Faith in McDermott is fully justified

McDermott will lead Rhinos out at Old Trafford on Saturday night in only his first season in charge at Headingley Carnegie.

However, there was plenty of doubters about the appointment of the ex-Harlequins chief following an indifferent opening to the year for the former Super League champions. Even as late as mid-July, inconsistent Leeds were as low as eighth, prompting fears from some that they may not even reach the play-offs for the first time in their history.

McDermott – who eventually saw his side finish fifth – had initially arrived last September as Brian McClennan’s assistant with a view to succeeding him in 2012.

But, just weeks later when the Kiwi – who led the West Yorkshire club to titles in 2008 and 2009 – decided to return home early, Rhinos promoted the ex-Great Britain prop to the main role and some people questioned whether he was ready for such a task especially during their early malaise.

However, Hetherington told the Yorkshire Post: “I never doubted it, not at all.

“The reason why is because Brian is the sort of character who has got his own beliefs and principles and he has stood by them.

“Those are the sorts of traits you need to be a head coach – they are crucial – as it is so different to being an assistant, but Brian has them.

“As the head coach at Leeds Rhinos you have got to be a strong character and he’s proven that.

“He’s come under pressure from people who don’t know what they are talking about.

“We’ve attracted a lot of new fans to Leeds and he received criticism from that sector which is understandable as people are new to the game, but Brian has proved what he is capable of.”

Hetherington believes the former Royal Marine’s ability to coax more out of experienced players, not just burgeoning youngsters like Ben Jones-Bishop and Kallum Watkins, has been part of the reason Leeds have prospered of late.

They reached the Challenge Cup final and have won all five games since to reach the league decider against St Helens.

“It’s just reward for both Brian, Jimmy Lowes and all the coaching staff because they’ve done an extremely good job,” he said.

“They took over for the start of the season when we were going through something of a transition and it needed to be carefully handled.

“They did that extremely well. It has been an up and down season – we’ve had some poor results – but he has grasped some difficult issues and made a lot of changes.

“The way he has got Brett Delaney playing in the back-row from centre, the form of Ryan Bailey and Ian Kirke – who have had possibly their best seasons yet – and, in particular, the way he has got Kevin Sinfield functioning has been fantastic.

“People were saying what’s happened to Rob Burrow earlier this season but now all of a sudden he looks like the best player in Super League – he’s having a real impact off the bench – while Brian has also developed Carl Ablett at centre.

“All of that is not really coaching either, but more man-management, so he has done terrific.”

None more so than masterminding Friday’s thrilling 26-24 success at minor champions Warrington, a victory which Hetherington believes has re-energised the whole club.

“It was such an epic win and it’s just created such an amazing buzz around the place,” he said.

“Some have said it was the best game of the Super League era and it’s hard not to agree given all the intensity, drama, tension and quality tries while we had also been so massively written off which was ridiculous.

“We’re hoping for a real big following on Saturday.

“It’s a very different feeling to Wembley.

“A lot of fans were pessimistic about our chances against Wigan then, but now, after the elation of what happened on Friday night, things are different.

“It’s good for Yorkshire too – we’d all been playing second fiddle to Wigan, Warrington and Saints this year – but it’s all about winning now.

“Saints come in on the back of good form themselves and it should be a terrific final.”

Leeds will announce their 19-man squad for Old Trafford tomorrow with Watkins expected to be named following his absence since the Wembley final defeat with a knee injury.

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