I'm hoping that under an 'Aussie' coach our Aussie 'stars' will now show what they can do.


Now the Wire..

In the current RL climate 'Aussie' and 'big' are the same thing.

Possibly. I just mean that I believe the big players will start to perform under a big coach. I think that may be the problem with King, and even Monaghan.

I may be wrong and may be proven so if King and Monaghan don't improve under Smith, maybe I'm being optimistic that those 2 will improve.

I just thing that our big names, including Briers, King, Monaghan and even Penny and Riley will improve under a big coach.

God I hope so. Like a previous post mentioned- there is no hiding place now!

I agree there are no guarantees of trophies, I hope we win something but I wouldn't say Smith's reign was a disaster if we didn't, as long as we are credible trophy contenders, which we haven't been before.

But I think most of our fans will be fine with that, the knockers don't really start until the wheels start to fall off. When Cullen came in he had near universal support for about eighteen months, the first time I can remember doubts being expressed from Wire fans was at Easter 2004 when we lost to Widnes at home (first defeat at the HJ) and went on a bad couple of months. Most of the fans came back onside in 2005 when we had our best run of form in the SL era, then after 2006 the dissenters started to increase steadily with former ardent Cullen supporters (eg me) dropping off one by one. Even when Lowes took over last year there was a feeling of giving him a chance when we won 6 out of 7, and the anti-Lowes movement only started to pick up momentum as we got deeper into our eight game losing streak.

However with Smith's appointment there will be a silent percentage of our fans who were not keen on the appointment, as can be seen by the reaction when his name was linked in previous discussions, some said Smith is not the man for us. Those fans will be waiting for the first opportunity to lay into Smith and bring up the World Cup. This is likely to be short lived and a minority though, because over the next two and a half years we are going to get a much better product on the field than we are used to, which will buy him a good honeymoon time.

Yeah good points, however in Tony Smith I believe most fans will see that we finally have a coach with a PROVEN track record of winning things, something that IMO always hindered Cullen/Lowes in the eyes of a lot of fans.

We always looked at other coaches and thought "wouldn't it be good if he coached here" now in Smith the dream has become a reality.

<goes off to watch Wire lose 10 straight>

Optimism for the future is bound to have risen with the appointment of a proven coach, but don't let us expect too much too soon, and then start to complain that we haven't won anything.
If we manage to succeed this season, all well and good, but I am looking long term, and just praying that Smith can influence the players into giving their all for 80 minutes - much the same as they did for 50 minutes against Saints.
Much of the criticism of PC and JL stemmed from the impression often given on the field that some players just couldn't be bothered whether they won or lost.
Good attitude on and off the pitch is what fans are looking for, not miracles.
Can't wait for Sunday to see what the Smith effect is on the players and the crowd. Have all the tickets gone yet?

Very pleased with the appointment - and I think the key thing is he will help us build a club rather than just a team. (Although the latter would be a good start!) He seems totally professional and will put in place proper structures and won't stand any shenanagins from the players. He never picked Briers for GB which says alot I think.

I also think he's more of a strategic coach - i.e. I wouldn't be expecting a massive turnaround in form in the short-term but over the next 2 years or so we will see a much more professional squad of players and therefore performances. It's interesting to read what Bastian has to say about picking players as much by their attitude as just their talent - this will eventually feed into the 1st team.

I wouldn't be expecting trophies in 2 years - this is a much bigger job than he had at Leeds. In some respects more like Huddersfield probably.

I liked Cullen and I actually think he is a good coach - but his biggest error I think was in being too pally with the players. Smith certainly won't be doing that and drinking together etc. Also - don't forget that he's a British subject so we can still say we've got a British coach!!!