Quote: Rugby Raider "In 1990/91, the season he left mid-season to become Coach at St George (his boyhood club), his last game in charge when we beat Leeds 34-14 at The Boulevard was ....
1. Richard Gay - Local
2. Paul Eastwood - Local, Smith turned him into a GB International
3. Rob Nolan - Local
4. Damien McGarry - bought by Smith, don't know fee
5. Brad Webb - bought by Smith, don't know fee
6. Greg Mackay - bought by Smith
7. Patrick Entat - bought by Smith
8. Karl Harrison - bought by Smith for c£60k
9. Lee Jackson - Local
10. Andy Dannatt - Local, Smith turned him into GB International
11. Ian Marlow - signed from Beverley RU
12. Russ Walker - Local
13. Jon Sharp - Local
14. Brian Blacker - bought by Smith from Salford
15. Mike Dixon - Local
We also had other players at the time Neil Turner (signed from Doncaster), Noel Cleal (Aus), Dean Busby (Local) and Gary Nolan (Local).
So hardly big money signings breaking the back.
The then good crowd of just over 7,500 along with the fact that only 3/4 years earlier we had sold Crooks & Schofield for World Record fees to Leeds to balance the books and we also had to spend monet on the ground (3d Stand) to comply with the post Bardford Fire (1985) recommendations, perhaps puts some perspective on our financial situation at the time.
Others may be party to other information.
For me, the 1990/91 season was one of my favourite (I started following Hull in 1975/76, so I've seen some great seasons and some poor ones too. This is not the worst by any means!!!). That season, we thrashed Wigan and Widnes (the top two teams) at home and were top of the league for the first half of the season. Cleal took over when Smith left and led the team to the Premiership v Widnes at Old Trafford.
Yes this was over 20 years ago, but Brian Smith above all a motivator. He turned Eastwood and Dannatt into very average players into GB Internationals (v Aussies).
Perhaps he didn't complete his contarct, but very few Coaches do.
If Gentle has gone, I'd take Smith back in an instant. Give him a two year contract and see where he takes us. To me this is much more appealing than an permuatation of Radford/Last/Cooke/McNamara. We are not awful, yes Hudderfield and Wembley were bad days, but the same team also beat Leeds and Warrington comfortably, so not everything is bad at the club. It may require more than a tweak, but it may not require a complete overhaul either.
Smith knows what the club is about and I think he would be as good a choice as any Coach we could get.'"
Top post mate here's to another Wembley way re union.
