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.