Bloody eck, you s@*g one sheep.
I had a very senior moment, so much for keeping it quiet.

But history shows that we DID try to get TS last season but he could not join us at that time. Maybe Lowes was always going to be a stop-gap, but in any event he was the only one available.

I overheard you telling him, I was stood directly behind you trying not to wet myself.

Thanks for the understanding and support from all involved, which now seems to be everyone in the bloody South stand.

I'm sorry but the last thing Warrington needed when Cullen left was a 'stop gap.' And if what you are suggesting, that trying to 'wing it' with a average assistant coach for the run in for the league, a play-off campaign (if you can call crumbling to pieces in france a campaign) and a pre-season then that could be a the biggest b0llock dropped by the board.

As proven by the league table

We had no players to fall apart in the playoff game

Who assembled the squad? Thats the risk we run by signing injured players, such as johnson, bridge, reardon, v.anderson etc etc

Out of interest, when did Warrington's pre-season begin?
England's World Cup campaign was over by mid-November - this is what galls me a little. Lowes had demonstrated his ineptitude at the back end of the season, and if they had wanted Smith that badly, I'm sure they could have got him in place pretty sharpish at that time if they'd tried hard enough.

While I'm glad Smith is now here, this season might have a different perspective had he been in charge from the outset. What also perplexes me is the continued presence of Lowes on the coaching staff.

Well to sack him would surely show the board in a bad light?

Don't get me wrong, i'm as glad as a pig in that we have the 'world class' coach we were promissed 9 months ago by the board. But coming into a disconsolate changing room with a squad that is in poor form and low confidence, and already 6-8 points off the pace is a mammoth task for anyone. We have now got a season that was one to forget last year and one quickly heading that way while we go through the 'transitional period' needed to turn this around.

I would have much rather got in TS or any other top class coach last year, gone through the transitional period in the off season and gone into the 09 season on a fresh sheet

And so would everybody else including the board.

Smith even stated in his interviews when he joined that we approached him before we appointed Lowes.

Well why didn't they get him after the World Cup? Or even during, or before, a la Bobby Robson with England and PSV in 'Italia Noventa'.

You'd have to ask them, but I assume that they weren't panicking after a poor end to the season, where injuries played a big part.

They had made the decision that Lowes would do a good job for the 18mnths until Smith was ready (so it seems) and to change their mind during pre-season would have been unheard of.

Nobody, even the most cynical on here expected such a poor start to this year, and the team to look so far off.

Smith probably returned from Oz at the end of November, when the pre-season plans will have already been drafted and underway, I don't understand why you feel they may have got him at that stage anyway.

all simon moran has done is appoint a former warrington player and fans favourite as a coach,back him to the hilt until it became clear that it wasn't working out.
is blocked from signing the current coach,makes an internal appointment to create a core stability,signs current coach after finally getting clearance.
put this along with saving the club from going into administration bringing players with the calibre and profile of langer,johns,morley,gleeson et al(regardless of how they have performed) to an unsuccessful club.
that in my book is what any sporting club wants out of it's owner.

You are a wise man my friend

Because they got him a few months later when his situation was exactly the same...



All I'm saying is if 'the board' had approached Smith earlier last year, having identified him as 'the one', then surely all they had to do was say 'look the job's yours as soon as England go out, Lowes is a caretaker, etc, etc.'
Surely not beyond the capabilities of a forward-thinking, decisive, go-ahead board of directors......oh, wait.

Like I said earlier, I'm glad we've got Smith. It's just the ham-fisted way Warrington frequently seem to go about things that irks me somewhat.

I'm not convinced that somthing would have been sorted within a week of England going out of the Cup, and I suspect that Smith's original plan was to see out his England contract prior to joining us, so I don't blive we could have made him an offer to join as soon as they were knocked out.

Personally, I feel if England had gone on to win the World Cup for example, Smith's job would have taken on a new level for England this year. I would have expected Internationals to step up a level in importance. After we finished like we did, I suspect he is wary that his England role would not necessarily be extended, so he was more open to the Warrington job, at the expense of his technical director role.

I am pretty confident that when they were trying to land Smith they would have had a discussion around whether he could join after the WC.

Before the WC, Smith was on a winning streak with England and things were looking positive. Now they are much more negative, so I think that things have changed, and the circumstances are different.

Newsflash Shaft! Have you considered that his employer at the time was unwilling to release their employee? I mean, heaven forbid they had pursued Smith since Cullen left, yet were rebuffed on numerous occasions.

Nah, that wouldn't fit the incompertent slant.

They haven't fully released him yet

The point being - you seem to be asking why didn't Warrington try to get Smith earlier than they did. The answer is simple - they did. Originally, the RFL simply refused to release him from his full time duties with them. Also, he may have been reluctant to give them up so early into them and was probably fully focused on trying to win the World Cup. As far as you know, we may have tried to get him again as soon as England were knocked out and perhaps he wasn't willing to join at that stage, still being caught up in the WC fallout. Plus, perhaps having given Lowes an 18 month contract, they felt it fair to at least give him a chance?

Nah.

What do you mean, 'Nah'? A very considered post, that. Implying (in a hilariously sarcastic tone), I would suggest, that SEB's reading of the events is of course correct, and my opinion is to be dismissed out of hand. Brilliant.

For all [uanyone[/u knows, the board could have tried to get Smith straight after the World Cup. The fact remains that they didn't succeed at that time - all I'm saying is that that remains a pity, and perhaps he could have been appointed if they hadn't rushed into giving Lowes a longer contract than was really necessary.

Or, we tried to get Smith to replace Cullen, but despite repeated efforts, a release from his fulltime RFL contract could not be obtained. So, in the full knowledge that Smith's contract with the RFL finished at the end of this season, possibly, Lowes was given a caretaker role, his contract ending to coincide with Smith becoming available. Maybe, just maybe Lowes' appointment wasn't rushed at all and the club had tried for the best part of three months to get Smith but wasn't successful.

Nah........

Nah, because this still doesn't adequately explain why he was released a couple of months later though, does it?
Maybe the RFL just gave in due to the embarrassment of having one of their 'A' grade clubs being so abysmal on the pitch.

You mean the release [iafter[/i the World Cup?