Smith era: 2009-2011

Quote: sally cinnamon "I'm very pleased with this appointment, for the first time ever as a Wire fan I can say that out of all the coaches currently employed in the league, I think Warrington have the best. Great move by everybody involved in securing his signature and lets look forwards.

I actually think Smith's era as coach will be relatively short, the two and a half years he has signed for is what we will get. Who knows what his career aspirations are, but he's already coached a big club in England and won trophies, he's coached at international level, what must his long term ambitions be....I think he will want to coach in the NRL, and to be fair if he has any measure of success at Warrington he is going to be in line for an NRL job. So I'm not expecting him to be here beyond 2011.

A good thing about Smith is he is not a short term man, he has a perspective of the bigger picture and the future, building a club, which is just like his brother.

Leeds have always had junior talent but before he went there they had a lot of players who dominated at Academy level and won Academy championships but then underachieved at SL, some of them ended up at other clubs and their careers stagnated. Smith brought a crop of juniors who had just started to find their feet in the first team under Powell, into top SL players and internationals, and then supplemented them by bringing through the next generation, ie Lee Smith, Nick Scruton, Ashley Gibson, Jordan Tansey, Ryan Hall

Many a time when we were complaining about losing games because we had a lot of recent academy players in the first team and it was too much too soon, Leeds had around the same number and were still having success. Smith brought juniors through and they thrived. John Bastian is on board and we already have a lot of players coming through who had representative caps at junior level - Smith is the perfect man to oversee their development into quality first teamers.

An important point here is that Smith's reputation is as a first rate technical coach, not one who overcomplicates things like Steve Anderson, but who puts a lot of emphasis on improving individual players core skills. Look at the way Leeds sides coached by Smith played - they kept the ball alive superbly, their support play was good, the defence was organised and they were the least penalised team in the league. Rookie players came out of the Academy into that structure and fit in quickly.

As for Warrington post 2011, Lowes has got a good opportunity here, because apprentices to top coaches often become good coaches themselves. Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett is a good example, Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho, Brian Noble/Mick Potter/Daniel Anderson and Brian Smith. Brian McDermott has made a good start at Harlequins, he served under Tony Smith. However it ends up turning out, I would imagine Smith's intention is to leave in 2011 with Lowes taking over as head coach and maintaining continuity in what will hopefully be a successful culture.'"

Totally agree with you. It's the best appointment we've made in decades, and furthermore it's a an appointment that fits with what all feel has been the 'image' of the club since probably 2005. I've never felt so positive about the future of our club as I do right now.

He gives youth a chance, he plays open, attacking rugby, he seems to according to people (like Stevo) not be afraid to weedle out bad apples. He's basically ticking all the boxes of what you'd want, and I just think as fans, we should just enjoy the journey for the next two & a half years as I think there's only one way we're going.

I'm not to worried about what happens this year, 2010, with alot of the squad having come off contract in 2009, with his recruitment, and all of our 'kids' a year further developed. I know it's borderline laughable now to keep churning this out, but you'd have to be pretty confident of having a big 2010.

My expectations for this year now, finish the season stronger & stronger as it goes on, his methods get accepted etc, say finish 5th with a good cup run.