It was a top of the table clash.
everything is relative.

lol top of the table clash in march

Ok. Let's forget it then.

Good lad

To get back to the topic;

TS brought in Hodgson, J Monaghen, Waterhouse, Hill, Solomona as well as Myler and Ratchford so you simply can not say he inherited a team. At the very least he added some good quality players to a strong nucleus. But, this was always going to be the question--- can he re-assemble a cup winning side from the ashes of the old one ?

I think he might have an excuse for playing the youngsters (Laithwaite, GOB, Dwyer, Riley, Ormsby, Ben Evans etc) because he was 'boxed in' - you can not promote your youth system, then simply ignore the players that have been developed. And if he plays them, there is little room for imports.

But where I think he does have a blind spot is ageing players. He has kept a) too many ageing stars for b) too long. That suddenly leaves us with a massive gap to fill in a single year. Morley was spent before the end of last year, Briers despite his brilliance, was only playing in short bursts last year, Monas was finished two years ago (my favourite player) and Hodgson was a 'walking punchbag' at the back. Yes, they were still class and could cause mayhem, but their replacements should already have been in the Wire squad ready to step up. That, I think, is his biggest mistake for me.

.....back on thread....Mr Smith

We're fortunate to have him. He's certainly the only World class coach in my watching lifetime, we've had....however....

his transfer dealings have been a little hit and miss.

Mathers (in exchange for Gleeson and a wad of cash). Did ok, nothing better or worse

Solomona . A success. Bar breaking a leg in training, stayed relatively injury free, and was a joy to watch in P&B.

Myler. After 4 years, the jury is STILL out. Did he buy him as an off the cuff, impact player (if he did, success), or did he buy him as an organiser/replacement for Briers (if he did, failure).

Hodgson. Success

Joel. Success when you look at his record. Just not got much pace left in the tank.

Atkins. Great start to his Wire career. The last year or so, not so good.

Waterhouse. Solid, dependable, tackles all day. But so did Gary Sanderson. Pity we're paying Gorden Tallis style wages, though

Hill. Success

Ratchford. See Myler

and this 3 season's signings are a bit too early to tell, but I do like the look of Russell.

NOW, imo, Smith's dealings in the above have shown some successes, BUT, we've had to replace Briers, Hodgson, Morley, Carvell, and to some extent, Cooper, and as I say, the jury is still out (Asotasi hasn't exactly impressed too many), but, in the next 6-18 months we're going to have to replace
Waterhouse
Wood
Westwood
Monaghan.
These are 4 key players. Smith better get his choices correct.

The thing with having a go at Tony Smith is it can be therapeutic to get frustration out of your system but be careful what you wish for.

Lets say we hear the club statement tomorrow that they have parted company by mutual consent and thank Tony for his efforts over the years in bringing success back to Warrington.

Who would you be wanting as coach?

For me the top (only) choice is Brian Noble: Salford have made a major mistake by getting rid, he brings professionalism and class to a club and he would be a good choice.

Matthew Elliott is now available, and he was impressive at Bradford but I wouldn't have him over Noble because I think Noble improved what Elliott left and he's had mixed success in the NRL. Still he would be a credible choice for a club like us, and there aren't that many credible choices.

After that it gets more of a risk. Daryl Powell would be my next choice, I think he's due a big club next move, he's gone around picking up his coaching experience in different environments and always seems to do well. I like how he's not a big ego coach with the media but he seems to get respect from his players and get the best out of them.

Who else? I am sure the name Denis Betts would attract howls of derision amongst Warrington fans but look at what he has done with Widnes. He's not exactly bought world beaters there has he but he's done pretty well. If Koukash wanted rid of Noble then why hasn't he gone and poached Betts for Salford....he seems to be able to do a good job and like Powell he's been around coaching for a while now, he was probably promoted too quickly for the Wigan job but now he seems to be doing well.

Nathan Brown and Shaun Wane would be excellent choices as coach but would they leave their clubs to join us? Doubt it.

Then it comes to looking at assistants who could be promoted....James Lowes, Sean Long, or promote Willie Poching from within?

When you think hard about this question it does make you think, hmmm how much pressure really should we be putting on Tony Smith?

Do we think that there is a better option out there than TS?

Shaun Edwards?

Andy Farrell?

Reg Bowden...?

Who said anything about replacing Smith ? Players have weaknesses or develop bad habits and coaches are there to straighten them out. Smith (unless he believes he is god) will realise he too makes mistakes. We learn from our mistakes, correct them, and move on. I am sure TS, with some 'friendly encouragement' from uncle Simon, is analysing his decisions and correcting errors. But this year has already gone, barring some Wigan-esque luck in the CC of course.

For me, I won't make a decision on Smith on the performance of the team for a long while yet. Well into next season for me.

But in the last few years his, and his board/management team's, player loss and recruitment has been poor for me. We've lost King, Anderson, Solomona, Morley, Carvell, Cooper, Briers, Hodgson and moved Atkins (in from a left edge of Atkins-King-Anderson) and have seen huge injury problems with MMonaghan, Bridge and Harrison especially.

What we've been left with is an inferior team. There have been individual successes (Chris Hill for example; excellent!) but the whole product is inferior. Which tells me that the board/Smith haven't been serious about making this club a genuine top club. We've needed to [ipush on[/i from this good little spell of three Challenge Cup wins and a few Grand Final appearances, not regress.

But there could be a longer term plan for all this than what we're looking at in the short term. Maybe this year will see many younger and lesser squad members from years past learn how to become leaders and better players while we then go on and recruit better in the coming years. Leaving us in a position come two years time where we'll be a serious club ready to take on the lot. Who knows...

Unless - and this is something someone else has said to me - that Moran's money was put in for that particular team we've just seen over the last few years. The recruitment drive then Smith's appointment and the further recruitment drive was done in the expectation that we would go and win a few Grand Finals, Challenge Cups and even World Club Challenges. Maybe what we've seen has been an underachievement from what was expected and now the money is going to be going in in less amounts and fewer recruitment drives. It would make sense from what we've seen. We're well below the Salary Cap, we're well below the overseas quota, we've let a lot of big bucks players go and we're not as good as we have been over the previous five years.

The one thing Tony Smith deserves, with his achievements at Wire, is plenty of breathing space from the fans at times like this - He also deserves to be able to decide his own future at this present time and should not be under any pressure from those up above, or on the terraces, over his job.

BUT, like I said earlier, the one thing that we all wouldn't want to happen (Smith, the Board, the fans), is for things to go stale - Its been five years, things have mainly been fantastic, but it would be unrealistic to think that he could keep that going. Inevitably, we are/were going to hit a sticky patch, not just the odd 2 or 3 match bad spell, but a bad season.

Smith does deserve the chance to rectify things, but I would like to think that he would not cling on to the job in a Paul Cullen style, where everybody could see that things needed changing, but nobody had the bottle to do anything about it, until it was about 2 years too late.

Ultimately, we are going to have take this season on the chin - Let's judge TS in 12 months time, after he has had chance to really wield the axe, and then we can really see if this downturn in fortunes is just a temporary one.

There is not going to be much wielding of the axe. Look at the squad list from here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=565030&tsmp=1397318001 The players out of contract at the end of this season are: M Monaghan, Waterhouse, Dwyer, Laithwaite, Penny, B Evans, D Bridge, Shaw, Burke, Ormsby. Of these only Monaghan and Waterhouse are likely to be on significant salaries so that really means we can bring in about two established players. The squad next season is going to be more or less the same as it is now.

There is not going to be much wielding of the axe. Look at the squad list from here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=565030&tsmp=1397318001 The players out of contract at the end of this season are: M Monaghan, Waterhouse, Dwyer, Laithwaite, Penny, B Evans, D Bridge, Shaw, Burke, Ormsby. Of these only Monaghan and Waterhouse are likely to be on significant salaries so that really means we can bring in about two established players. The squad next season is going to be more or less the same as it is now.