Planning is the coaches job, he is fully aware of who has renewed contracts, who is OOC, or who is retiring (Mr Briers). Plans should of been afoot to rectify this, Briers retired a year early, admittedly, but that doesn't excuse being dogdirt for TWO year after!! The 'transition period' should of been smoother, especially knowing we are losing the old heads of Morley and Monoghan also.

Anywho, that's gone now and we look to the future. Personally, I think the contract talks should be held after this season has ended. For me, a trophy is a bare minimum this season in my opinion!! If not, a fresh face is needed.

You know Ive actually stopped to think a few times . Over the past two years we found ways to win games without much of a structured gameplan and brought through some now quality players . Currie , Laithwaite for example . Now we have strength in depth and look dangerous all over the park .
Im starting to think Smith Wasnt as Daft as everyone made him out to be for the past two years .

captain hook iss correct,its down to recruitment, but not neccesarily neglected, i presume there was a lot of faith put into myler and gob/ratch in terms of getting us around the park.

Obviously they decided that didn't work and we needed outside help, however its easy to forget we got to the GF eliminator in 2014 and just barely missed out in that match.

i do think we remember these last two years as being slightly worse than they actually were.

That said, following ping's try against Saints in the first game of 2014, it did feel like i got a few gut punches for a few weeks as it went down hill massively.

'The Asotasi years'

I think he did well to make it out of those intact to be honest.

Yes we seem to have recruited well this season, but lets face it, they are all signings made on top dollar that everyone knew about.. Only really Cox came from left field.

We spend the most money, were at full cap, we have amazing facilities and a great academy..... we SHOULD be at the top of the league (or thereabouts).

We should have won at least 1 grand final in his 7 years in charge.. We haven't..... i dont think we should be handing out 2 or 3 or 4 year contracts based on a decent start after no trophy in 4 years.

Two things that do seem to stand out are ,firstly, GO'B & Myler seem to have been born again since they moved on ,& secondly, we don't hear much about Agar being first team coach now our fortunes are seemingly much improved on last season.

Arguably, our most 'successful' seasons in terms of league finishes have probably been my least enjoyable, well, the end memories shall we say.

i'd heard people say prior to us getting to the GF that its a completely different atmosphere to the challenge cup final, which is fun and party time, but the GF is serious and its all about business. I thought they were talking out their but 2012 was awful, 2013 was even worse, the first half was fantastic, the second half was just gut wrenching especially with mccilorum scoring that soft as try just in front of me.

The most annoying thing of it all was getting up the following week and realising, no more rugby this season. At least when we were getting knocked out the play offs you'd skulk home and at least have a few more weeks of super league on the telly to watch, with these two years it was just like "HUH?!", it just didn't make any sense

I was one of the Smith to stay group through the last two years the first didn't go that badly but the second was riddled with long term injuries with more or less the same players barring Sims, as posters have pointed out the academy is doing well along with this years recruitment although hindered with some injuries Smith is steering us in the right direction getting us back on track.

Simon Moran will at least expect Smith to not only have a 2/3/4 year plan but also carry on this years improvement through next year with recruitment be it from the academy or other to keep the squad fresh and regularly in the top four, as I said Smith to stay but he's lost a couple of bargaining chips over the last two years, would Moran be willing to give him a chance when again he could leave the club empty handed.

I would rather it be sorted out now and be in place sooner rather than later, If Moran keeps him and we win nothing would it be one for the big book of boo boo or should we be patient again? I think Smith would like to stay and Moran will back him.

This 'improvement' we've made 2 GF's and lost them, the only improving that can happen after that is winning it.

In no way was I getting carried away the 'improvement' was about this season and to be carried forward, your comment is spot on to win GF's you have to earn them our best chance is with year on year improvement.

Some short memories on here. Who did we recruit for the 2013 season ? And then the year after ? That for me sowed the seeds of our problems in 14/15. Somebody decided we only needed minimal high quality recruitment. Could have been Moran as he holds the purse strings, but I suspect it was more likely to be TS. With no Briers replacement and the loss of an awful lot of talent we flat lined it.

A not so good previous two years with some woeful shortcomings on the recruitment front asleep at the wheel is putting it mildly, It's an old chestnut but Smith not only let the team age together to long as you say they were quality loses.

Smith put all his eggs in one basket, he didn't transistion because he knew the old heads were good enough to win the GF.
He gambled, it almost paid off but in the end it didn't.

Smith has bought himself a lot of time with a lot of fans due to turning us around and winning CC's and LLS's but a lot of happy clappers are blind to some of his bad decisions.

It was Smith that sanctioned signings (Asotasi) it was Smith that persisted in playing him even though he offered NOTHING at all, EVER. WTF did he play him week in week out?

Smith was at fault for the last two years not Agar or Briers or anyone else. Smith chooses the team, Smith makes the decisions, the buck stops with Smith.

Smith is a very good coach, he has taken us to another level BUT don't let that cloud judgement.
Smith chooses his staff, if they are indeed bad, then buck stops with Smith, physios, any coach, Smith is in charge so he takes the rap.
Smith let us down 2014, 2015 don't fool yourself that anyone else is more to blame than him.

This year he needs to make sure we are at least one game from the GF, if he doesn't deliver that or a CC WIN, not final, a win then sorry he goes for me.
Yes my expectations are high but they are high beacause we have the best of almost everything away from the pitch, it needs to be converted to the pitch now.

Was it 2011 when we finished top with the big points total ? That was our best year ,when we had the ability to close games down. Ever since we have had a bad habit of letting so called lesser teams back into the game, but luckily, year on year, the quality around us has also dropped & given the Wire a false appearance of how good the team is.
Superleague contains a lot of mediocrity & it is only the few stand out,probably imported players, that lift the quality of our domestic game. Unfortunately, it is when these players are missing that is noticeable how poor our product can be.Hopefully, the new under 23s will address this issue over the next few years. The abandonment of the Academy system has certainly not done the game any favours.

With the team Smith had at his disposal between 2010 and 2013 we should have at least one GF in the cabinet and possibly 2. Once more, we have the best playing squad in the league on paper this season and if we don't win it this year then questions need to be asked