: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:10 am  

We were talking about this last night and IMO, I think that McNamara gets a bit of unfair stick.

Personally, I think that Noble got out of Odsal at the right time because generally speaking, I think you current problems would have happened anyway. McNarama has just been left 'holding the baby' in many respects.

Look at what Noble has done at Wigan - not an awful lot and when you look at the Bradford and Wigan squads, they are pretty similar in terms of strength and quality.

Many of your players from Bradford's period of dominance have moved on / retired, the salary cap has seem much of the talent pool spread around the league and on top of that, the like of Leeds (and to a extent St Helens) have massively improved. I can certainly remember us being on the back of similar hidings against your lot not that long ago - and in much bigger games.

You can't defend some of the abject plays that your side put in last night, both in terms of attack and defence. Injuries aside, that team you had last night is not a "42-point" team but at the same time, I doubt that you'd have left Headingley with two points last night with Wayne Bennett in charge, let along Nobby.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:14 am  

bramleyrhino wrote:

We were talking about this last night and IMO, I think that McNamara gets a bit of unfair stick.

Personally, I think that Noble got out of Odsal at the right time because generally speaking, I think you current problems would have happened anyway. McNarama has just been left 'holding the baby' in many respects.

Look at what Noble has done at Wigan - not an awful lot and when you look at the Bradford and Wigan squads, they are pretty similar in terms of strength and quality.

Many of your players from Bradford's period of dominance have moved on / retired, the salary cap has seem much of the talent pool spread around the league and on top of that, the like of Leeds (and to a extent St Helens) have massively improved. I can certainly remember us being on the back of similar hidings against your lot not that long ago - and in much bigger games.

You can't defend some of the abject plays that your side put in last night, both in terms of attack and defence. Injuries aside, that team you had last night is not a "42-point" team but at the same time, I doubt that you'd have left Headingley with two points last night with Wayne Bennett in charge, let along Nobby.

Rubbish if Nobby was still here we would have thrashed Leeds. We certainly never got embarrassed like that when Nobby coached us. In fact.. we never lost a game at Headingly when Nobby coached us!! What has McNamara done with the fantastic group of players that Nobby left us with? Blah blah blah

We're still to find out if McNamara has the quality right now to lead us out of this poor perform.. however a few on here seem to either have selective or very poor memories.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:16 am  

Indeed.

We should accept that this was "going to happen anyway" and accept that nothing can be done about it, and put up with the constant ineptness on show from McNamara's teams. It is wrong to want to see any signs of improvement, or anything positive that could give us confidence that our coach may be the man to improve the club in the future.

We should also quickly forget that the inept squad that Noble left for McNamara in 2006 showed more guts, passion, determination and ability in his penultimate game in charge, this very same Easter Thursday, fixture than McNamara's sides have in all the games they have played under his charge.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:31 am  

Asim wrote:

Indeed.

We should accept that this was "going to happen anyway" and accept that nothing can be done about it, and put up with the constant ineptness on show from McNamara's teams. It is wrong to want to see any signs of improvement, or anything positive that could give us confidence that our coach may be the man to improve the club in the future.

We should also quickly forget that the inept squad that Noble left for McNamara in 2006 showed more guts, passion, determination and ability in his penultimate game in charge, this very same Easter Thursday, fixture than McNamara's sides have in all the games they have played under his charge.

I'm not suggesting that at all and I'm not suggesting that Steve Mc is/isn't the right man for the job. I'm merely questioning the inferrance that someone such as Noble would have stopped the current rot that you guys seem to be in. I don't think that that's the case, as shown by what Noble has (or hasn't) done at Wigan.

It wasn't that long ago that we at Headingley were calling for the head of Tony Smith. We'd lost five on the spin, had been dumped out of the play-offs by a pretty poor Warrington side and even at times last year, were looking a million miles away from the team of 2004. The rest of course, is history. These rots happen and it takes a bit of hard work to get out of it, something that I'm sure a side as good as Bradford have. It might take a new approach to get it out, but that doesn't mean that a change of manager necesseraly.

The side you have now is nowhere near the side you had a few years ago and it might be a good while before you get there again. It's not necesseraly anybodies "fault", just the nature of sport. It's very rare for one team to dominate for a considerable period of time, unless you have the finances of a top four Premier League football club.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:42 am  

Its not Steve M's fault,

Its all Michael Platt.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:45 am  

bramleyrhino wrote:

I'm not suggesting that at all and I'm not suggesting that Steve Mc is/isn't the right man for the job. I'm merely questioning the inferrance that someone such as Noble would have stopped the current rot that you guys seem to be in. I don't think that that's the case, as shown by what Noble has (or hasn't) done at Wigan.

So we'll ignore the performances that came from the same set of players McNamara had as Noble in the very season he left then? Standards in defence, intensity of play etc seemed to drop off alarmingly almost as soon as Noble left, hence me using the Easter win at Headingley that year as a comparison. Within weeks Leeds trashed us 30-0 on our own patch.

That squad wasn't brilliant by any means, but at least under Noble they were coached with a gameplan where the strengths they did have could come to the fore and turn in respectable displays.

Of course I agree he has done nothing at all with Wigan, after all they a still a disorganised rabble with no belief marooned at the bottom of the table, just like they were when he took over, it isn't as if he led a much maligned squad to within 80 minutes of a Grand Final appearance in his first full year in charge, or even took them on a good run within months of taking over which comfortably kept them in Superleague.

I see they are doing appallingly again this season.

Asim wrote:

It wasn't that long ago that we at Headingley were calling for the head of Tony Smith. We'd lost five on the spin, had been dumped out of the play-offs by a pretty poor Warrington side and even at times last year, were looking a million miles away from the team of 2004. The rest of course, is history. These rots happen and it takes a bit of hard work to get out of it, something that I'm sure a side as good as Bradford have. It might take a new approach to get it out, but that doesn't mean that a change of manager necesseraly.

But we're not a good side anymore, and Tony Smith had proven more than capable in 2004 to be allowed time, McNamara has proved nothing, although his mates say nice things about him, so he must be a good coach.

Asim wrote:

The side you have now is nowhere near the side you had a few years ago and it might be a good while before you get there again. It's not necesseraly anybodies "fault", just the nature of sport. It's very rare for one team to dominate for a considerable period of time, unless you have the finances of a top four Premier League football club.

Who claimed anything otherwise?

Losing is one thing, and something I am more than able to accept as a sports fan, losing in the manner we all too often lose in is not acceptable.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:52 am  

Ajw71 wrote:

Its all Michael Platt.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:06 pm  

The Punisher..! wrote:

What about Tony Rea?

Do you mean Tony Rae?

Perhaps you mean Chris Rea. His song "Road to Hell" may come in handy.


After 2 off seasons surley Steve Mac can nolonger be 'in transition'.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:06 pm  

i think most of you guys are being a bit harsh on SM, and this is a knee jerk reaction to last nights result. Last week Leeds beat Quins by a bigger margin, and they were arguably the form team in the competition.
When a team gets beat as convincingly as you guys did last night, the losing team is always going to look poor and make loads of errors because they are playing desperate catch up rugby. when is the last time you saw a team get totally thrashed, and you thought the losing side played well. Last week you convincingly beat Wire, who were running hot. Leeds would have thrashed any team in superleague, and prob any team in the world, they are running that hot at the mo.
you are still a very good team and will hit form at some point, just as Leeds will go off the boil at some point of the season. Just dont hit form against Hull FC please.

: Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:10 pm  

I love the fact that these fans of other teams who don't have to watch the same cr*p week in, week out and haven't for the last two seasons are coming on commenting on our reaction to one solitary game