Toovey is the favourite for the Australia job I think.



A head coach is a person with the ability to build a team and a structure/gameplan for that team, and the ability to judge players' attributes and potential. Surely the person employed to perform that role is the person you want to judge players' attributes and potential (and therefore sign/release/retain players), not a businessman?

Gary Hetherington is the CEO for Leeds Rhinos, which is the business model I specified in my post. He has been superb for Leeds as an administrator AND has managed a succession of Leeds` coaches, (Including Tony Smith), on a short leash. He has been the lynch pin (With the coaches involvement), for their recruitment, retention or release of players.

Tony Smith at Warrington has had a free hand, with virtually, no intervention by the club`s hierarchy. His succession planning, has been less than successful. Some of his recruitment has been p!$$ poor (Eg Asotasi.....Should have been paid off after his 1st season with us, with a "convenient" career ending injury; Gary Wheeler .....As you are a Saints fan, I don`t see any need for further explanation; NO halfback signing to replace Lee Briers for virtually 2 seasons etc. )

Which do you you think has been the more successful regime, Warrington`s under Smith, or Leeds` with their CEO calling the shots via the coaching staff?

Warrington needed a CEO to take charge of the club, & hopefully Draper will show the necessary leadership.

Good post BH.

Has the Draper's appointment peast TS off?
I think perhaps it has.

Who knows, but Draper has made several comments in public regarding our on field struggles, where as I can't remember Sutcliffe saying anything of note in recent years.

Whatever happened to lord tony smith? paraded before the golden gates in his #hardwired slippers with challenge cup in hand (thats what she said).

From hero to villain in one season, good book title that.

Draper is ,after all ,here for a flipping good wage & no doubt his money is performance related & unfortunately ,unless there is some other way of the club earning revenue then the main aim is a successful team putting bums on seats.
On the other hand the reputation of TS must way below what it was in 2011. For his own sake Tony Smith needs to rebuild a successful team.

Gatcliffe never ever commented on the team, he left that alone, and to be fair to rog, he's done a lot of interviews as part of his 300 days project and he's been asked about the team, as its coincided with us being this year. However he's never been critical, he's given a politiciana answer then moved back to whatever else is going on.

smith was on gmr earlier this year and he sounded pretty happy with draper, and his appointment, almost ecstatic.

I admit I am guessing, but I would be very surprised if Roger Drapers remit was anything other than the day to day running of the club and targets set around improving the business activities. The new players will surely be a discussion primarily between TS and SMJ with Draper included for communication because it impacts on the finances. Since Simon Moran 'pays' for the club and is a fan, you would imagine that he would at least allow himself the fun of discussing new player recruitment with Smith, if not suggesting possibilities himself.

Difference between Draper and Hetherington at the moment is Draper is the CEO of Warrington Wolves and he's doing things for the club itself.

Hetherington wants to control the world.........okay, maybe just the RFL/IRLF. He could be a product tester for Hollands he has his fingers in that many pies. Didn't he give Hardaker his 100% backing after his antics with alcohol on England duty, being homophobic to James Child and then beating up a student, and then get hit with a misconduct charge for claiming there is a witch-hunt against poor old Zak?

Also, I wonder if Draper's missus needs a job at another Super League club.....

What evidence do you have that Hetherington is the driving force behind player recruitment at Leeds? You want Draper, a man who since 1992 has worked within rugby league for 6 months (and on the business side), responsible for assessing what the team needs and what players are suitable, rather than a man who has been coaching, creating game plans and assessing players his whole career?

Gary Hetherington is also an ex-player and coach. Roger Draper is neither ( ok, a bit of amateur-level as a player ) and neither was Andy Gatcliffe. They can hardly be expected to come up with authoratitive views on player ability that would be of value to Tony Smith and/or Simon Moran.

Why would they need to, isn't that our job!

Hetherington definitely does the signing at Leeds, it's effectively a football manager role over and above the CEO one. But that can't really work anywhere else that doesn't have a very astute judge of RL players as the boss. Hetherington built Sheffield Eagles, on and off field, from scratch and has coached at the very top level, including as part of a GB coaching team in an Ashes series. You can't expect to get that same skill set in many club bosses. Would Tony Smith would work well with a conventional football manager?

So When are we having the Tony Smith sit in?

after Hull beat us on sep 6th?