Peacock is one view point and perhaps after Noble Smith was a breath of fresh air - also the timing of the book will have had an impact on the comments - not sure Peacock would have spoken in such glowing terms at the end of 2006?

It would be also interesting to see if he still holds Smith in such high esteem after the debarcle of the WC and a year with McClennan in charge.

Which again highlights the good work Daryl Powell did for Leeds in this area and a fact overlooked by some when looking back at his contribution. He laid the platform for Leeds' recent success.

It's a fair point to make but I still saw several players despatched on loan to play SL elsewhere by Tony Smith rather than find some games to test them out at Leeds. Fair enough. When you do that you run the risk of them liking 1st team rugby elsewhere and losing them for good as nearly happened with Burgess at Harlequins.

Likewise, you are not going to get a group of 25 or so highly competitive individuals (all on different pay structures) fighting for 17 starting places in a team, who are all going to like the boss. Especially when said boss has to tell you occaisionally how $h1t you've performed and that you won't be playing for a few weeks because of it.
There won't be a coach in the history of sport who is "liked" by all his players, and many will in fact despise him no matter how successful the team is and how good he is at his job.
I beleive everything you've posted, I just can't imagine it's different anywhere else (even now with Bluey).

I agree with Fur Q.

What a shrewd and intelligent comment.

I think, like all his lyrics, he was being ironic.

Give a dog a bad name and all that.

How do you know that?

If he has changed his mind about a bloke just because he's workerd under another then he's probably very fickle and not the best person to be asking these questions to.

So, if we're to believe the rumour and conjecture posted by Tad and Eccleshill we have to accept that certain players they don't name (and I assume one of them is McGuire) are liars and hypcorites.

Hmmmmm. OK, if that is true then are those players that have allegedly lied to the press a good judge of a character anyway?

Oh, and I am glad someone recognises the sterling work of Darryl Powell. If we believe the rumour and conjecture posted on here Mcguire was going to leave the club if Powell remained, or Smith remained, or Noble was appointed..................

You see this is why I don't believe the rumour and conjecture about players feelings because even if its' true it doesn't reflect badly on the coaches, it reflects very badly on the players themselves.

I agree, but then the latter wouldn't fit with the agenda that certain posters have where Tony Smith is concerned.

How anyone can decry the guys achievements when he brought us 2 titles, a league leaders, another GF appearance and a challenge cup final appearance (losing by 1 point) in 4 years beggars belief.

Were these people watching Leeds through the 80s and early to mid 90s?

If they were however did they cope?

Gareth. You have to understand rumour and conjecture is ok if it's against Smith but if it's for him then evidence to backup your claims is required.

I wish these fans really had something worthwhile to moan about rather than the most successful coach in our history (although I believe will be unseated by McClennan)

here's hoping.

..........but then we'll get "told you so" and they'll have missed the point yet again.

Course they will. They don't realise that appreciating Smith's achievements and Mclennan's are NOT mutually exclusive.

As with appreciating what Powell and Dean Bell before him put in place to enable Smith (and latterly McLennan) to be successful...

Yes

or indeed Laughton before them, or indeed what Hetherington enabled and supported them to put into place.

I always said powell didn't get the recognition he deserved for his efforts pre-smith and when i think back to the idiots calling for hetherington out aswell i'm embarrassed for them

It is not about liking though it it is about respect - big difference - if a player is dropped because of poor form no problem - if he is dropped for other reasons not rugby or discipline that is when players lose respect - if they feel a player is being victimised then respect evaporates.

I agree

Regards
Matt Diskin

what was lance's contribution ? or the one often referred to as a dinosaur Reilly ? And who authorised the contracts for has beens under laughton?

Smith's 1st year was the coming together of a lot of things that'l l hopefully never degenerate again. Maybe he was the only one capable of being the final piece @ that time, maybe others would have kept a winning run over the coming seasons.

Maybe john dorahy thought himself a good coach as he got sacked for the winning the treble @ wigan

Well it definately wasn't Hetherington if that's what you're implying there.

Not much. Although he was thinking of introducing a basketball scholarship last I heard.

Which stint? The first one as head coach I think he did bare minimum and had little (if anything) to do with our junior development programme. The 2nd time he simply held Powell's hand for a little while.

The board I think. I prefer to praise him for installing the junior programme that is bearing such fruit now. It was he who signed Kevin Sinfield, Adrian Morley, Francis Cummins and a few others.

Or perhaps you should have said if a player "thinks" he is dropped for other reasons. Have you never met or heard of anyone in life (or especially prefessional sport) that didn't have ego? I work with several sales people and not one of them can even contemplate that their way of doing things isn't absolutely the best - no matter what anyone else (or obvious resulta) tell them.
It's a fine line soemtimes. Pro sportsmen (and anyone trying to accomplish things in life) need to have self belief combined with the ability to identify when they should shut up and learn something. We're all human and don't always get it right.
Your problem is you have never rated Smith, so your belief in that position makes it impossible for you to be objective - no matter how successful he has been on the field.

Interesting isn't it (post Doug Laughton) that the one constant has been Gary Hetherington who himself has not been immune from ill-informed criticism on here.
That's not to say that he hasn't committed some errors of judgment (Dean Lance) but wasn't he recommended by Graham Murray?
Another good reason not to rely on player appraisal it seems to me.

i can appreciate smiths work, he did some supurb work in his time at leeds,however i feel he could,and should have done better.he made some strange decisions at times.
not rotating the squad at all in 2005 meaning the players were shattered by the play offs springs to mind.
one player,who played under him at hudds, told me he liked the man,respected him but couldn't work him out at times.he would be great then pull a rabbit from nowhere which was bemusing.
all in all i think smith did a good job,but as gareth has mooted before,it was the right time for him to move on.