Why wasn't he wearing a Red Rose?

The great people of our game perform at the highest level. He is obviously a good coach, if he coaches England to glory he will be a great one.

Tony Smith has done an excellent job at Warrington. After our start to the season nobody would have given us a chance of making top 8, never mind winning the Challenge Cup.

He is instilling the right mental attitude it the side. Prior to his arrival there is no way we would have beaten Hull KR in the quarter or Wigan in the semi.

We are now with the mental strength to hold out under pressure. Some of our defence today was incredible.

But you said he had not turned Wire around. Quite clearly he has.

As for being a success at International level - the guy is Human, he needs something to work with in fairness.

Winning two league titles with vastly underachieving Leeds, taking them to a World Champions crown and then taking vastly underachieving Warrington to a cup win within months of joining is a fantastic achievement.

He's the best coach this Country has seen for a long time

Coaching a club team is massively different to coaching a national side. I wouldn't expect Wayne Bennett or Ricky Stuart could take our national team and do much with it.

He has brought them success and done what any coach would of done going to a team like that.

It was not a massive job trying to get wire winning. They have good players, its like he had to go and sign a load of players and change the whole club around.

Load of rubbish

"Any Coach" doesn't go in and turn a club around

As a Leeds fan I have great experience of this. We used to be very much like Warrington. We chucked money at everything. Finally in the 90's we assembled a fantastic looking squad, Alan Tait, Richie Eyres, Ellery Hanley, Garry Schofield, Gary Mercer - the only thing missing was a "great coach"

Bearing in mind we had already failed under Mal Reilly (who had a bit of success with GB and won an NRL title in Oz) we appointed Doug Laughton, who had broken Wigans dominance (as you should well know) with his great Widnes side.

He failed miserably

It takes a great coach to turn around a big ship thats sinking, and Tony Smith is just that, no matter how your club bias comes into it

Brian Noble turned Wigan around from relegation contenders to within one match of the CC final and GF. Considering Noble has nothing like the players that Tony Smith has then id say Noble has proven himself as well.

so are you...and bitter and twisted as well...suck on it...challenge cup winners 09

Well Brian Noble considered the opening try scorer not good enough for Wigan, clearly....however....

Nobodys criticising Noble here - its a thread about Tony Smith

I don't really think you understand my point.

Just making a point thats all! Seems one rule for one and another rule for another on here.

you`d know all about that then...

I'm not sure you have one, other than trying to make out Smith wouldn't have improved Wigan. Which would of course have been nonsense.

Where do I state that he would not improve Wigan, or that I would not love for him to be our coach?

I do have a point, if you do not understand it, thats ok. I am not here for an argument.

How are you sure he would?

Wigan do not have a fantastic team on paper. Warrington do. everybody was miffed why Warrington couldnt win anything with the squad they had. It was only a matter of time before they got their act together. IMO Noble could of done the job Smith has at Warrington.

Make some sense or do one.

I don't want an argument either, I'm a Leeds fan! Its no big deal to me!

Just not sure what your point is. You can explain without getting angry.

The fact is, you stated "any coach" could have turned Warrington around. From personal experience as a Leeds fan, I know that it takes a certain coach to make it work, and you as a Wigan fan should be fully aware of that yourself.

Ironically, Warrington have Richie Mathers as full back, a try scoring, Grand Final winning, Challenge Cup winning full back deemed good enough for the NRL in their ranks. I wonder who found them surplus to requirements at the DW Stadium....







Noble benefitted from what Matthew Elliott built. This is quite clear now.

My point is that not much needed doing at Warrington, they had the players, the fans, everything all a new coach needed to do is settle the players down and give them some confidence. It has not been a special job at Warrington, it was ready made for a coach to come in and do a good job. Turning England around is a different matter which is a lot harder and is why I will judge him on that.

You do know we lost about 10 in a row before smith came in?

That line was not the only one in my post, read the rest of it and you can clearly see my point.

He is a good coach but many other coaches could of done the same, it was no amazing turn around you have great players already.

Yeah ok ice cream cone.

You're talking as if their players are world beaters! Sure, they have some household names, but man for man, they aren't a side that would seem a major threat to anyone.

You've ignored my point about Leeds. A direct comparison. Fan base, Stadium, money,players - guess who turned it round after 20 years? Tony Smith.

Its apparant on here that Wigan were fortunate to get rid of Mathers, and your fans seem pleased with his replacement at full back and wouldn't swap him. You have taken the GB centre AWAY from Warrington, clearly weakening them. Micky Higham was surplus to requirements at Wigan, so thats another reject.




Complete and utter disrespect for a coach like Tony Smith, and I'm glad he never landed at Wigan and you've wasted all that money on Noble.

Unlucky

I dont agree. Look what Jimmy Lowes did when he first took over from Cullen, ask any Wire fan if they think Lowes is a good coach

Wire are a good team waiting to happen, look at their playing squad, Morley, Carvell, King, Monoghan. Then Riley looks like he'll be a good 'un, as does Tyrone Mcarthy. Harrison is going great stuff

I'm not doubting smith's ability to coach, but it will be clearer after the "honeymoon" period is over just how good a job he has done.