true, our management are worse than our coach.
but is Fitzy a genius administrator......?
Signings aside, I think the Knights marginally win here - simply because Smithy has a track record developing juniors, and we have one of the best bunches ever atm in our all-conquering JF side. We have signed a coach that can set us up for life after Joey - something looming large for us, we only have him for probably one more year. We may not sign anyone of note but if we keep and develop our good juniors rather than lose them constantly or under-develop them as we did under hages, we win.
Hages, meanwhile, will get the best out of your stars in a motivational sense, dont rely on him for any in-depth game plans though. That may be a plus though - RL is an emotional, primal game, and sometimes over complicating things can hinder rather than help (case in point - Parra '01). I would expect the Parra players to love Hages (besides Tahu, he will likely leave at the end of his contract, trust me...) but you can kiss goodbye to the depth you have enjoyed for so long, and you better hope you have a good recruitment team to help hages, he has never done it well. So barring injury you will likely return to some decent form (it is all psychological with you guys) but its going to take a special half to get you over the line. Is Tim Smith that guy? Blake Green? Time will tell, but I wouldnt swap either of them for Mullen, Walsh or Dureau, the guys we have coming up.
Good luck Eels, but I think its too early to declare an absolute winner in the coach swap.
My feeling is short term Hages will be good for you, but long term, Smithy will be good for us. Look for the Knights to challenge in 09/10 with a complete team of juniors - the core of our flegg team.
