It's the same with all clubs, Leeds fans with BM, saints with Brown, Wigan with Wane, Warrington with Smith, wakey with Agar... Experience on the internet is counted in posts not hours on the training field, hmm wonder whod be better placed to coach a team though, tough one that.

I think McDonald is underrated. I thought he was outstanding in 2004.

What would the club need to achieve this year to change your mind?

Tony Smith ended a 32 year wait for a Championship at Headingley and had Leeds playing an attractive brand of rugby seldom seen of late, gawd help us if Brian McDermott is allowed to stay long enough to end an even longer drought than that. Had Leeds ever finished 1st on a top division table before they did it under Smith's leadership in 2004?

Before Leeds Smith took the rubbing rag that was Huddersfield RL turned them around and set them on the path to where they are today and since Leeds he's taken Warrington from a 10th placed finish to a top three in his first full season in charge while retaining the Challenge Cup that he and they also won the previous campaign. The 2009 Challenge Cup ended a Warrington drought in that comp that even exceeded the Leeds Championship drought prior to 2004. In 2011 Warrington topped the table for the first time in almost thirty years and they have maintained on average a top two finish in his four full seasons in charge.

Smith has shown at three clubs what effect employing a quality coach can bring - on and off the field. McDermott IMO has yet to prove he's capable of reaching that same standard.

So Smith is responsible for Hudds now too? Haha.
Yes he did win with Leeds and Wire, but he was given the great tools to work with. Had he taken over in 2000/2001, maybe not so much, coupled with Bradford, Wigan and Saints being stronger then. Once Saints got their act together after a very poor 2004 league campaign they topped Leeds three years running in the league. Bradford had their last hurrah and snatched the 2005 GF when Terry Newton had laid it on a plate for us with taking out some Saints players. Wigan ended up fighting relegation during Smith's year. We let other under-achievers like Hull and Hudds deny us in the CC and Wire in the 2006 playoffs. At least McDermott hasn't been knocked out of competitions by pretenders.

Did I say that or did I say this -

Before Leeds Smith took the rubbing rag that was Huddersfield RL turned them around and set them on the path to where they are today

"Set them on the path to where they are today" pretty much sounds like he's getting credit for Hudds.

He turned Huddersfield around and set them on the path.

Look at where they were before he arrived and look at where they were when he left.

Good coaches tend to leave clubs in a better state than that in which they found them - Smith's legacy is secured at two clubs and it's difficult to see how he won't repeat with his current club.

In the interests of balance I am sure you also meant to say that in Smiths first year at Huddersfield they were relegated and the turn around started the next season when McDermott joined Smith as assistant coach and gained promotion. You will say it was a coincidence of course that the turn around and being set on the path to where they are today was nothing to do with his assistant coach.

You I am sure also meant to say that when Smith came to Leeds he brought with him McDermott as his assistant coach. (who you will recall had nothing to do with the turn around at Huddersfield or the promotion gained after McDermott joined as assistant coach) McDermott also of course played no part in the Leeds turn around either and is not rated by the players that were there under Smith or indeed now.

So are you suggesting Brian McDermott makes a better assistant coach than head coach?

For anyone who questions just how dire that Huddersfield outfit were in SL 1998 to 2001 (Huddersfield-Sheffield for one of those years) after the RFL had promoted the McAlpine Stadium to the top flight consider how few of their 109 Regular Round fixtures they took both points from?

Smith arrived with very little (bar the use of a shiny stadium) to work with and had to start to rebuild the club from the basement up and a year outside the top flight was an integral part of that journey - one the RFL had denied the lamentable Huddersfield in successive years of propping up the rest.

He got relegated, got promoted, finished 10th from 12, with over half their points coming from wins against the 2 below them which included the woeful Halifax who only won 1 game all year so hardly much to brag about beating them. That leaves them being better than Wakey for 1 season. Hardly can claim to set them on the path.

Hudds success is more to do with Ken Davy and him bringing in better players (only 3 of the 17 who played in 2006 CC Final played under Smith)

Anyone you speak to at Huddersfield acknowledges that it was Tony Smith who began the turn-around at the club. To deny that is to deny what is pretty much obvious. Plenty of more credentialed coaches were there before him with better squads and failed to achieve anything. He turned the club and its culture completely around.

I have some sympathy for ThePrinter's views on Tony Smith, even if those views are being used in support of a Pro Brian McDermott agenda.

Tony Smith is always going to be regarded as a hero among most Leeds fans for being the coach in charge when the Holy Grail moment occurred in 2004. Any critique of him is always guaranteed to be challenged quite passionately.

However, the club did underachieve massively in 2005 and 2006 and some of his interviews and facial expressions on TV were becoming increasingly bizarre (just like some of his team selections were). Had Leeds not won that 2007 Grand Final, it would have been extremely difficult to speak of a Tony Smith legacy on the back of 3 unsuccessful seasons in a row.

IIRC, when it was announced in 2007 that Tony Smith was leaving at the end of that season, the opinion of the vast majority on this forum was one of relief and that it was high time for change at the top. Only with the sudden benefit of hindsight did those views suddenly change on the 13th October 2007 at approximately 7:40pm.

Coaches should move on after 3 years regardless of achievements

Enough water to fill the pacific ocean passed under the bridge between smith leaving and hudds getting good.