Come back Danny McGuire, all is forgiven.



Don't worry that you couldn't kick, tackle or pass on Saturday afternoon, it was all the coach's fault.



Once Tony Smith leaves and someone else comes in, you'll win the Golden Boot. Honestly!



Not even the great Wayne Bennett himself could get this England team any success.

Not quite, previously we brought in major stars to make up the spine of the team who flopped.. Bradley Clyde, Tony Carrol, Brett Mullins.



A combination of heavy investment in the youth system reaped it's rewards and enabled the spine of the team to be made up of talented homegrown players; Sinfield, McGuire, Burrow, Diskin, Mathers, Walker etc Blended with Experience players still @ their peak; McDermott, Senior etc and An experienced Aussie in David Furner and a blockbusting winger in Marcus Bai.



True, we will never know if Leeds would have won the League Leaders shield and Grand Final in 2004, or won the WCC and lost the 2005 Challenge Cup Final and Grand Final in 2005 without Tony Smith. Or got knocked out of the play offs at the first hurdle in 2006 (by guess who).

That's not a bad post. If Smith can help us develop our Juniors half as well as Leeds have, then we're in for a great future. Leeds and Saints seem to just constantly churn out more young stars each year. Wigan could well do the same, but they seem to get rid of most of them and replace them with second rate Aussies.

Smith showed @ Leeds he wasn't scared of playing the youngsters either. For the 2004 Grand Final he picked JJB over Matt Adamson (Aussie) dropping him completely from the squad.

Didn't he do it to Barry Mac too in the CC Final.



Smith took Leeds to a level they hadn't been too before, he may have had the sort of 'pieces laid out' but it needed somebody to put them together, a bit like he found at our gaff. If he gets even close to replicating the success he created at Leeds I'll be delighted, even more so if he can leave the club in such a healthy position like he left Leeds, allowing Leeds to continue that stability beyond his tenure.



He strikes me as a coach who builds clubs, not just on the pitch, but should he leave, he leaves with structures in place. Both Huddersfield & Leeds have prospered beyond his reign.



It's a tougher job he took on here, no doubt in my mind, but I think he believes he can achieve the same success, and whats more, I believe him.

He quite clearly picked Ben Harrison before Vinnie Anderson too on many occasions.

Wasn't Adamson doing a miracle recovery from a broken chhekbone or something either way Smith has already shown this at Warrington by playing McCarthy ay Wembley instead of Rauhihi.

That one too.

[qu:1y5gp84aote="JWP"Didn't he do it to Barry Mac too in the CC Final.



He did mate, Barrie Mac had a shocker in the game a week before the final against Bradford. I think this is why he dropped him, I personally think it was a big mistake as the big Hull pack we faced in the final was on the large side and totally dominated our pack in the final. JJB went to prop. To me JJB is the most ineffective prop in the league due to his size, i rate him as a 2nd rower though.

Sorry if I upset some people - you should chill out a bit.



My point is (& I quite rate Tony Smith - in terms of being in the right place at the right time

) Tony needs to concentrate on the Wolves. He is a really bad loser & never wants to make eye contact when he is annoyed with the press.



Anyway - lets hope England beat NZ & go into the final with confidence.

Nothing wrong with a bad loser. I've always been a really bad one.

he does`nt come across as a bad loser to me...always complimentary about the opposition..as for the press..whenever did they annoy him...