A real test for Smith : Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:04 am  

Despite all this post Harlequins gloom I must say I am really intrigued from a RL management standpoint in seeing how Smith goes about his task in turning our fortunes around. We will learn alot about his character and also gain an insight to what the problems were/are at our club during the next weeks and months.

It is a huge challenge for him personally and, in my view, his personal fortunes are directly intertwined with that of Warrington. If he makes us competitive his stock in world Rugby League will be sky high, fail and his reputation will have taken two sizeable dents. Anyhow I took great comfort in the aftermath of the game in thinking that he would not settle for that type of performance and, at least, had seen it first hand under his watch.

I have complete faith in him to achieve his goals if he is backed 100% by the board and allowed to make all the changes he sees fit to.

: Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:14 am  

When a company has pursued an invidual to join them as an employee for quite a period of time, I would say the employee is pretty much holding all the cards. Plus, I could see Smith saying back me or I'm off!

: Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:22 am  

getdownmonkeyman wrote:

When a company has pursued an invidual to join them as an employee for quite a period of time, I would say the employee is pretty much holding all the cards. Plus, I could see Smith saying back me or I'm off!

Quite agree.

I will be very interested to see if his work behind the scenes is reflected in changes to the squad for the Hull KR game. Draconian changes? or Steady as she goes? Fascinating stuff.

: Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:51 am  

Wires71 wrote:

Quite agree.

I will be very interested to see if his work behind the scenes is reflected in changes to the squad for the Hull KR game. Draconian changes? or Steady as she goes? Fascinating stuff.

I would say steady as she goes. Lets face it we are one or two mistakes off winning matches (as silly as this may sound)

I listened to the Quins match on the radio. It sounded like in the first half we were turning the screw but after we scored Mitchell went into touch collecting the ball and gave them a try straight after. We got a penalty and Anderson knocked on from the first push.

I gave up at that point

Look at the Leeds Match we CAN play and win matches however again silly mistakes are our undoing , We had 3 clear scoring opportunities in that match but screwed it , The Leeds try that won the game was down to basic errors that should have been sorted after the Wakefield game by Riley.

I am convinced that if Smith slowly but surely sorts out these basic errors we will not put ourselves in bad positions every time where we are defending our line after giving away meters through penalties/ basic handling errors etc.

Westwood is another classic example, the tackle like it or not was deliberate and we paid for that 5 match ban no appeal!

There is also a hangover from the Long term injuries like Bridge and reardon. Also Carvell has always been fragile.

Fix all of the above and we will be in a better position. My guess is he is targeting the Celtic match to get the ball rolling and should play his strongest team against York to ensure an enfatic win

Wholesale changes , playing a full reserve team is not the answer even if it does please a few moaners.

: Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:42 am  

My opinion is that the errors and poor discipline, plus our inability to defend our own line, are largely down to the fact that the players are just not mentally switched on at the moment.
It's obvious that something, or maybe a few things, are badly wrong within the club. I don't know what these are, though many posters on this board have alluded to various things regarding various players.
But if I was Tony Smith, I would be spending a good part of this week holding lengthy one-on-one interviews with every member of the squad, in an attempt to get to the root of these issues, and then to see what can be done about resolving them.
I have faith in Smith sorting it out, but I don't think it's going to be a short-term job, sadly.