Blimey. The best post war coach we have had. Not perfect and he makes mistakes but remember what came before. Cullen had 6 years and the last 4 with money to spend and we won 1 game in the playoffs.

I think we remember last year pretty accurately, but 2014 we were better than people seem to remember. I'm pretty sure we were only one score away from both finals, did we even have a close-call video ref decision go against us in that playoff game? We were definitely competing for trophies anyway even after a slow start, and while we finished 5th there were only 3 points between the top 5!

I'm pretty happy with Smith at the moment. Last season shook my faith in him a lot, I wanted to see some significant improvement or else; thankfully that's what we've seen, so another few years sounds good to me.

Plus in 2014 we had to deal with losing Briers unexpectedly. Should have had a replacement lined up and ready to go for 2015.

A good point and maybe Smiths slip is still showing as he hasn't fully addressed the half back position as going forward is concerned, well as Gidley is doing age alone never mind it's not his best position must be looked at as a stopgap, I'm sure he will be having a lot of input in the back room and is very important to Smith, this position more than any I would like to know what the club/Smith have in mind for the future.

Has he signed this new deal yet?....... ANYWAY... i see Catalans are looking ok since Mikey Monaghan was introduced to the coaching staff....

And Widnes since they got Brett Hodgson.

He was always going to make a good head coach.... wont be long before he is in charge of someone.

Agreed, not many people with as much respect in the game as Brett and not many who read the game as well.

Yet Langer, Johns, Fittler and Wally Lewis never became good coaches. ....

i always had the feeling Hodgson was of the coaching variety... and i remember smith saying one of the reasons he was brought in was because of his teaching abilities for the younger lads... Hodgson was doing his coaching work well before he joined warrington. I think he will be a decent shout in the modern game.

saints have pound land jack black FFS and they beat us last week with their worst team in 10 years.

maybe he wont be a good coach..... but he was an intelligent player that knew the game and how to win... much like monaghan.

I have backed Smith and have asked is he now getting it right after the previous poor two years, well after reading his article in the WA Guardian I will answer my own question NO, he's to put in a new training routine? cutting it short he appears to have lost the plot and not in control deep down I believe he thinks that of his players, at this stage of the season all routines should now be fully implemented and it's beyond belief that Gidley and Ratchford are only just trying to get an understanding.

I don't think Smith (or anyone else, for that matter) has known our first choice XIII since 2011. I won't be unfurling any 'SMITH OUT' bedsheets just yet, but I worry about extending his contract based purely on sentiment and the belief that we should be happy with our lot, as we are better than ten years ago.

Sentiment should never factor in sport.
Look at City won the league under Mancini but because they were pathetic in Champions league they got rid of him.

Similar to us, just because we won the CC, the GF is the true prize don't rest on our laurels.

I'm still going to stay with my stance of with all the investment we have and with almost everything away from the pitch being 2nd to none, he needs to do one of two things this year.
Win the CC or get us in the GF, if we lose the GF hard to take but that is a standard i can live with.
If none of those objectives are delivered, sorry but for me look elsewhere.

One thing that does concern me is that he couldn't seem to motivate the team enough for Saints last week, especially when that game means so much
to the fans. There are no excuses for losing that game, Saints are terrible, a weeks turnaround and more worryingly the fact that we went 2 tries up early on
and were arrogant enough to take out foot off the pedal - we truly never recovered.

That game should have been a wake up call but it obviously wasn't. I didn't go yesterday but it sounds like we were dyer. In those conditions players need to man up and take the ball in properly. If they're chucking the ball round in those contitions and its obvious it's not working, and they're continuing to do the same thing for the whole match, then the players are going through the motions. That's not good enough and shouldn't be acceptable for a proffesional team at this level.

I don't like to moan and I very very rarely do, but the manner in which they're lost the past 2 games is concerning to me. I feel extremely sorry for the 1000+ Wire fans who made the effort to support the side, only for the players to go through the motions.

I can honestly see us losing the next match at Widnes. We won last time v Widnes but it was far from convincing. First and foremost we need to put the work/effort in to gain those hard yards and earn the right to move the ball around. Players need to accept as well that you can just run in with the ball, or receive ball and pass it on. They need to be playing the conditions and the players in front of them, which means thinking of options before and at the time they receive the ball. Some serious questions need to be asked this week.

Players getting under each others feet, looking around for a pass not seeing anyone and driving in, slow methodical set plays that look so unrehed it was embarrassing.
Then occasionally we got... Hollywood offloads (Atkins), crash balls (in that weather really?)
Long cut out passes being dropped almost every time(Evans/Atkins/Penny)

What were the instructions?