It was reported that Sezer wasn't a marquee signing.

So are you saying that Smith is playing all said players out of position and saying that is his idea because Gary hasn't let him bring in anymore players? A kind of stool pigeon?

Remember that role Agar was originally brought in for a few years ago? What happened to that?

Wasn’t Sinfield our DoR for a while, and now we don’t have one?

This all reeks of a rugby operation that has completely lost its way.

Smith has all the hallmarks of a coach who had a short-term impact or “new coach bounce” but doesn’t have the skill set to move things forward.

The trajectory of run and grand final last year and then totally flopping this year simply isn’t the trajectory of a coach who has what it takes for us.

This has to be a joke

If this is true I will have lost any faith in GH and the club.
Smith said yesterday words to the effect of “as a coach you can quit or fight and I will fight”. That is a message to GH that he won’t resign.

IF GH brings in Kear it will be a ploy to undermine Smith and hope he resigns or agrees to go with a reduced package.

I hope this is all rubbish

This poor season could probably be traced back to a badly managed pre-season. It seems we approached the games half d with a lack of gameplan and the focus being on getting minutes in the legs, regardless of which position it was in.

That could be put down to Smith's naivety, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out the importance of pre-season for building combinations, structure and cohesion. I had a manager who insisted on people rotating teams so they knew a bit of everything. It doesn't work. People need to be experts in their areas with an understanding of others.

To play devil's advocate, this could potentially be the making of Smith, but he needs a wise head beside him as Director of Rugby. He's still a young coach and has made a fair few mistakes this season. If he can put his hands up and say he got it wrong, it could be a huge learning experience. But he needs someone there with experience. His coaching team is quite young and I wonder if there's anyone questioning his decisions, or if they're just nodding dogs.

What's clear is that the club is broken on the field, and has been for some time. It feels like we're stuck in the past still living off the success of the golden generation.

I like Kear, managed to do a lot with very little resources over the years but in honesty to be a success moving forward would very much rely on him having any sort of ambition and drive.

Let's see what transpires but I for one support it 100%.

Agree with D4mo78.. i think Smith messed this up in pre season. The warning signs were there..

I still can't believe GH has not issued an apology to the fans... is this where we are as a club now ? accepting shi*te like that.... no wonder we are where we are...

Good Post.

To be fair to Smith, we have been so dogged by injuries and suspensions that for me anyway FWIW it was a decent shout trying out people in new positions and making people play a new position where in a pinch or a tough game with injuries / sending offs etc they can be rotated into and are not going in "cold" but I do think and agree with you that we spent all preseason on Gimmicks, some which worked, some which unfortunately were doomed to fail.
You can only practice so many in a non competitive environment so kudos for him trying out the short kickoffs etc all preseason but that Warrington game mustve come as a very rude awakening to the realities of a loose preseason and actually competitive RL and some of the gimmicks now look just like plain stupidity.

As for the club being broken I totally agree, weve patched up the cracks for years and its been "jam tomorrow" and false dawn after false dawn for nearly 6/7 years and I think this is the culmination of celebrating our successes instead of putting it in a box and moving on to the next one.

Smith has made some mistakes for sure. If he doesn't learn from them then he'll be gone sooner rather than later.

Having said that, just look at our squad. Not what we want them to be, or how they can maybe play every now and then, but in reality. Our spine is just dreadful. O'Connor gets a pass as he's still learning, but Myler, Austin, Sezer even if fit (not often) and playing well (even less often) vs Welsby, Dodd and Lomax at their best? That's the standard we need to be at, and our trio, almost combined age 100 (so getting slower and generally worse every year) are just not in the same league. That trio is the key to every successful RL side. You can have gaps elsewhere, but they are what makes the side tick and play to a structure.

I really don't think Smith helps with the passive defence (or whatever it is), or the constant picking of players out of position. Going back to fundamentals would help tighten us up and generally much harder to beat.

But it is also down to the players you have. Our squad just lacks class. Our recruitment for next year, when we should have oodles of cap to play with, has to be about quality, ideally in at least two of the spine roles. Otherwise you can change the coach and we'll still win zilch.

Kear's game plan - take the two!!

Kear has no idea about how to coach attack his sole focus is on defence - an old style coach who is now so far out of date it would be a joke if he were brought in

as a stand in for a couple of months no.problem. full time no chance

Agar was supposed to be a stand in. Got the 'new coach bounce' and stayed long enough for even GH to remember why he was a failure as a first team coach elsewhere. Kear (or anybody else) would likely fancy they could take this team places longer-term if they saw an uptick in performances in the short term. Even JJB clearly saw a future as head coach after stepping in last year. I don't think we should go there at all unless its a dire emergency.

Where in the world has this John Kear rumour come from? He's a nice bloke and he won a couple of pots back in his coaching hayday, which was 20 years ago. He's now 68 and coaching mid table championship club, Widnes. It seems very unlikely to me, which probably means it's true.

If no Superleague clubs want him that says it all.He is old school coaching at Championship level and that's where he should stay and continue doing his commentary on the TV.
As you say seems a nice bloke but we should be aiming miles higher if all of this is true, which seems very doubtful.
Don't think age is a major factor, Wayne Bennett is still coaching in the NRL at 73,but Kear is no Wayne Bennett.

Nothing more than the RL "family of supporters" cashing in on our current predicament. I hope.

Unless Gary is negotiating for Craig Bellamy or Ivan Cleary to come over then its about time he issued an apology for the performance's and told us how he intends rectifying it.
He's had a few days now to come up with an apology or statement and its disrespectful to the fans.

I know Hetherington's tool of last resort is the open letter but when did fans start clamouring for it, demanding they get an apology? It's just weird.

Very weird! Like crying babies, they need to get a grip!

Plus he’s done that many of them now they’re rendered meaningless and do nothing, it’s like an annual thing now.

You’re going to do a root and branch review are you? Sure you are, and we’ll still be sheeite next season.

Jeez we are scraping the barrel with the suggestion of John Kear.
We could also ask Brian Noble to come in as DoR.


I don`t think there`s a coach in the UK that I would like unless we get Rowley.
So that brings us to the NRL and again I stick by my Ryan Carr/Lee Briers suggestions.
Didn`t Smith coach a second string team to win the GF whilst he was in Australia?
For me I really do think we have players leaving who do not want to play for us this season and it`s causing disharmony in the changing rooms and on the pitch.
If that's the case said players should be dropped and the reserves given a shout.

Chappy you really are naive aren't you. You seem to dismiss the Kear rumour without a second thought and then bring Carr and Briers into conversation. Get a grip man and step into the real world, both are currently in respective roles within the NRL. They're not walking away for us, it's exactly why we were forced to look in the second grade for Smith, which leads me to ask again.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY ONCE GREAT CLUB???

Not sure it`s naivety Brad.
Carr and Briers and Rowley are the ones I would "like" as coach
and would have wanted Carr before he went back to Oz.
Briers is one for the future who did well during his time in the UK admittedly as an assistant.
Big risk I know.
The thought of Kear coming to the Club fills me with horror.
He is too far removed from the modern game and whilst he had some motivational skills his understanding on how the game is played now is limited evidenced by his comments on tv along with the likes of Jonathon Davies.
Our once great club has been sadly mis managed for a number of years starting from the top when GH thought it was better to bring in cheap coaching options.

Who was the last very good coach GH brought in for the 1st Team? I ask as I think very good is the minimum standard we should be looking for.

Who was the last game breaking talent GH signed for the 1st Team? I ask as we seem desperately short of them.

Last night I was thinking, I know it hurt, about which players or coaches we have brought in since the 2017 GF that have actually been a roaring success. I couldn't make a case for any of them to be signed really, including the Leeds version of Konrad Hurrell who whilst entertaining was nothing like the St Helens version and wasn't really what we needed.

GH has gone so far off the boil from a playing and coaching side, he's barely even tepid.