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.

A thought has occur ed to me whilst i was sat on the loo emptying my bowels.

Earlier in this thread, Smith has been criticised for leaving Barrie Mcdermott out of the team for the 2005 CC, a game we lost.

The much loved Graham Murray also left Barrie Mac out of the 1998 Grand Final line up in another game we lost but that does not get a mention.

Hetherington's biggest mistake was giving Daryl Powell a three and a half year contract with no 1st grade top division experience to his name. (And he might have got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky refs Russell Smith and Steve Ganson) One of Hetherington's best decisions was appointing Tony Smith to replace Powell before his contract was up and the whole Director of Rugby, going off to learn from the best was another piece of classic Hetherington.



It's a fair observation but McDermott wasn't selected throughout those 1st year play offs at all rather than just missing the next game. The team had therefore managed to make it through the finals series without his input.

i think,for me, its the fact we went into a game with no props on the bench against a team with a massive pack and massive forward loaded bench.either barrie or scruton should have been on the bench

because the players tell us and everything they say is gospel apparently

I would say both. a lot of people don't have time for Hetherington but he is a clever man , if Tony Smith was no good he would have gone a long time a go. I just hope Bluey can get us to the Challenge Cup Final this year.

Murray didn't play McDermott the whole season - so not quite the same scenario would you not agree?

McDermott played in 13 games for Leeds in 1998 including the last 5 regular season fixtures.

David?

Tony Smith must be a quality coach to turn Warrington around in such a short period of time.

Like I've often thought, the most important person in any club is the 1st team coach. Get that appointment right and you're half way there.

But remember that all the Wire players despise him. Some even think Tony Smith to be bipolar.

Lee Briers called him the best coach in the country by a mile

how many others has he played under?

loads warrigton used to change their coach every year until cullen got the job, ryan hall was at our game saturday he asked me who i thought would win i actually said warrington he yes you know why? i said coz i think they will they play the better rugby he said "yes, and they've got tony smith"

Quite a few I would imagine as he emerged at Saints in 1996 and moved to Wire in 1997.

All the players says the same things about him but we're expected to ignore it and pay attention to message board innuendo and rumour.

Unedited comments from Lee Briers regarding after the semi:

"He's the best coach by a mile in this country and you can see the character he has brought," he told BBC Sport.

"He has turned my game around. You say you can't teach an old dog new tricks but he is certainly teaching me.

I just wish he wasn't a total b*sta*d and I hate him."