They've had an injury crisis ?

Why has no one mentioned this ?

They have but unlike Leeds it hasn't stopped them being a competitive side all season

True but firstly they didn't lose key time in their pre-season and secondly we all know they are the best drilled/structed team in the league and have been for several years. This has had both its pros & cons. Last few years they've not had that special play/player like us and it's cost them trophies for two seasons but then losing players effects them less which is why they can cope better.

So what do you go for, a system in which can work when starters are missing but can lack a bit of magic to get you over the line at times or a system which relies on the the magic of your starters but is badly effected when you lose too many of those starters.

Both have pros and cons as the last 2 Grand Finals have shown.

Warrington the first team to lose both major finals (GF & CC) in the same year since Leeds in 2005.

Who was the coach both times?

The Arsene Wenger "specialist in failure" tag comparison that's floating around now for Smith is quite accurate.

Smith has won two Grand Finals, three Challenge Cups, three League Leaders' shields and a World Club Championship. Including the WCC his final win rate is 50%. Smith-coached teams have won trophies in eight out of the past 12 seasons. A failure he is not.

Much bigger specialists in failure were Huddersfield as a club before he went there, Leeds as a club before he went there and Warrington as club before he went there. What happened to each of those clubs after Tony Smith's involvement is remarkable.

It's such a fine line between success and failure and i suppose the coaches live and die by the sword at the top clubs especially. Wigan have been calling for Wanes head on a plate most of the year, now he is the messiah for masterminding a miracle and there are calls for him to be knighted!

If Smith had been the winning coach last night (and it was a tight game) it would be the same over there, he would be a genius yet now their fans are saying he hasn't got a clue, no bottle, time for a change etc..etc..

FWIW i think warrington are headed in the right direction, they just need a bit more punch in the pack and they will be there again as the top team next year imo. Getting rid of Smith would be a big mistake.

I'm sure warrington consider it all a great success those CC's they won 4 years ago, no title in 8 years and the subsequent run of final defeats since. Just like leeds fans thought it was in great in 2006.

I would rather be losers, and playing finals, than been non challengers any day. At least they don't have to suffer the utter embarrassment of the middle eights.

I don't care if we finished in the middle 8's this season. I'd take lower lows for greater highs. Warrington haven't won a title for 61 years and just can't get that title winning forumla. Would I f*ck swap places with them. We thought 32 years was bad. We thought that was a monkey. 61 years.

I would rather be sometimes lower than expected down the table but then winning grand finals when you get there, rather than just never winning. 2 out of 6 grand finals for smith.

Why can't you have both or at least a plan B for when injuries do strike?
Look at Powell at Cas aswell he had plans/structures that could be adapted to the players he had available which made them competitive all season.
Hiding behind excuses early on GH gave this squad/Coaches an excuse culture all season.
We keep hearing about how much they've learned well we'll soon see but imo the biggest mistake will be starting 2017 with the same Coaching set up & we've yet to see the quality recruitment we undoubtedly need.

The same was said about the coaching setup in the weeks after the 2015 season, and as much as people try and excuse 2015 as all being down to Sinfield and Peacock, it wasn't, you don't win a treble if the coaching staff is as useless as some make out on here.

It is true that they probably dragged themselves into that excuse culture with the injuries and flooding but then that is one of the things they could learn from, certainly the latter issue shouldn't hopefully arise this year.

And let's not forget we went into last year GF without Aiton, Ward, JJB, Sutcliffe. A few like Delaney and Ablett probably shouldn't have played and Leuluai was playing with a heart issue and could only do small minutes.....we hardly had it easy either and we overcame.