pay transfer fees and our 2 purchased players Platt and Solomona have had mixed success, we haven't really pulled in anyone who's been an unqualified success (I'd exclude Morrison from this except for his injuries).
During this time we've also not attracted any true class at the top of their game and instead have a mix of underrated seasoned pro's (Evans and Finnigan spring to mind) and potential (Scruton and Worrincy) along with a lot of squad players.
Overall in this area I don't think he's done anything badly wrong as he's adjusted the balance of our squad to include less overseas players (as required by the change in rules) and generally have a much younger average age.

2) Are the players performing to their potential or improving? This is where the coaching team has to be looked at as a group and in my opinion the thing we've lost is a discipline and mental toughness to win difficult games. Individual players have developed (Cook, Burgess, Halley) but organisation often looks poor and goal line defence is missing too often. When we do get it right the players have shown themselves to be capable but something isn't right mentally and the good days are too far apart.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:12 pm  

northy wrote:

i think its the chairman that has to go

To be replaced by who?

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:41 pm  

So far looks like the sack Mac crowd are in the minority.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:59 pm  

I can't believe some idiots want to "sack the chairman". How pathetic. Do we have a queue of people waiting to step in to that spot, then?

WTF has he done wrong?

Sorry but I really have no patience at all with the "SACK EVERYBODY" merchants, these people are like the cast of Thriller with no brain, myopia, blinkers and all the strategic nous and long term planning of the vampire zombie undead.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:00 pm  

Ancient Provocateur wrote:

So far looks like the sack Mac crowd are in the minority.

Well i'm in that minority. But i've never rated him as highly as most.

No matter how you see it. 13th place and dumped out of the Challenge cup just isn't good enough.

Couple that with some of the worst performances from the Bulls this century when it doesn't bode well.

Some people have been quiet recently.

It does seem to be anyone who openly just wants McNarama sacked based on results, justs gets shot down straight away, usually by the finance and who else? scenarios. They have a fair point too, but these people seem to be the die hard fans and i'm not sure the average supporters can allow this as an excuse cause it's not open how much financial poop we are in couple with the fact we are 13th!! The road this team is going down it won't have the fans to rebuild if it can. That's my worry.. 8000+ last week was a joke.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:25 pm  

Adeybull wrote:

Easy. Option 5.

Before doing anything, identify the causes of the problems not just the symptoms. We can all see the symptoms, but the only people in a position to properly identify the causes are those very close to the problems. Answers like "its the coach's fault" are far too simplistic.

If it transpires that the causes are indeed largely down to the coach (which may prove so, but I will admit to considerable doubts) then its at least option 3 - no brainer or even option 4 if the causes are that serious.

If it transpires that the causes are a lot more complex, and are largely down to factors beyond the coach's control (which, worryingly, is what I am more concerned about) then this poll would be about as helpful as rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The issue then would be a whole lot more fundamental than replacing the coach.

I'm sure that people close to the problems have a damn good idea what the causes are. And as I've said elsewhere, I'd love to hear Morro's and Beaver's honest take on it all. If coaching IS the issue, I'd expect activity to already be underway anyway. If.

My biggest worry is that someone might take a decision to replace the coach because its that's easier than fixing the real causes, like Wigan used to do.

McNamara is responsible for the playing side of the club. It's this thats under performing. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have the same funds available as previous coaches he's spent his budget on these players. Players which he thought we could challenge with.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:32 pm  

I voted sack Macca just to put that option in front. Can't make my mind up how all my aliases should vote yet.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:37 pm  

redeverready wrote:

McNamara is responsible for the playing side of the club. It's this thats under performing. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have the same funds available as previous coaches he's spent his budget on these players. Players which he thought we could challenge with.

What other side to the club is there, and is that performing or over-performing?

What would your view be if, for the sake of argument, decisions about how long a contract to offer players and how much to offer them were not taken by Macca but by someone else, and issues like that were causing problems? Or if, contrary to what we have been led to believe, Macca is not being allowed to spend the full cap (maybe cos of disappointing gates...?) or Macca would love to offer players - current and prospective - the sort of "tax-efficient" (or even brown-envelope?) deals that allegedly some other clubs seemed able to offer but ours will not? Or some player is being paid loads more than others because someone other than the coach made the decision?

The above is all hypothetical, and I'm not hinting at knowledge of info not in the public domain because I don't have any. Just suggesting that its always possible there could be other factors at play that ANY coach would have to contend with.

You and so many others continue to address the symptoms, when none of us on here (unless we have substantial inside information) really know the true cause.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:39 pm  

redeverready wrote:

McNamara is responsible for the playing side of the club. It's this thats under performing. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have the same funds available as previous coaches he's spent his budget on these players. Players which he thought we could challenge with.

But what if funds are being cut on areas that aren't necessarily visible but would have an impact none the less
E.g.
Training facilities
Nutrition
Travel
Quality Assistant coaches
Other staff - meaning increased weight on SM's shoulders

I'm sure I could think of more, but you get the idea.

Whilst I appreciate these would probably all only have a small net effect, you start adding them all together, coupled with the negativity corner cutting produces, then it becomes a little more than the coach not coaching properly.

Also, to be clear, I am not saying any of these are happening or have happened, I was just highlighting a couple of examples that COULD influence what is going on.

: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:07 pm  

I would be very interested to read a dissertation by the Bulls' conditioner entitled something like:

"Player Conditioning Over the Easter Schedule - A discussion of the apparent differing performance and energy levels of players and teams in Super League over a busy period"