Quote:
tvoc "Quote: tvoc "Enough water to fill the pacific ocean passed under the bridge between smith leaving and hudds getting good.'"
The three clubs that Tony Smith has coached in SL have all improved markedly under his control. The mark of a good coach.
No doubt many Leeds fans were initially disappointed when the CEO announced a relative 'no mark' was being appointed to one of the biggest (and most pressured) jobs in RL but he was the type of no-nonsense coach Leeds needed after Powell had steadied the ship and cleared out some of the dead wood post Lance - Powell got them close but he just couldn't get Leeds over the line most notably over the top of Bradford. Under Powell 2 wins from 13 - both within a four month spell in '02 - otherwise a barren wasteland over three full seasons, losing the last seven despite often coming agonisingly close.
Smith arrived and in his first act dropped the hitherto undropable Francis Cummins ending his mammoth run of consecutive appearances in the process. I would say that decision was merited and long overdue but I think Smith would have done it regardless just for the signal it sent out - we're all here to work, places have to be earned, no player gets selected on sentiment. Leeds beat Bradford on six of their next seven meetings - the solitary loss coming in the '04 QSF. Even after a fantastic season of entertaining rugby who among us (at least those old enough to remember the previous 32 years) can honestly say their heart didn't sink at the very real prospect of another potless campaign. Not under this quality coach - the demons were slain two weeks later at Old Trafford and Leeds haven't needed to doubt themselves since.
Of course there will always be an element of looking back through rose-tinted spectacles and I'd be the first to say that Smith didn't get everything right from my point of view but did I care that night at Old Trafford .... did I f***'"
About 18 months into smith's reign things went rapidly west and weren't recovered until weeks before smith was leaving.
It was as if Smith went temporarily insane and went on some vindictive crusade to see how many big games he could get leeds to lose against teams they'd beaten comprehensively, sometimes weeks prior.
Losing the CC final....AND the grand final, in the space of a couple of months after dominating the regular season, even managing to finish second in the regular season. Then 2006 began to reach a climax and who could forget those embarrassing defeats to hudds and warrington (who at that time were poor) in the CC and playoffs respectively. Then in 2007 leeds managed to exit the CC at the earliest opportunity against an average wigan team, drop silly points in a poor league with little competition and fnish second.
At this point leeds had just over 2 years of inconsistent, sometimes bizarre performances and playing poorly/ losing big games. Despite their being little competition at the top, and leeds best players in their prime of life it felt as if leeds were completly throwing away their golden era and their chance of success.
Leeds were offered little in the way of explanation from dictator smith, except for unerving sometimes schizophrenic facial twitches and contortions.
Eventually, it appeared when the team could see light at the end of the tunnel and smiths departure in sight, they rallied in october 2007, brought home the bacon and so with smith's departure, the golden era began.