Despite those taunts and abuse when Carvell left he at least got one thing right when he stated he was leaving to win silverware.

I hope he loses his medal.

Never a chance he would sign for Rovers then.

This comment about tactical genius is TIC. Smith is a far better coach now than in his days at Huddersfield and as you say has better resources at his disposal at Warrington.

Point being that he gets the most out of what he's got, and he's not had much control over that so far apart from bringing in Carney who's been injured and shipping out Gleeson. Smith had put together a plan to wrongfoot Huddersfield, used his resources perfectly and got the team mentally in the right area - pumped up but not overwrought - so they could implement the gameplan. The contrast with Agar is that obviously through injuries and whatever he doesn't have the same resources, but as an example, we have a class winger who'll chase lost causes all day and we never put in raking kicks to him and a gameplan that amounts to "If you see it, play it."

Can't say I'm pleased that Warrington won for a number of reasons, but well done to their board for stepping in to get Smith who is an experienced coach with some tactical nous.

Would they be the ones that think Briers and Westwood are c--p as well.

I agree with you. If Smith is a better coach now than when at Hudds then credit to Leeds for employing an up and coming coach when they did, and one who by your argument may not have been the best tactician at the time. He is a good coach because he has improved the below par performances of Wire for sure. But when his players are not as good as the opposition he will not win on a consistent basis through his tactical awareness. His players will be beaten by better players in the opposition.

Really I'm just in a bit of a sulk that Warrington won and we're so hopeless. Smith's preparation and gameplan just served as a reminder that we don't do this very well, if at all.

but surely as the salary cap makes SL more and more competitive, having a top class coach becomes even more important.

4 of our wins this season have come against the bottom 2 Salford and Celtic, I doubt they are not going to be as a poor in their 2nd season in SL (look at how Catalan improved after their debut season)

Of course having a top class coach is important - I am in no way defending our coach with this I haven't even referred to him. As I said earlier Smith has proven to be a better coach than Lowes or Cullen by what he has done this year with what is a talented squad with a big pack and excellent halves and hooker. His team was diabolical in the World cup because man for man his players weren't as good as the opposition.

Yeah, I'm sulking about that as well.