Sick of hearing all this tripe!
Alex Ferguson was one game away from getting the sack, Mark Robins scored a match-winner,and the rest is history........T.S. will get it right!

Maybe he will maybe he won't.

But you can't deny this is the slowest backline in SuperLeague, all assembled by Smith, despite having the most monetary resources at his disposal

If you can name me a less effective right side partnership in SuperLeague than Russell and Evans I'd be surprised

I was hoping that Tony Smith would get it right, a number of people wanted him to step down after 3 grand final losses.
But I was ok for him to continue ,as last year we topped the table and lost out in both finals by very fine margins..
Everyone could see that we had a full back on the wing and a centre who never scores try's and creates nothing.. We were linked with a number of players but Tony Smith signed 3 forwards and resigned Matty Blythe!! Nothing to address the issues in the 3/4 line...
He had the opportunity to get it right in the off season but he recruited in the wrong areas.. It's not tripe we are bottom of the table with a tough run of fixtures to come..

I don't for the fife of me understand why we are STILL accommodating Evans, Russell and Atkins in the team. As soon as the ball is spread to Evans all attacking play completely stops. Atkins, Yeah he can hit a good line but the two vital tribute a centre must have, create space and pass to his winger, he doesn't possess. He can't do either! Russell must be the only Winger/fullback (Apparently) in the world who: Can't pass, can't catch, can't position himself, and can't defend... But yeah he's got a good scoot so that ok apparently.

We've been crying out for two Centres and at least one winger now for years and the problem STILL hasn't been addressed.

Wayne Bennett; last pot six years ago.

Craig Bellamy; four years ago.

Imagine thinking Des Hasler, Wayne Bennett or Craig Bellamy would be available for us.

brilliant

if you look at the stats from the Brisbane game (League Express had them) Evans and Russell were both outstanding in their different ways. Russel's try also took a lot of scoring. We were very good against the Broncos, not so much in the other two games. However, as others have said Castleford are an extremely good team and any opponent will need to be at their best to beat them this year.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm with Sally Cinnamon, dumping TS for a completely inexperienced coach just because some fans have 'had enough' is a ridiculous idea.

The blue chip NRL coaches never tend to come to the UK. How many NRL winning coaches have come to SL clubs? Tim Sheens at Salford thats about it.

does our future manager need to have won a grand final or an nrl final?? or do the club need to believe that that the new guy can win the gf with warrington.

Powell is mentioned a lot would we be more of an attacking threat with him in charge probably yes, would we have a tactically astute manager that can set his team up to play the opposition yes these are two things that we are lacking at the moment and if look back over smiths time these have been deficiencies in most of his warrington teams, he was lucky to have had the players he had in 2011/12 as we had some intelligent rugby players today thats not the case.

Precisely. I cannot think of one valid argument as to why any one the above mentioned elite coaches would come over here when they probably have their pick of any NRL club.

Some people really are living in a fantasy land.

Wasn't our former successful reserve coach Richard Marshall touted at one time as a future Smith successor?

Whats the point in having two players who have outstanding games every other month? Would much rather bring players like Livett into the squad who are consistent every week. The fact still remains. We are accommodating player like Atkins, Evans and Russell week in, week out and have done for too long.

Imagine thinking Langer and Johns would be available to us.

Just needs some ambition and £££.

Nice analogy but to slightly undermine it Alex Ferguson was 3.5 years into his reign then. Not 8 years.

You're going back almost 20 years ago. One came out of retirement and the other came over for three games so I don't see how that's comparable.

Yep you are right, I'm in a dream land we could never aspire to getting anyone else other than Tony Smith and certainly not a top NRL coach with a track record.

I must have also dreamt that Tim Sheens was coaching Hull KR and that he had won 4 NRL Grand Finals with 2 separate teams.

Anyway most of the blinkered on here were advocating more time for Paul Cullen when it was clear he should have gone years earlier. I suspect the same will happen again.

Tim Sheens won trophies but a long time ago, so him going to Salford / Hull KR was more a reflection of the fact he didn't have the top clubs still in for him. Similar to Brian Noble going to Salford or now Toronto or Ian Millward going to Leigh.

If we appointed Sheens, Noble or Millward we would be getting someone with history but would we see that as a positive move forward.

Back in the Cullen era, I agreed with you, we had him about 2 years too long, and he did have his loyalists that would have supported him whatever. With Cullen we were clearly slipping backwards. The peak point of his era was probably Andrew Johns debut at the HJ, from that day onwards there was a steady decline, that was punctuated by the occasional thrilling win, but we were clearly mired around the fringes of the playoffs. With TS, we actually improved over the last 12 months, compared to the year or two before. We topped the league table and reached two finals. Your argument that Smith has gone on too long is based on the fact losing those Grand Finals, plus the fact we lost a couple before. It's not like Cullen where the direction of travel is backwards, the argument about changing the coach here would be if we think something extra is needed to get us over the line in the big ones. It's like Leeds around 2004 where Daryl Powell had got rid of the old Leeds culture of big names that flatter to deceive but was losing finals and semi finals, and Gary Hetherington made a change (ie getting rid of his mate) to bring in someone he thought would bring an edge to take them to the next level, and it worked.

OK. We seem to keep moving the argument though. Firstly it's we can never aspire to get a top NRL coach. Then when I point out that Hull KR have done exactly that it's "we can never get an NRL coach who has won things recently". Incidentally Sheens last GF win was only 2 seasons before Smiths.

Agree about Cullen, we were clearly slipping backward. Despite our squad quality and playing style slipping backward I am not arguing that Smith has gone on too long yet, but if we end this season having failed again we may as well make the change.

I don't remember saying that we couldn't get anyone else other than Smith, just the three that you've mentioned wouldn't leave their NRL clubs to come here at the moment no matter what you say.

When he won the FA Cup not the Premier League title

The post was in reply to the "one game from getting the sack". It took AF 6 years to turn the then basket case of MUFC into serial title winners.

I'm just not persuaded by the argument that we should stick with Smith come what may because Alex Ferguson nearly got the sack.

I enjoy your posts on here and I like your thinking.

To me, fans of all sport and especially the media and a lot of coaches are loath to accept that 'luck' plays a huge part in creating winners and losers. If Gidley had taken a better option on the last play in the GF Tony Smith would have been a winning coach. Nothing whatsoever to do with Smith of course. And Wane would have lost three finals in a row and would have been branded (by many Wigan fans as a 'bottler') as a serial loser.

Coaches pick the team and prepare the tactics and then once the game starts it's out of their hands and subject to the bounce of the ball, refereeing decisions and players making uncharacteristic errors.

All last season I argued on the Wigan board that Wane is the best man for us. And I'm pretty sure that Tony Smith is the right man for Wire. With luck he could have won the treble last year.

Calling for the head of the coach is utter nonsense. The RFL hardly handed Wire an easy start. Away to Cats and then Cas at home with Brisbane in the middle. Wigan got Salford and Widnes (which we nearly messed up). The games against NRL teams take a lot out of the players and you will suffer for a good few weeks yet.

You only get rid of a coach if he is making a complete mess of things - not when you are the most consistent team in the league. Darryl Powell is a poor man's Tony Smith. He offers nothing that TS couldn't do. There is no pressure on him at Cas where success is a top 4 finish. Wire fans, be careful what you wish for I'd say!

really livett is consistent how can you make that statement after 2/3 games as a substitute ????

Well Atkins, Evans and Russell certainly aren't. Only one way to find out.

Livett created more chances in his first 5 touches of the ball than Atkins or Evans did in the entire game. Give the lad a chance, He's been consistent in every game in which he's come off the bench and not looked out of place once. Even the few minutes he played against Brisbane. Either way a member of our back line needs dropping. He Showed great composure and maturity to kick a must kick conversion to bring us within 4 points.

He couldn't really do any worse.

I feel Atkins problem is he knows he's un-droppable. Even when he's been out injured, the second he's fit he's come straight back into the team. Even when his replacement has been doing just as well if not better. He must be on some serious wedge, to constantly feature the way he has done.