I have to say I’m disappointed with Grix.

We are getting spanked, yet pitch side there’s no communication with the players

There’s no leadership within the team or the coaching staff.

Hoy & Okinbor just stood about , two of our biggest earners.

A bit of pitch side passion wouldn’t go amiss, even more on the pitch I hasten to add..

What about the free hit last season?

How many free hits are you going to give him?

Smith is the problem on the field has to go for the benefit of the club

Seriously how can you defend Smiths record since he has been here?

Those hookers in half back rolls were signed by Smith and played in that position by Smith

Before quoting Smith as the life saver at HKR look at some of his poor recruitment there and ask HKR supporters what they thought about Smith.

Where do you think the nicknames Tinkering Tony and toys out Tony come from.

Its no coincidence that since Smith left HKR a young coach Peters came in with a totally different approach in getting the players extremley fit and disciplined and working on defence has reaped its rewards.

Compare that on field difference and you should understand why Smith has to go

Nobody truly knows what went on at Rovers between Smith and Lakin so id take what you've heard with a hefty pinch of salt, i know people close to the club and one family member who has worked at Rovers for over 12 years and they have nothing but positives to speak of when it comes to TS and say very much the opposite in regard's to the reason he left. Furthermore you miss the point... Regardless of whether TS has minor, major or complete control of all things recruitment at FC hes working with two arms, two eyes and two ears tied behind his back, the sheer lack of funds available and the disparity between the players we lost (nothing we could have done about any of them IMO) and those we were able to bring in due to the money constraints from above gave him very little to work with. You talk about Reynolds and Milnes but whose to say either would have wanted to take a pay cut as that's what they more than likely would have had to do. Its black and white (pardon the pun) If Smith had the money to work with that Peters, Wellens etc had to work with we could be looking at 3 or 4 top level SL players to add to that current crop and sometimes that's all it takes as if you stick Ryan Hall, Tyrone May, Parcell & Minchella for example into our current side we would be transformed, hes working with whats hes got right now and whilst i don't agree with all decisions (Cummins coming in etc being one) i feel it only right to give him a long term opportunity to do what hes done at EVERY club and that's turn things round. You are very quick to forget that everything rovers are reaping the rewards for now, he laid the foundation's of. Don't let your red and white glasses cloud your judgment of what he did for you.

when did i defend his record? Its not good enough i concede that obviously, id be a fool to say otherwise, im just trying to give context to things and fans screaming for Smith to go is simply not what we need. We are were we should be with the players we have, you have to admit that? So with that been said whose gonna do better? It may honestly take another 3 or 4 seasons to fully turn this round, if we give him another at least 2 recruitment cycles with full cap like other teams higher in the table and hes able to bring in who he wants and the club can back him with the funds to attract players then lets see what comes of it eh? If hes still then not churning results out then yes i agree to part ways but fans are too quick to just blame coaches and press the panic/reset button when in truth, not one coach could come in and change our fortunes right now

No its not pointless if its Smith who is the catalyst for the on field problems which it seems to be.

We dont know what Grix is all about but get rid of Smith and his right hand man and give Grix the position till the end of the season

Cant be any worse

it is 100% pointless, answer a question for me... if we played to 100% the maximum of our capabilities with the players we currently have, injuries etc etc where do you think we would be in the table? **spoiler alert** we would be no higher....

We were under the previous three coaches too.

with a LOT better players too.....

He did do some good for us, we played some free flowing stuff and it was entertaining, it was also really flaky as well, our defence was flimsy and we attacked with no real structure but relied on the flair players we had to create xthings off the cuff, heads up rugby so to speak. Our recruitment was patchy as well for every SKD we had a Vete, every Kane Linnet there was a Takarangi. Kyle Trout just sends shivers down the spine. The odd one was Sims, he seemed to make an example of him and refuse to play him for any minutes, he wasn't great but he improved massively once Maggsy took over. Our play is night and day different under a new coach, yes we have better players and resources now but we also have a structure we play to, its a bit less exciting but i'll take that anyday. In essence if you have a club that doesn't have the quality or resources to get that quality for whatever reason then I'm not sure Smith has the answers, its job he's never done, every club he's been at has had improved investment and Leeds just had money and a ridiculous crop of kids coming through to add to that quality. thats my red and white specs off view.

wether smith is good enough or not,it would be nice near something from pearson or clarke on the current situation and wether we have any sort of plan for the future.yet all we get is total silence,thats what annoys me the most.

whats this then if you are not defending his record



"Couldn't agree more with this, i am sick and tired of seeing brainless posts calling for Smith to go.... hes by far and away the most experienced and arguably best coach in SL, His record speaks for itself

The difference is Pearson sacked them

Dont agree with that

These players are not the best but its obvious they have downed tools

Whether we agree with that method or not Smith seems to be the problem.

The Hoy situation and his fathers tweet seems to confirm there are problems with Smith and you only have to look at the Balmforth situation as its looks like those two have had words hence Balmforth doesnt get a look in for selection.

Of the injured players there is only Walker and Trueman who you may say could make a difference but i wouldnt bank on Trueman ripping up trees as in my opinion his injuries have cought up with him and the pace he had before his first injury at Castleford was clearly missing when we saw him playing alongside Clifford

Squad can't be that bad. At the last filing of company accounts Pearson implies that the squad has a 1.5 million worth.

No, it's not "obvious", it's a theory. Similarly it's not obvious that Smith has fallen out with Balmforth, again it's just a theory.



Another theory is that the players just aren't good enough. Better players have left than the ones recruited. Now whether the blame for that lays at Smith's door or Pearson's or Clarke's is open to debate.

What a load of rubbish

We’ve been on a steady decline for 7 years, Smith is far from the ‘catalyst’. What we’re seeing is the result of bad recruitment and retention over that time period, on and off the field, stoked by obvious reduction in spends.



I’m not defending Smith, he should be doing a lot better like a lot of the people at the club should be, but this all started way before he was with us.

To be fair I agree I doubt we’d likely finish any higher up the table if Smith was removed. However I would also say it’s not about league position that’s the big issue more the inept and woeful performances that are now very much common place, under Smith we no longer have peaks and troughs in performance it’s just turd every week now.



For me despite Smiths ramblings about players buying in it looks very much to be either the total opposite or that there is simply no structures or game plans being put in place or adequate training methods.



I’ve said before I question the qualifications & credentials of Gene in terms of Coaching ability and what he actually brings to the club.



It’s clear there is something very very wrong within, from Pearson, through to Clark and down to Smith.



I don’t think Smith even with his experience is the right fit or right coach to turn things round on the pitch. If he were we’d have seen improvement in some areas on the field but all we see which is frankly undeniable is the we are actually getting worse each week. The levels of poor performance are not and should not be acceptable and certainly not when our current coach is so experienced.



I know we have a poor squad and injuries but that does not even come close to being an excuse for the continuation of p15s poor discipline, lack of intensity and line speed, all of which are simple and basic aspects of the game.



Yes the players should be doing better but other than Houghton, Lane and Tuimavave it is pretty much a fresh group of players from the previous lot downed tools. So I don’t believe it’s a repeat of player power etc I think it is poor recruitment and very very poor coaching.



I also think it’s time that Pearson faced the music and showed his face to the fans and spoke to us all instead of hiding away as this got me is the biggest insult that the owner/chairman and the CEO have gone in to hiding.

A few players comments on gene , are he’s a nice bloke but his ideas and coaching methods are old school and not what they’ve been used to at other clubs .

Well he is 87





But apart from being Tony's mate what is he actually doing there?

Well I've got to say the training cones looked impeccably aligned on Saturday .

Pretty much like his time at Rovers, where his employment was probably based on nostalgia rather than coaching ability.

Before you all laugh - this is a true story - I was Tim Glasbys boss.

Not the Tim Glasby when he played for Storm and Queensland, but when he worked very part time for Hostplus the

Pension Fund manager in Melbourne.



Hostplus is a big sponsor of Storm and so Tim came into the office once a fortnight for 6 hours and we chatted rugby here and there.



Tim said if Craig Bellamy (greatest coach ever in rugby league) -



“Craig is a FIRM man but also FAIR”



I know we cannot describe any FC coach like that in the last 30 years !!!

Care to elaborate? How is it rubbish whats your counter argument? Can you honestly say we would be any higher? are we better than Salford? Huddersfield? Leeds? Leigh? NO! So therefore we are were we should be given the roster available to us. You could argue with every single player fit we could push for maybe top 8 but that's about it. and before you say it i am not saying the performances couldn't be better, of course they could but realistically the results would be the same, i cant think of one game we have lost this year that we could have won even playing to our full potential can you?