It’s a shambles. Smith has no experience, surround him by others with no standing or achievements at elite coaching level. Why?

Like the playing squad, everything is now being done on the cheap

The club, on the playing front, is an absolute laughing stock when it comes to the men’s senior side. Years and years of under investment, lack of interest in the juniors, poor recruitment of playing and coaching staff, and all on GH’s watch. He might have saved the club in 1996, but he’s well on the way to ruining it now.

Seems unlikely. It'd be a pretty stupid club that let both its halves go without any replacements lined up.



Although thinking about it...

If you look at Merrin (wrong player and not that good), Hurrell (huge impact at the line but errors and poor condition), Lolohea (not good enough), Tetevano (failed to step up from being a bench player and enormous waste of money) we have splashed cash in places but it just hasn’t worked. We have spaffed hundreds of thousands of salary cap on poor decisions over many years.



Now one or two not working out can be bad luck or injury: our problem is systemic and has been there for a very long time.



GH is a huge name in the game but he needs to stop getting involved in the rugby playing operation and stick to commercial/PR. I think we just need a DoR.



The club is still a great one and not everything is FUBAR as some would have it: but we need a change of direction at the top. We started to go wrong at the end of McDermott’s time; the amount of players we have signed who just haven’t made the cut is ridiculous.

Its about time the club made a statement. They did it in 1997 with Harris (and a decade earlier with Schofield and Crooks). Even if it doesn't bring instant success, some kind of statement signing(s) would at least signal an intent to draw a line in the sand and get fans excited for the future. Right now the future just looks utterly lacking in interest.



I sincerely hope there's more ambition than the likes of Adam Clune or most of the other names bandied about.

Smith does have experience he was assistant coach at the London Broncos, Roosters and Knights, head coach of Tonga, Bulls and the Devils.



You may not think heyup to it but to say he has No experience is wrong IMO.

which makes his failures even worse

If players have been signed for next year I can see no reason for not announcing the especially in the halves as the current ones have either left or signed elsewhere next year. This suggests that we are still trying to recruit in these positions which is a big concern and it's hard to see how we get 2 quality halves looking at what's available.

The only other option is contracted players and splashing the cash which Gary seems loathe to do.

What’s his % win rate with us?



The playing Squad isn’t good enough it hasn’t been for years, that’s the main issue.

no it's not. but he isnt good enough either. nowhere near good enough

It’s often not up to the club as to when the signings are announced.



If they are able to announce something i agree it’s time to start doing so.

We’ll have to agree to disagree, id like to see him coach a better squad, I would bet the Devils side he coached would beat us at the moment.

Merrin was an excellent player and arguably kept us up that season.

wetherby bulldogs would beat us.

and he is a big part of the problem

As I say let’s agree to disagree

If the playing squad has not been good enough for years who is responsible for that.

But yet bizarrely he was good enough to take us from nowhere to the GF last year. A fact that is being conveniently forgotten. So we sack Smith because he can't get a squad of clearly average players to perform. Then what? Who else? I can't see any senior coaches coming from OZ, why would they? SL is a second rate comp in comparison. I don’t think the challenge of turning water into wine for an expectent and entitled fan base is one anybody would relish. The likes of Holbrook, Lam, Woolf have been lucky enough to inherit or bring in great players. Smith is rubbing two sticks together in comparison. Anybody who as ever played sport to a decent level knows that structure, process etc is no substitute for talent. Until we invest in some (and really focus on developing our own) we will continue to struggle.

A few factors but the culpability probably lies at the top.

I think Smith has toughened up the core team performances so we're much less likely to capitulate in the ways we did under his predecessors.



The spine is threadbare right now with Leeming and Austin gone, and Myler injured. Even if we had them all back, we'd have experience and more competence but not the spine of a top 4 team.



I'd like to see how Smith does with his own spine. At the moment it's only really O'Connor that is a first choice Smith player, and I reckon there's a lot of improvement in that player to come, especially if he's supported by better spine players than Hooley at full-back (in his second SL game!) and Johnson at stand-off!



But it really is time for GH to signal the club's intent and make a big signing, even if it means clearing the moths from Caddick's wallet and paying the going rate transfer fee for a contracted player. Every now and then a big club needs to do this. Signings like Harris and Peacock in recent memory formed the cornerstone of successful dynasties. This is what the club needs most right now IMO, alongside the necessary surgery and changes to ensure the youth conveyor belt is restarted.

Even some of the best coaches can only work with what they’ve got.



How did Tim Sheens get on at Hull KR and Widnes?

macdermott won the GF on17. how did 18 go?

anyone who has played sport at any level knows if you get on a roll at the right time anything can happen. sporting history is full of such runs. we have gone backwards at a rate of knots this year. recruitment has been awful but he has a say in that. all coaches do. there us no discernable style or shape. its chop and change. I don't rate him. i stand to be proved wrong and I hope he does. because that means we are winning games. i just don't see it.

one thing is guaranteed. if gawwy gets stick and feels the pressure smith will be hone. sh*t rolls downhill. gawwy won't shoulder any blame

Should it be a concern though that some of the better ones aren't performing to the standard they're caoable? Ie some of the front row?

You’re kind of proving our point with the McDermott thing.



We Lost two generational talents at the end of 17, and never really recovered.



Herherington isnt ine for sacking coaches too often, he did with McDermott but his time was done, Sinfield sacked Furner and Agar chose to leave.



One of the reasons Smith was employed was to bring the youngsters through, the club has to help him out with some decent signings.

I don’t think the forwards are the issue, how many games have we been in position to win them for us to lose by a point or two. It’s our Halfbacks inability to control a game or execute thats been the biggest issue.