Quote: Jake the Peg "world class is subjective and in the tiny world of rugby league it's probably not that great an accolade. Personally I wouldn't class Tony Smith as world class (it was another poster who claimed he is) until he's proven himself in the NRL. What I do know is that at each of the 3 club sides he's coached he has brought about significant improvements, and he himself has improved along the way.
I think we both know we can discount his time in charge of GB as whoever is in charge just doesn't have the depth of quality required to beat the aussies.
Is he a better coach now than he was at huddersfield? Undoubtedly, but then you'd expect nothing different would you? Would he have won a GF with leeds if it were his first coaching job? Who knows, but I'll bet his experience at hudds was a contributing factor and I'm sure that leeds wouldn't have given him his 1st head coaches role'"
To be successful you need the top players first and foremost. Hudds didn't have them and GB didn't have them and Smith couldn't do anything about that and achieved nothing with either. Since moving to Leeds and then Wire he has proven that he can work with the top players in the game at SL level and all credit to him for that - it proves he has ability. My point to the other poster was that Smith has needed top-level players to achieve results. When he hasn't had them he hasn't achieved. No shame in that - it's normal. Sometimes when the discussing relative merits of coaches people forget about the relative merits of the players at their disposal.
Take the Dobbins last year - overachieved during the season but cometh the hour got mullered twice in knockout by better players in better teams. Not much Morgan could do about that yet some wanted him here because he was perceived to be better than what we had. This year our players are better than his and we are 3 from 3 against them.
