In hindsight was losing Brian Smith the worst thing that happened to the Knights?

I know he arsed a lot of locals - remember that letter from the little girl in the paper.

Kade Snowden: Probably the only one who went on to have a good career and good player even with his injuries. But that had more to do with lasting longer because of the Sharks peptide program then anything it seems.

Clint Newton: One dimesional empty, stats forward. Looked good running lines off Joeys passes, little impact, terrible hands. Was good for 1-2 errors a game in the ESL. Not really starter's calibre

Josh Perry: Good player, not fantastic as above one dimensional. Didn't have great impact towards the end of his time at the Knights. Went ok in a strong Manly pack playing off Brent Kite.

Adam Woolnough: Similar to the above, good bloke, okay player. Disappointing impact for a guy his size. Not really first grade guy or starter calibre.

Todd Lowrie: Average player, reserve grade quality. Looks better in a hot team (see 2009 Eels)

George Carmont: Average, only in first grade because Hughes/Tahu/ODavis all left in succession. Nothing to write home about. Never really kicked off after the Knights

Tighe: Good player, not a permanent first grade but good fill in. Had nice athleticism and speed. Went ok at the Panthers

Hinton/Quigley: Reserve grade standard, only in firsts due to injuries, careers never kicked off outside the Knights.

Seage: Disappeared off the face of the earth?

Tanner: Like most of our forwards, empty stats guy, tackling machine, little impact, average, never kicked off outside the Knights

Reynoldson: Not a local but rightfully got the arse for pretty much the same reasons the rest of our forwards did.

White: Went ok for a bit but probably a disappointing career for a guy his size.

Milton Thaiday: Was a nice find at the time, not sure why Smith didn't rate him but I guess having Gidley has a ball running 5/8 who could carry the ball back strongly was probably a better option.
Right call by Smith as his career never really kicked off outside the Knights.

Most looking good because of Joey. Id say he did a fair good job cleaning the crap out IMO.
 
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OK, I will buy in , Brian Smith is a Good coach when it comes to clearing the decks and starting with a fresh roster of kids, unfortunately his controlling systems tends to fly in the face of experienced players who see through the School teacher games. always was/is a coach who can bring a developing squad together, bring them from Boys to men, but seems to lose them when they see through his psychological games and off field tactics when they grow to be hardened Football men and develop minds of there own, then it appears some one else needs to take over the reins to bring them home.

Like i said Good coach but as history has it he had a few deficiencies.
 
People on here point out that we produced no juniors for the best part of 10 years.
When Smith arrived he basically signed an entire team of imports for under 20s with about 3 kids from the Hunter and he de funded all the junior squads to boost spending on firstgrade.
Maybe it was the only way he could fund a decent firstgrade squad, but the million dollars he added to the firstgrade spend came directly from lower grades. At one point he had our reserves farmed out to real NRL clubs and didn't even field a reserve grade.

I suppose you could point to how little money the club had while the stadium was being re built and say that Smith only had the money to run one grade properly, and decimating the junior programme was his only option, but the fact is that we didn't get back to training up local players till Tinkler insisted on doing that well and got Graham Murray in to develop the plan that led to our current structure. The structure that has produced Sione, Levi, the Saifiti's, Saulo, Lamb, Cogger, Meaney etc etc - not to mention the Flegg squad who could have gone through the season undefeated if we didn't give most of them a run in reserve grade and weaken the side for a few 6 point loses during the season.

Maybe Smith had no other choice, but under his watch we stopped developing players, and it took a decade to get back to where we are now, with 5 or more good prospects coming through every year.
 
If that's all Tinkler's structure has produced in seven years I'd say it's been a huge failure.

The best player of the lot at the moment is Dan, and he was brought in as an afterthought by someone who went to watch Jacob play.
 
People on here point out that we produced no juniors for the best part of 10 years.
When Smith arrived he basically signed an entire team of imports for under 20s with about 3 kids from the Hunter and he de funded all the junior squads to boost spending on firstgrade.
Maybe it was the only way he could fund a decent firstgrade squad, but the million dollars he added to the firstgrade spend came directly from lower grades. At one point he had our reserves farmed out to real NRL clubs and didn't even field a reserve grade.

I suppose you could point to how little money the club had while the stadium was being re built and say that Smith only had the money to run one grade properly, and decimating the junior programme was his only option, but the fact is that we didn't get back to training up local players till Tinkler insisted on doing that well and got Graham Murray in to develop the plan that led to our current structure. The structure that has produced Sione, Levi, the Saifiti's, Saulo, Lamb, Cogger, Meaney etc etc - not to mention the Flegg squad who could have gone through the season undefeated if we didn't give most of them a run in reserve grade and weaken the side for a few 6 point loses during the season.

Maybe Smith had no other choice, but under his watch we stopped developing players, and it took a decade to get back to where we are now, with 5 or more good prospects coming through every year.

It's hard when the Roosters/Broncos amongst other clubs are offering the best juniors who are 15-17 figures in the ballpark of 20,30,40k for players who would normally be on a few thousand dollars. Add to that pretty much losing millions each year. Because they can't be bothered to develop their own and in the Roosters case completely scrapping their u16s and u18s teams. These days we don't only have to promise hopes and dreams to these youngsters, thankfully.

It is funny the Eels went through a similar thing. Other then Hagan taking advantage of what Smith built in 2005 and a fluke GF on the back of a hot run they have been struggling hard since.
 
A key message or lesson from all of this is to not give the NRL coach too much power, he should be allowed to have a big say in who we sign and cap management but he shouldn't have the last say.

As for the juniors leave it to the scouts and junior coaches.
 
At the Warriors we have Brian Smith as Director of Football to take the dull dark dirty and dangerous jobs so Kearrny concenttrates on 1st grade Coaching.

He is doing a great job so far. I was worried about personalities and boundaries but they work together well. Smith has said he enjoys not having the clupboarrd and being able to go home at a reasonable time.

He is or has been a polarising figure but there is no doubt about his experience. His contacts are great too. We now have Peter O Sullivan as a talent scout.

For us a success story so far. Interesting to see what he Corvo and Kearney can do over pre season.
 
At the Warriors we have Brian Smith as Director of Football to take the dull dark dirty and dangerous jobs so Kearrny concenttrates on 1st grade Coaching.
He is doing a great job so far. I was worried about personalities and boundaries but they work together well. Smith has said he enjoys not having the clupboarrd and being able to go home at a reasonable time.
He is or has been a polarising figure but there is no doubt about his experience. His contacts are great too. We now have Peter O Sullivan as a talent scout.
For us a success story so far. Interesting to see what he Corvo and Kearney can do over pre season.

He has pretty much zero interest in dealing with the media now unless it's talking about contract situations with players which is fair enough considering the way he was unfairly treated by some sections of the media because of their agendas. That said from what I did read (might have been the same thing you did) he was more then happy not to be coaching anymore and be out of the weekly grind and spotlight. And one day during his break he realised he was content and didn't want to coach anymore. It's no surprise that the Warriors have re-signed some of their best young players under his watchful eye either. He doesn't get blamed for stuff like he did when he was a coach but he doesn't really claim credit for anything either, so it suits him perfectly fine being out of the public eye.
He doesn't have to play man manager with the players because that's the coaching responsibilities

He'll have a long career in the office no doubt, probably could have kept coaching if he wanted too as well.
 
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