Leeds Rhinos’ top 10 moments – No 9: Brian McDermott

It was McDermott’s second spell at Leeds, after a stint as assistant to Tony Smith in 2004 and 2005.

The former Bradford Bulls prop was set to return from London club Harlequins as assistant to Brian McClennan, but two months after that arrangement was confirmed, the Kiwi opted to return home and McDermott stepped into the hot seat.

In a three-year stint, McClennan had won two Grand Finals, the league leaders’ shield and taken Leeds to Wembley, but McDermott’s appointment brought even more glory.

Rhinos claimed the Super League title in each of his first two seasons in charge, ended a 15-year wait to regain the Challenge Cup in 2014 and were treble-winners the following year.

Then, in 2017 when it seemed their era of dominance was over, they rose from the dead to seal an eighth title – and McDermott’s fifth – with an upset win over Castleford Tigers at Old Trafford.

McDermott also guided Rhinos to a World Club Challenge win in 2012 and his haul of trophies made him the most successful team boss in Leeds’ history.

McDermott was in charge at Rhinos for seven full seasons and they failed to reach a major final in only one of those, 2016.

Despite his achievements, McDermott failed to win over some Leeds fans, who would point to a relatively poor record in the league, but his ability to raise Rhinos’ players in big matches – and come up with a winning gameplan – was outstanding.

In hindsight, McDermott could have bowed out after the historic treble triumph in 2015, when the team began to break up and proving his critics wrong two years later would have been a fitting finale.

In the end, the decision was made for him when he was sacked in July, 2018. After a spell out of the game he returned as coach of Toronto Wolfpack, masterminding their successful promotion push into Super League last year.

***

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. These are challenging times but the team at the Yorkshire Evening Post need your support more than ever in the weeks ahead.

While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you - wherever possible and providing it is safe for you to do so - to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Inevitably falling advertising revenues will start to have an impact on local newspapers and the way we continue to work during this period of uncertainty. So the support of our readers has never been more important as we try to make sure that we keep you connected with the city you live in during this time. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. We need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Our team of trusted reporters are working incredibly hard behind the scenes- from kitchen tables and spare bedrooms - to look at how we can do this and your continued support to the YEP will help to protect its viability in the days and weeks ahead.

For more details on our subscription offers please visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk/YEP, email [email protected] or call us on 0330 4033004

Thank you, Laura Collins, Editor