He's won 3 CC's so far and a LLS. He's had a good crack at the Grand final as well in 2011, 2012, and 2013 but has failed to win it on each occasion. During those years some of warrington's key players were very experienced, I think everyone expected warrington to dip when they left but maybe not quite as much as they have.

This will be his 5th full season now. I wonder, in light of this season performances could it time for a new direction at the end of this season?

A coach can only live on his past achievements for so long... One things for sure, somethings not right at the moment. Players seem disinterested and lethargic.

Makes you wonder if alls well in camp under the current regime.

What is going on here are we all developing the Chelsea/ Salford mentality. Last season we finished 2nd in the league and got to the grand final again .we have started this season badly, we are just over a third of the season over and we are calling for the coaches head. You should all be sent to the nut house, did Saints sack Brown last year after a crap start that I think they lost 8 out of 9. Are Huddersfield calling for Andersons head after there bad start? Get a grip and give the team the backing it deserves, we have no god given right to win all the time and when things are going bad we need to stand up and get behind the team and SUPPORT them. Too many on hear think that 5 years of success means it will always be rosy Fact is it won't and we will go through bad phases suck it up and get on with it..

Smith was in charge of leeds for 4 full seasons but by the end it was definitly time for him to move on, even though it ended with a grand final success. Sometimes coaches have only a certain shelf life at clubs before their methods in that environment simply become less effective. Certain clubs do a good job of moving coaches on at strategic times, after 2-4 years and keeping things fresh which allows them to continue success.

I dunno, I just get the sense that smith's time at warrington has run it's course now. Alot will depend on how this season eventually ends up but I wouldn't be suprised if moran and smith have a good long talk at the end of the season and they part ways by mutual consent.

You're missing the point slightly. I'm not advocating smith be sacked right now. Brown and Anderson are only in their 2nd seasons at their clubs. This is Smith's 5th full season and he also had half of 2009. The reason I pose the question is because at Leeds it was clear his time had run it's course towards the end, he was there 4 seasons, and it feels like the same thing is happening at warrington.

No we should stick with him, who has a better pedigree that is available right now? I can't think of anyone..It's the attitude of the players that's in question for me. Not Tony Smiths ability as a coach.

Perhaps we need to get Cullen back in to build us up again. Then bring back TS to guide us again?

Tongue on cheek.

If we continue to play like we are doing like this in 2015 I doubt anyone would disagree. But for now there is no drama, let us just see what happens.

Anyway
TS has sorted out the hb issue.
It's just the prop forward issue he needs to address.
Perhaps if we ain't gonna sign one before next season, then we should bring one in on loan... I mean it worked out well for Bradford.

I think it would be wrong to get rid of Smith at this stage, but I do believe that in all rugby league coaches have a shelf life.

The most successful clubs in SL have got through a fair amount of coaches, it will be interesting to see how things play out if there isn't a big improvement.

Reading between the lines, I think the problem may be that TS has Simon Moran's total trust and confidence.

I get the feeling that when SM & TS sat down at the end of last year to discuss the squad and TS stated we go with what we've got, even if Simon felt a bit of disquiet he wouldn't have voiced it because of his total faith in TS' judgement.

The fact that they have such a relationship is great, and we have benefited as a club, but it can become damaging.

This "shelf life" argument is a load of bull really, Smith was at Leeds four seasons, he won the Grand Final in his first season and he won the Grand Final in his last season. His first four seasons at Warrington started with winning the Challenge Cup and finished with winning the Challenge Cup, and he got to a Grand Final in his fifth. So to argue that Smith has this limited shelf life is nonsense.

The reason we have dipped this year is we lost four key players together, like Saints dipped a couple of years back after losing some key players. TS took a bit of a risk in that rather than line up big names to replace them he had faith in some of the existing players and the younger players to step up, and it looks like they weren't up to it. Also he probably regrets extending the contracts of some other players we've had success with in the past who appear to be in decline. So those were two areas where TS has had faith in people that have let him down.

But TS's faith in those was largely what most of us would have done as well. We gave out those contract extensions when we were Challenge Cup holders or getting to Grand Finals so they were well received by the fans, also signings like Russell, England and Penny were well received on here too in the off season, people were very excited about Russell particularly after the World Cup. There was also optimism that Ratchford had already overtaken Hodgson as the no.1 by the end of last season, and when Briers retired the popular choice was to give G'OB a chance after being on loan at Saints last year: when there were halfbacks discussed on here like Chase, Moore and so on the verdict was "don't need, we've got G'OB". And it was popular to put faith in home grown players: G Riley, R/B Evans, Currie were highly rated and people felt they deserved their chance which Smith has given them.

Now with hindsight everybody is saying it was obvious Smith should have signed established replacements and it was bad planning…..but that wasn't the view before!

I think TS will realise his faith in some players was misplaced and we don't have the squad to compete for trophies this year, we need a bit of rebuilding in the next few years. But we are now a club with good infrastructure, finances, are credible for top players so we should be able to turn it around, like Saints have done under Nathan Brown.

The question then is are we better with TS for this rebuilding or another coach. Many sports teams fall for the "its time for change" argument but change is not the same thing as improvement.

If TS left now then the likely favourites for the Warrington job would be: Noble, McNamara, Millward, Powell and Poching.

Then there would be a group of other potentials: Betts, Elliott, Kearney, Harrison, Rowley, Morgan, McLennan, Sharp, Long, Gentle, Chambers, Lowes.

I would be happy with Noble as Warrington coach and would accept any of McNamara, Powell or Kearney but not sure who else is out there that would really be an inspiring appointment and I would still take TS ahead of any of them.

Smith has still got a few seasons left in him. His full title is Head of Football something or other, so he would be involved in recruitment, planning and player motivation. I think the recruitment this season hasn't been too good, we lost some key players in pivot positions, and we've not really replaced them (apart from maybe Russell at FB). The HB position is still an issue, but we'll get there. I knew it wasn't going to be easy after Briers retired and Morley left. We've had a few bad results, but, and this is coming from an extreme pessimist, we will bounce back, I'm certain of it.

In my opinion, one of the major poor decisions Smith has made over the course of this season was getting rid of Carvell. The guy was immense last year.

Moran is not Koukash, which is enough to say that Smith will have plenty of time to get this turned around.