Quote: "TS struggled at the Giants for a few years who were probably in a similar financial position as us back then. It was only his move to Leeds that proved that he was an exceptional coach. '"
not wanting to be pedantic but you're wrong.
smith took over during our relegation season of 2001 when we were only relegated on the next to last day despite only winning 2 and drawing 1 of our previous 18 games ( incidentally our biggest win was 52-10 against warrington!)
the next season in 2002 in the NFP we were unbeaten in the league winning 27 and drawing 1 of our 28 games as well as winning the grand final and the buddies cup in which we were unbeaten too,in fact our only defeat that year came in the challenge cup at doncaster.
in 2003 despite predictions for us to struggle again,smith steered us to superb victories over the then champions st helens,leeds,wigan and hull in total winning 11 out of 28 games which was more than our previous 4 seasons combined!
it was actually because of his achievements at the giants that he got the leeds job, just thought i'd correct you
good luck for the new season.