McNamara has (or has tried to) do what Meninga has done with the QLD side, keep them together and back them to succeed. In or out of form is irrelevant for Mal, the main bulk get picked. Form selections wouldn't see Harrison, Shillington, Myles or to a point, Thurston get selected. But Mal backs the group he knows and trusts to get it right when it counts. Mac will try and replicate this in my opinion, wether it works or the QLD bunch are a different breed of competitions is yet to be seen

He's shown the wrong attitude according to Tony Smith



[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22800164[/url

England coach in poor squad selection shocker? I blame KouCASH.

Makes it sound like he's constantly been seeking assurance that he'll be picked whilst also keeping his foot in the door for Scotland, like being in a relationship , where someone can't make up their mind but guilt tripping one of the parties about leaving them

Is this the same Tony Smith who said he was staying at the Giants whilst having talks with Leeds and then moving two days after he said he would stay at the giants. Fooking hypocrite

Not bitter at all then

So Smith has come out and had a dig at an individual player. I can't remember him doing that very often - suggests to me he feels pretty strongly thatMcNamara should be backed up regarding Brough.

Brough has had what 4 or 5 clubs in 10 years with a solitary Challenge Cup medal with a club he was booted out of.



He's in great form but let's not build him up to something he's not.

A bit like a probables v possibles would love it!

Does anybody much care what Tony Smith says on matters unrelated to Warrington? His stewardship of England at the last World Cup, was sub-optimal to say the least and a lot of the criticism of McNamara stems from fears he is following a similar path.



And his recent calls for the RFL to be stronger (ie do what he wants them to do) and less innovative (by sticking with a failed system that nobody trusts) was pretty toe-curling, IMO.



Great club coach, very nice guy by all accounts, and entitled to an opinion like everybody else - just doesn't carry that much weight for me on certain subjects.



Edit - there's also the irony that he's arguably kept out of the team by a player who has chosen England because he wasn't willing to take on the challenge of earning a place in the kiwis team - struggling to see that that represents a better attitude. I've no problem with what either of them have done - just don't see any difference.

The squad McNamara has is significantly better than the squad Tony Smith had in 2008. Are you saying you wouldn't want Tony Smith coaching the current England side?







He was spot on with his comments. We radically changed the format of the competition, attendances, and the amount of players playing the game at all levels increased, yet now because a few championship clubs whinge, we're looking at changing it back to a system that failed for 40 years.

Smith is very intelligent, knowledgeable and successful, he has close ties with many throughout the game, at all levels and huge amount of information to from his opinions from. He works hard and is experienced.



I can see why many RL fans don’t like him when he says things they dont want to hear.

Slightly O/T but Peter Wallace has also decided to play for Scotland as well.

Well said Tony Smith.