.....however TS may have had his hands bound over Sandow's CC and GF bench selections. It was put to me by a friend that his inclusion in the team may have been contractual. Hmmm there's a thought.

He should have been replaced when we had a big rebuild.. possibly before that.. But he wasn't.... He seems to have been given immunity by the powers that be. They buy into his vision/plans/whatever.... So there is no point banging this drum again, as he wont be going anywhere. I have made peace with this fact now. Smith is here until he decides he wants to walk away, which he seemingly has no intention of doing.

Head coaches/managers have a shelf life... even the good ones... Yes there are exceptions in sport like Alex Ferguson, but he delivered the top prizes over and over again... Smith hasn't delivered it once, despite us being the biggest spenders in the league for pretty much every year of his 7/8 year tenure.

Sometimes clubs just need to be freshened up. Players need new motivation, teams need new ideas, fans need to become re-invigorated..... That point for us was 2/3 years ago.. Well it was for me anyway.

I fear we are getting into the same situation as Arsenal have with Arsene Wenger. There are similarities I worry.

Arsenal owe Wenger a lot for what he has done to the club but has overstayed his welcome. Players speak very highly of him as a manager but his players are playing firmly within their comfort zones. His stubborness around team selection and Loyalty towards underperforming players costs them time and time again.

THIS

Was scrum half, same when played for giants

You will never get rid of Smith

If Smith or anyone else at the club agreed a contract whereby a player was guaranteed a place if the team got to a final then they should have been sacked by the board straight away.
Personally I don't believe that was the case. Aussie coaches in general don't like to give their young players much chance. I remember overhearing a conversation at a Wigan v Wire academy game and one of the Wire staff openly said to his Wigan counterpart "This man won't give ours a chance"!!

Perhaps...it is a conspiracy type idea. Under the circumstances of having is inclusion off the bench in both finals that he had no part in reaching, it does have legs.

Can we knock on the head the idea that Tony Smith thinks the taking part is what matters. The point he makes on many occasions is that if the performance is right, the results will look after themselves. I imagine focusing on performance rather than the result (or league table) reduces the pressure on players to some degree. However, in terms of getting the results you can't really argue either. We lost two finals but that wasn't because of some attitude of the taking part being the important thing.

I heard him say these exact words "sport isn't just about winning". He then went on a long speech about how its about developing these players as people off the field and making sure they are ready for life after rugby etc. Tony, you are not a social worker or a careers adviser. You are a rugby league coach.

Toby King was signed directly from Meltham & as far as I am aware never played for Huddersfield Giants.

George King did play for Huddersfield Giants Academy & came to Wire on a player exchange deal with Micky Learmonth leaving Warrington.

Toby spent two years in the scholarship and played 12 games for them, all at scrum half

Didn't Sandow start at Wembley? As well as the semi? Or is my mind playing tricks?

Why get rid of him, we won the LLS and appeared in two finals last year and this season we are two points off the top!

He said he'd "Never" won it.

Can we nail this LLS stuff. No other big team sets that as a target. Our target was to win the Grand Final.

We're a strange club, when looking at coach retention.

If we take the average length of time for a coach to be two years, we rarely comply. We either have the "stay longer than the Mother-in-law at Christmas",..... Johnno over 7 years, DVDV 4 years, Cullen over 5 years and Smith 8 years......then, there's the revolving door syndrome....Anderson, Plange, Dorahy and gobpooh Lowes. We're either kneejerk or too sentimental.

As I've said before, I can't see Moran getting shut of Smith any time soon. They portray this image of them skipping through a cornfield, hand in hand, looking at each other longingly. An appalling season will be the only way that Smith goes.

p.s. He's still the best coach we've had in my watching lifetime

And will be this year too. The best way to give us a chance of doing so is to win the LLS (unless St Helens finish 4th). I agree the LLS is close to worthless (to us) but I'd rather win it than finish 5th. All routes should lead to Old Trafford; nothing else matters.

last year was so close, no matter how far.

Again, you are overanalysing it to serve a particular agenda. Sport [iisn't[/i just about winning and all those other things [iare[/i important. However, he's a professional rugby league coach and his number one ambition at the start of the season will be to win the top trophy. This doesn't stop him from worrying about player development, player welfare, providing entertainment. But trust me, when he sits down with the Board, and most importantly, Simon Moran, his overriding objective will be to deliver trophies and one above all.

On the topic of who I'd like as Smiths successor i would like to throw an alternative suggestion out there

Alfie Langer

Currently working at Brisbane as an assistant coach - so not a total newcomer to coaching
Former Warrington player so has the ex player/knows the club angle
As an ex half back could hopefully help improve our attacking play

Not sure why he'd be interested in coming to Warrington though. He'd be an unknown quantity and the pay would have to be very very good bearing in mind the exchange rate. Would he uproot his family for just a couple of years for the sake of a few extra quid and the risk of being unsuccessful in his first big job?

JJB on the superleague show bemoaning the lack of maverick players in the modern game ,sacrificed in favour of one size fits all utility players in the mould of "it's not the winning it's the taking part that matters".Also comments from McManus & Tony Smith about the state of the international game & competition from RU for our best players.

Kevin is a similar player the Lee Briers so I think good times are round the corner for the Wire again

I thought we were the top points scorers last season ?