Smith era: 2009-2011 : Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:14 pm  

I'm very pleased with this appointment, for the first time ever as a Wire fan I can say that out of all the coaches currently employed in the league, I think Warrington have the best. Great move by everybody involved in securing his signature and lets look forwards.

I actually think Smith's era as coach will be relatively short, the two and a half years he has signed for is what we will get. Who knows what his career aspirations are, but he's already coached a big club in England and won trophies, he's coached at international level, what must his long term ambitions be....I think he will want to coach in the NRL, and to be fair if he has any measure of success at Warrington he is going to be in line for an NRL job. So I'm not expecting him to be here beyond 2011.

A good thing about Smith is he is not a short term man, he has a perspective of the bigger picture and the future, building a club, which is just like his brother.

Leeds have always had junior talent but before he went there they had a lot of players who dominated at Academy level and won Academy championships but then underachieved at SL, some of them ended up at other clubs and their careers stagnated. Smith brought a crop of juniors who had just started to find their feet in the first team under Powell, into top SL players and internationals, and then supplemented them by bringing through the next generation, ie Lee Smith, Nick Scruton, Ashley Gibson, Jordan Tansey, Ryan Hall

Many a time when we were complaining about losing games because we had a lot of recent academy players in the first team and it was too much too soon, Leeds had around the same number and were still having success. Smith brought juniors through and they thrived. John Bastian is on board and we already have a lot of players coming through who had representative caps at junior level - Smith is the perfect man to oversee their development into quality first teamers.

An important point here is that Smith's reputation is as a first rate technical coach, not one who overcomplicates things like Steve Anderson, but who puts a lot of emphasis on improving individual players core skills. Look at the way Leeds sides coached by Smith played - they kept the ball alive superbly, their support play was good, the defence was organised and they were the least penalised team in the league. Rookie players came out of the Academy into that structure and fit in quickly.

As for Warrington post 2011, Lowes has got a good opportunity here, because apprentices to top coaches often become good coaches themselves. Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett is a good example, Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho, Brian Noble/Mick Potter/Daniel Anderson and Brian Smith. Brian McDermott has made a good start at Harlequins, he served under Tony Smith. However it ends up turning out, I would imagine Smith's intention is to leave in 2011 with Lowes taking over as head coach and maintaining continuity in what will hopefully be a successful culture.

Re: Smith era: 2009-2011 : Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:18 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

I'm very pleased with this appointment, for the first time ever as a Wire fan I can say that out of all the coaches currently employed in the league, I think Warrington have the best. Great move by everybody involved in securing his signature and lets look forwards.

I actually think Smith's era as coach will be relatively short, the two and a half years he has signed for is what we will get. Who knows what his career aspirations are, but he's already coached a big club in England and won trophies, he's coached at international level, what must his long term ambitions be....I think he will want to coach in the NRL, and to be fair if he has any measure of success at Warrington he is going to be in line for an NRL job. So I'm not expecting him to be here beyond 2011.

A good thing about Smith is he is not a short term man, he has a perspective of the bigger picture and the future, building a club, which is just like his brother.

Leeds have always had junior talent but before he went there they had a lot of players who dominated at Academy level and won Academy championships but then underachieved at SL, some of them ended up at other clubs and their careers stagnated. Smith brought a crop of juniors who had just started to find their feet in the first team under Powell, into top SL players and internationals, and then supplemented them by bringing through the next generation, ie Lee Smith, Nick Scruton, Ashley Gibson, Jordan Tansey, Ryan Hall

Many a time when we were complaining about losing games because we had a lot of recent academy players in the first team and it was too much too soon, Leeds had around the same number and were still having success. Smith brought juniors through and they thrived. John Bastian is on board and we already have a lot of players coming through who had representative caps at junior level - Smith is the perfect man to oversee their development into quality first teamers.

An important point here is that Smith's reputation is as a first rate technical coach, not one who overcomplicates things like Steve Anderson, but who puts a lot of emphasis on improving individual players core skills. Look at the way Leeds sides coached by Smith played - they kept the ball alive superbly, their support play was good, the defence was organised and they were the least penalised team in the league. Rookie players came out of the Academy into that structure and fit in quickly.

As for Warrington post 2011, Lowes has got a good opportunity here, because apprentices to top coaches often become good coaches themselves. Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett is a good example, Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho, Brian Noble/Mick Potter/Daniel Anderson and Brian Smith. Brian McDermott has made a good start at Harlequins, he served under Tony Smith. However it ends up turning out, I would imagine Smith's intention is to leave in 2011 with Lowes taking over as head coach and maintaining continuity in what will hopefully be a successful culture.

Forgot about him linking back up with Smith.

: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:18 pm  

It would have been nice to still have Cull involved and not that Yorkshire oaf.

: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:26 pm  

Cullen wouldn't have done it, he's got eight years experience as a head coach and isnt the type of character to be a number two.

Lowes is still an inexperienced coach and this is a great opportunity for him to observe and learn from Smith as a coach but also to contribute his own knowledge to Smith and see how Smith can get the best out of him. Brian Smith's mentality was always focused around developing upcoming coaches as well as players, so Tony is likely to be of the same school of thought.

Remember when the coaching team was Cullen, Darbyshire, Chambers people often said that we needed some winners in the staff, who had won trophies as players. Tony Smith never won anything the closest he got was being beat in two Grand Finals for St George. Lowes won it all and knew what he was doing on the pitch, give TS a chance to refine Lowes' knowledge of the game into a good coach. Its the same thing as taking a player with raw talent but flaws (eg Penny) and turning him into the finished article.

Re: Smith era: 2009-2011 : Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:30 pm  

sally cinnamon wrote:

I'm very pleased with this appointment, for the first time ever as a Wire fan I can say that out of all the coaches currently employed in the league, I think Warrington have the best. Great move by everybody involved in securing his signature and lets look forwards.

I actually think Smith's era as coach will be relatively short, the two and a half years he has signed for is what we will get. Who knows what his career aspirations are, but he's already coached a big club in England and won trophies, he's coached at international level, what must his long term ambitions be....I think he will want to coach in the NRL, and to be fair if he has any measure of success at Warrington he is going to be in line for an NRL job. So I'm not expecting him to be here beyond 2011.

A good thing about Smith is he is not a short term man, he has a perspective of the bigger picture and the future, building a club, which is just like his brother.

Leeds have always had junior talent but before he went there they had a lot of players who dominated at Academy level and won Academy championships but then underachieved at SL, some of them ended up at other clubs and their careers stagnated. Smith brought a crop of juniors who had just started to find their feet in the first team under Powell, into top SL players and internationals, and then supplemented them by bringing through the next generation, ie Lee Smith, Nick Scruton, Ashley Gibson, Jordan Tansey, Ryan Hall

Many a time when we were complaining about losing games because we had a lot of recent academy players in the first team and it was too much too soon, Leeds had around the same number and were still having success. Smith brought juniors through and they thrived. John Bastian is on board and we already have a lot of players coming through who had representative caps at junior level - Smith is the perfect man to oversee their development into quality first teamers.

An important point here is that Smith's reputation is as a first rate technical coach, not one who overcomplicates things like Steve Anderson, but who puts a lot of emphasis on improving individual players core skills. Look at the way Leeds sides coached by Smith played - they kept the ball alive superbly, their support play was good, the defence was organised and they were the least penalised team in the league. Rookie players came out of the Academy into that structure and fit in quickly.

As for Warrington post 2011, Lowes has got a good opportunity here, because apprentices to top coaches often become good coaches themselves. Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bennett is a good example, Steve Clarke and Jose Mourinho, Brian Noble/Mick Potter/Daniel Anderson and Brian Smith. Brian McDermott has made a good start at Harlequins, he served under Tony Smith. However it ends up turning out, I would imagine Smith's intention is to leave in 2011 with Lowes taking over as head coach and maintaining continuity in what will hopefully be a successful culture.

Very good post, but if he does achieve a modicum of success whilst he is here let's not go backwards when he does leave and give the job to somebody not up to it. We have made a crucial first step here and we better not cock it up. Look at what Leeds and Saints do when they lose the services of a good coach, they go out and look for an even better one.

: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:38 pm  

mark_m wrote:

It would have been nice to still have Cull involved and not that Yorkshire oaf.

I was thinking that very same thing but, like Sally believe, that PC would have had too much pride to accept the demotion, especially when he was the head coach for 5 years and not 17 games.

Re: Smith era: 2009-2011 : Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:48 pm  

Moe syslak wrote:

Very good post, but if he does achieve a modicum of success whilst he is here let's not go backwards when he does leave and give the job to somebody not up to it. We have made a crucial first step here and we better not cock it up. Look at what Leeds and Saints do when they lose the services of a good coach, they go out and look for an even better one.

To be fair Bluey is the first time we have replaced one good coach with another, for instance after Murray left we replaced him with the disaster that was Dean Lance.

With regards to TS I feel that he may have more on his hands than he did when he took over at Leeds. With Leeds we were virtually there and just needed that bit extra that he brought us. With Warrington it appears that the whole culture of the club, or at the very least that of a number of senior players, needs to be changed.

On the positive side there is talent there to work with. Penny is one example, look at how Smith used Calderwood in his first year. Someone very similar to Penny in that he has blinding pace but still has a lot in his game to work on.

: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:48 pm  

Where do you think we will be in 3 years?

Re: Smith era: 2009-2011 : Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:53 pm  

Dirty Pretty Thing wrote:

With regards to TS I feel that he may have more on his hands than he did when he took over at Leeds. With Leeds we were virtually there and just needed that bit extra that he brought us. With Warrington it appears that the whole culture of the club, or at the very least that of a number of senior players, needs to be changed.

I agree to an extent, but let's not forget that last season we were in the top 4 for more than half of the season. We were in 4th for 6 of the last 7 weeks.
We didn;t have that bit extra to take us a step further, and maybe Smith will bring that.

: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:53 pm  

Mark wrote:

Where do you think we will be in 3 years?

Don't think you'll be far off, just think there is a lot further to go than there was at the same point in his Leeds career. As someone mentioned previously he excels in improving a players core skills which is better suited to clun coaching rather than internaltional. He is a strict disciplinarian so I can see a few departures from Warrington soon.