It's obvious the club are waiting for other(s) before the big announcement. It's either Smith waiting for a visa (Like the Butcher says) or it's other key backroom staff they are waiting on.

There's definitely more than just the Coach announcement. It may just be a timing thing, but it just feels like something or someone else is holding it back. If it was just Noble they were waiting on the Dr would have done it much sooner than now.

Money spent getting an "expert" to train people to be able to concentrate for 80 minutes would be money wasted. Concentration from kick off to final hooter should be drilled in by existing coaching staff and, let's be fair, a standard expectation of any professional rugby league player.

Tell you what, I'll do it for free...

Agreed. If it is Noble the delay will probably help, allowing him to have a good look at the players/ team and have plenty time to formulate his ideas and work on his 'Salford Revolution Masterplan'.

Smith to earn big bucks in England
Veteran Brian Smith is poised to become one of the richest coaches in rugby league when he links up with the Salford club in England. Smith will be right alongside the likes of Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett if he accepts the job in coming days. Salford's owner is a multi-millionaire racehorse owner, Dr Marwan Koukash, and he has earmarked Smith as the man to take over from the sacked Phil Veivers.'"

I personally hope Smith is involved in some way or another, that article is 2 weeks old though.

I totally disagree at this level of sport physically the players are prime athletes physical specimens. What goes on between their ears at this level can be the difference between winning and losing you over look this like salford have done over the years and you have a team that gets caught in a cycle of doubt and defeat and become scared of winning. So many examples of teams and individuals who have used phycology in their sport to gain a edge.

Take United we have a reputation of scoring late goals, don't tell me that it doesnt effect an opponent when the clocks ticking down and United are pushing for the winner / equaliser their isnt a panic on, panic is fear panic can cause you to do odd / unexpected things. Its basically visualising united scoring it happens quite a bit so the United players are confident when the chance comes they will score because it has happened the more it happens the more confident it will happen again.

It does help having the best players in the world but they all had to buy into the mind set that united always score .

Unfortunately salford dont have the success of late tries to draw on but as a individual each player during their career may have experience to draw on and after remembering how it felt and how they delt with it mentally it might affect how they deal with certain circumstances which are similar

I dont think its a full time role and you would need the players to buy into it and work with him / her but say twice a week one on a march day to reprogram the way the players deal with game situations will definitely benefit imo.

I think this psychology coach thing is a load of crap. Once the coach gets the team playing with confidence and with quality players in your team there is always a chance you know something is going to happen. Look at Leeds against Catalan, they never know when they are beaten, but I don't think that is anything to do with a psycology coach.

www.liquidthinker.com/sports-psychology.aspx Warrington www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... btree.html Huddersfield Both clubs seem to have adopted a phycologist or mind coach to improve performance its all about getting an edge

www.liquidthinker.com/sports-psychology.aspx Warrington www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyl ... btree.html Huddersfield Both clubs seem to have adopted a phycologist or mind coach to improve performance its all about getting an edge

Didn't work for Warrington in the Grand Final. It's clearly done wonders for Hudds, too.

Good players with the correct coaching will concentrate for 80 minutes. Having a mind games specialist will make no difference to that.

It's clearly working at international level.

Having that edge has guided England to many victories against The Kiwis and Aussies.

Oh, wait......

Lets not forget Bobby that if you don't have the correct fitness and conditioning no amount of "bobby mind magic" is going to help.
If and only if we can improve those two key elements will the team become less of a risk to leak try's at the end of 40 mns when they are knackered.

Huddersfield must only employ the mind doc for early season, as they always fall apart in the second half of the season.

I own one of Damien Hughes's books (the sports psychologist at Warrington). I bought it mainly through Red Issue Sanc to get an insight into what it is they do. The tactic in the book is to use the habits of successful people and extraordinary feats by those previously seen as unremarkable, such as rlCliff Youngrl, and apply them to your life and the situations you're likely to be in. So the desired effect is for a player to think: ‘Well if those people can achieve what they did, surely I can too!’ Thus a psychological barrier is broken.

However, people who tend to big up sports psychologists are those who were excellent to start with; Raymond Van Barneveld’s ‘Zen master’ springs to mind. So I imagine a club would turn to a sports psychologist when as a solid unit, they are doing everything they can and everything right but still can't win honours. Especially with today's constraints i.e. the salary cap. I think we're some way from that position.