What happened to the anti Brian Smith agenda?

[WireMan]

its the Smith family business.

Go into a struggling team, and make them good again!!

 

[Spot On]

Who the f_ck listens to Ray Hadley anyway? Seriously.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

The man in question is a koala....protected species. Will be interesting what happens if they miss the finals for a fourth straight series. No coach has lasted four straight yrs without a finals appearance.

Yet you don't hear f**king boo in the media. Protected species is an understatement.

I guarantee you Sheens won't be sacked if we miss the finals again (which we will). In fact the f**king geniuss will probably hand him a shiny new contract.

It is truly amazing how protected he is.

 

[Scarves]

I rate Brian Smith.

as part of his 18 years he was at Illawarra when they were rubbish, began building their juniors before Graham Murray continued the development and accrued a coach of the year award in 1992.

By 1992 Smithy had taken control of a rabble Saints side from the favoured son hooks of club legend Craig Young. Smith took the Saints to two grand finals vs the absolute superpower of the time - the Broncos. Before 1992 no League writer predicted any success or near success for the Red V. On the way in 1992 he knocked off an exciting Newcastle team and Murrays fancied media darling Steelers.... I remember Peter Sterling saying at the time he'd love to coach the Steelers - such was their talent. This 1992 season was a super effort and Brian Smith backed it up in 1993 where St.George were extremely unlucky not to win the title.

Move on forward to a SuperLeague war torn landscape and Brian Smith takes on another absolute rabble, this time long term low riders in a Parramatta still haunted by the legend of the 80's. Parra hadn't made a finals series for ten seasons but with Brian at the helm the Eels become competitive and into finals after Cronin & Hilditch did little or nothing.

Some notable moments include Parramatta gettting cruelled by Paul Carige and the outstanding Craig Polla-Mounter comeback in 1998. 1999 season where the Eels dominate with the Sharks before suffering de ja vu against the Storm. Brian Smith surprises all with a youthful energetic team in 2000 that scares the Broncos before dominating in a crescendo 2001 with a team that had Buettner & Taylor in the halves. Let's be honest, this halves combo is arguably one of the least inspiring halves combinations ever to contest a grand final.

In and out of the finals following that heartbreak until again Minor Premiers in 2005 before Parra turn in some unexpected garbage against the Cowboys without a second chance.

In hindsight, these results with these teams he should have been assessed with fairness. The Daily Telegraph haven't assessed him with any fairness instead attacking his credibility with hard bashing. What amazes me is that he is still around and has now ressurected a club in the Knights who realistically possibly had the hardest task for on field ressurection in modern history. From last place with the loss of Andrew Johns on top of the champion Buderus and many many more, he has had to redefine how they play against all odds and with one of the most violent media sandstorms in his face.

Full credit to this man, he will always stand tall in my book, grand finals do not make a coach, respect makes a coach. Brian Smith always seems to take over the basket case teams and rebuild them into a team to be reckoned with, his record of team building and competitivenes speaks for itself.

The Telegraph should do themselve justice and pull a follow up story of the crayon girl, if she really does indeed exist.

 

[Will De Ness]

Getting that St George side of 1992 and 93 to the Grand final was amazing. Brisbane had a team of allstars .. Langer, walters, hancock, carne, renouf, johns was solid (played origin from memory) and he got a side with some absolute clowns to the GF. Ian Herron, Niel tierney, Tony Priddle, Peter Spring (I think), Scott Gourley, a busted Mick Potter on one leg, the world's slowest centre pigskin Beattie (who may have been more effective if he had used his stash of AK47s !!) and from memory Tony Smith played 5/8.

Even at Parra I don't think Brian Smith has had that one freak player you need to win a comp ... he now has one at Newcastle in Kurt Gidley.

They are playing the best football in the comp and I hope they go on to win it as he does deserve a comp especially after the sh*t he cops in the media.

Let me tell youn all this. Smith's efforts in getting that genius packed saints sides to grand finals far far far outweighs tim sheens' efforts in winning comps with sides that had meninga, daley, stuart, belcher, clyde, walters, lazarus, mullens etc

 

[Scarves]

I agree, I not saying that Timmy Sheens can't coach, but personally and even without winning competitions in Australia, I'm placing Brian Smith higher than Tim Sheens. 2005 was one of those surprising anomaly years, where all the Gun sides of the era for reasons attributed to injury, loss of hunger or redistribution of talent absolutely fell over. The gun sides were obviously the Dogs and the Roosters, the Broncos are always strong, the Storm were brewing while the Saints and Parra threw their matches away in the finals.

Full credit to Tim Sheens, he is an innovator, however, his ability to build teams from scratch then maintain them as a finals force year in, I haven't seen it. It's probably what sets Wayne Bennett out from the rest.

 

[Brutus]

I heard Ray Hadley have a go at Smith yesterday. Claiming "Thats how he got into trouble at parra" when the knights declared rogers wasnt playing and brought Dureau in. Hadley went on to detail the most laughable story about a young bloke meant to be making his NRL debut on the saturday night for Parra years ago, and Smith decides on the Friday night to change the side. Ray was disgusted apparently the kid had organised for his family to come down...


boo f**king hoo Ray. What is Smith supposed to do, arrange the side around everyones social progam? And for the record, Ben Rogers was in doubt ALL week you dumb merkin, if you'd shut your mouth and listen for once in your life you may actually know something about the game. He was declared unfit at the last minute as you do when you have the flu.

Anything to push his well-known agendas upon everyone.

Most people with half a brain can read this clown like a book these days so it really shouldn't matter what he says about RL.

He gave up giving a stuff about rugby league many moons ago.

 

[oneeyedeaglesman]

Smithy can coach.He has the ability to turn clubs around and drive them to almost the top.His people skills are not great but if you want to run second Smithy is the man.:sarcasm:

 

[perverse]

who here, that says brian smith has bad people skills, has actually met the man?

 

[Green Machine]

I am wondering more recently if those finals losses that punctuated Smiths' reign at Parra were more to do with club culture than anything else? There is alot of pressure to win silverware out in Eels territory, after all these years and all that money spent. Surely it has to affect the players' minds sooner or later?

Compare it to Newcastle who in 2000 had a team good enough to win the Grand Final, but under Warren Ryan and with the Matthew Johns saga and those pressures, fell short. With arguably a weaker team the following year, and a new coach in Mick Hagan who related well to the players, the Knights felt less pressure and had lower expectations to live up to, which brought success. Interestingly, I think it's this "Nobody rates us, we don't care" attitude that has seen Newcastle do so well this past year.

Newcastle were a better team in 2001 than 2000. Andrew Johns played more consistent football. Ben Kennedy was the buy of the season

 

[African Monkey]

who here, that says brian smith has bad people skills, has actually met the man?

Yeah I don't get that. I said to him last year as he walked past me on what a good job he had done at the Knights and what he had done in the past and then stopped to have a chat with me and thanked me for those comments and blah blah blah but that's my personal experience with the man so unless he's a wanker to everyone else, he seemed like a very nice guy.

 

[Avenger]

To this date, Brian Smith is the best coach that we have had since our last premiership and Michael Hagan is our worst.

Brian Smith was with us for 10 years and he should have jagged at least one premiership in either 1998 (semi final choke against Canterbury), 1999 (semi final choke against Melbourne), 2001 (Grand Final choke against Newcastle), 2005 (semi final choke against the Cowboys).

 

[Avenger]

Yeah I don't get that. I said to him last year as he walked past me on what a good job he had done at the Knights and what he had done in the past and then stopped to have a chat with me and thanked me for those comments and blah blah blah but that's my personal experience with the man so unless he's a wanker to everyone else, he seemed like a very nice guy.

Agree, great bloke. When he was at Parra he once replied to an email and gave me the heads up on player signings weeks before it went to the papers. If I remember correctly one forum member from here once walked with him to a game and Smith let him know all the players that he was looking at signing. A very approachable man with an aura about him.

 

[RABK]

Newcastle were a better team in 2001 than 2000. Andrew Johns played more consistent football. Ben Kennedy was the buy of the season

Kennedy's first season with us was 2000.

Better team on paper in 2000, but in 2001 Johns was playing at a level of form that has not been seen since.

 

[Red Bear]

2001 was when Warren Ryan handed Hagan a side and said here win a premiership basically.
Hagan butchered that side over 6 seasons.

 

[Knightmare]

Hagan is a great coach to have if you have the team to win the comp but they haven't done it and a high-profile coach has just left. Chances are, with Hages in as the new coach, you will win the comp in that first year.

You wouldn't want to keep Hages for more than two seasons though. We saw after 5 seasons at Newcastle and even towards the back end of his tenure at Parra, what happens...

 

[knights_maniac]

2001 was when Warren Ryan handed Hagan a side and said here win a premiership basically.
Hagan butchered that side over 6 seasons.

ditto ditto ditto!

 

[Parra Steve]

Hagan also butchered the eels too, only took him 2 years though.

Im sure the Anti-Smith headlines will start up again if the Knights get eliminated from the finals.

 

[Frederick]

Hagan also butchered the eels too, only took him 2 years though.

The Knights were just his practice run...he perfected his craft at the Eels :lol:

 

[Raider_69]

What happened to that little girl who wrote the DT the letter?
:lol: