Grade E charge for Smith according to Pies forum.

By the way, anyone still disappointed that we lost Walters?

Maybe he would have kicked on given more opportunities, and he would certainly add a bit of size to our pack, but from what I've seen of him at Wigan he's regressed to his form of the Agar era. So much for being our best player of 2023, according to Jon Wilkin...

I note some Wigan fans want him to play prop in the coming game against Saints

Yes, I agree, it seemed that in the run to the 2022 GF he would make a decent prop, but I had the impression that he prefers SR and that may have been one of the reasons why he left? Aside from Smith not picking him at the start of 2023?

Clearly not kicked on as much as he would have hoped but would still liked to have retained him. He needs to bulk up. Far too slim for his height.

Attitude issues apparently.

He does seem to play with arrogant smirk, which seems to worsen when he makes a mistake.

I finally got around to watching the game. The defense was superb throughout, every player gave it everything. Although, there were still too many errors, especially in the first half. We can't afford to make as many mistakes against Warrington.

Would be great to have back to back good performances, even if we dont win vs wire

I watched it again last night. I'd echo Jack's points - defence much better than against Leigh, actually forcing errors through pressure (who'd have thought?), and the attack had a better structure.

On the downside, mistakes and our lack of size will still lose us games. Goudemand and TNW were ineffective off the bench. Maybe a bit unfair on TNW, but I struggle to see him as a SL player long term at his size. We also still go passive in defence occasionally, as there aren't enough players who are naturally aggressive in defence, and I don't think that will be fixed until we get new players in.

A downside/upside is what that game tells us about Cam Smith. The attack functioned perfectly well without a ball handling 13, which shouldn't surprise anyone as that's the way its been in the NRL forever. I'd imagine Arthur will want him back for his workrate and bulk, but he's awful as a playmaker and I'm not convinced he'll ever make a decent prop as he's not really big enough or dynamic enough for that. We'll see I suppose.

I may be alone in this, but I thought Sangare was surprisingly good in his first stint. I'm not saying he's a long term solution, but his sheer size at least forced the defence to put multiple players into the tackle, and he hit hard a couple of times in defence. But he just doesn't run in with enough aggression or speed, and I can't remember a player with that problem ever fixing it.

It is a test of Arthur's skills as a coach to get more out of those players. Powell did it at Cas with a number of players who seemed to be losing their way; just look at what Peters has done at HKR. Minchella was a journeyman, who is now an England international at a fraction of the size of some of those players.

You're right of course, he won't be able to change out the entire squad, so will have to improve some of the remaining players to get them to the right level. On Elliott, we both know that he always had the ability, he just needed to be in the right environment and stage of his life for things to come together. Coaching is about more than just telling players what to do, it's about creating the culture and environment that facilitates them to do it.

Yes that's correct.
For me the coach needs to set the standard and make sure the players are consistently achieving it or moving towards it.
One thing that stands out for me listening to some of the behind the scenes stuff is how "forthright" Arthur actually is, he knows what he wants and wont take any backsliding. The bit where he says "todays result means nothing if we dont back it up next week" is exactly what you want to hear him drill into the players.
He's also been shrewd enough to come in, look at the game plan and simplify it. We are now not trying to reinvent the wheel, we are doing the basics and despite some lapses we are hopefully moving in the right direction on that front. When we can get these down consistently the flowing attacking RL will be more to the forefront, Arthur knows we have to "Earn the right to play" and from what Ive seen and heard Im impressed with how he wants to go about it.

I get the feeling that Arthur is very much an old school kind of coach, willing to muck in with the players etc to an extent but always keeps a professional distance / separation whereas for right or wrong when we had Rohan in charge it was a bit too "matey"

I don’t think bad luck could be an excuse for Smith’s inability to create a competitive team. Bad luck could be associated with injuries to players, one off game changing decisions or persecution from the authorities resulting in losing players to bans. I think Rohan Smith was guilty of introducing bad practices into training and on the playing field. I actually think if the ruck had been speeded up by the authorities we would have been in massive trouble and even less competitive as a team. We were passive, slow of movement and slow of thought with Rohan in charge. The slow ruck speed excuse was a red herring, just like the “we’ll be better when the pitches firm up” . The wheels may come off for Brad Arthur over the next few weeks, but Rohan Smith had his chance and we were only going one way with this group of players coached by him. I wish him well, but apart from a damn good job of propelling us to the final in 2022 his tenure has been painful and set the club back in ways we may not yet appreciate.

How has Harry Smith got away with only 3 games for a Grade E?
Smashing your forearm into the head of a defenceless player face up on that ground and thats all it warrants? I thought the RFL had made a big song and dance about player welfare, and especially as it was on one that’s spent half the season out suffering with concussion.

Unbelievable