Offy1865 wrote:I think Smith will only walk. I don't see him being sacked.
The reason I say this is, I remember AP saying "he will be the last coach I hire" doesn't sound like someone who will be sacking the coach.

Whether that was AP saying, no matter what smith is staying or was he saying I'll be gone soon so TS can take us up until then.

As I've already said,.I don't see the point in sacking TS, doesn't seem to matter who the coach is, it's always the same old stuff.
Maybe if we had TS after ladders, with that type of squad and money to spend, he would've taken us forward. But being so under the cap etc hence bringing in players that aren't good enough

hull2524 wrote:Smith must be on a very thin piece of ice. But my main problem is how many times can players throw the coach under the bus then just carry on. It's every year with hull . It's a never ending circle. Smith should have the bottle to drop those not performing which would be a lot. But at least it would show who's boss. For me the squad he picks for Huddersfield will say a lot.Our forwards yesterday where awful. Since I've been watching rugby if your forwards are getting mullered you won't win a match. Plus Smiths excuses are wearing thin. I'd have said that display is not acceptable there in training Sunday Some will be dropped next week the others are on last chance saloon.

mean_machine wrote:Fundamentals. I sometimes think when a team is struggling why don’t coaches just focus on these things. You’d accept a fairly conservative game plan if it meant the starting point of

-play people in the positions they are best in. Hookers at hooker, props at prop etc. don’t overthink it
- kick well, chase hard and ask teams to go 100 metres
- be as fit as possible
- don’t cut corners or try and be clever for penalties
- small effort areas. Forming scrums quickly, celebrating small wins, kick pressure etc

Sounds so basic, but I just don’t see you lot doing much of this at the moment. What’s happening on the training pitch every week? What’s the plan? I think most can accept getting beat but if your senior players cba to do the above then it’s a coaching issue. I think sometimes as fans you can over complicate what is happening and think bigger picture but there’s a lot of low hanging fruit which can be dealt with immediately that just isn’t happening

hull2524 wrote:Smith must be on a very thin piece of ice. But my main problem is how many times can players throw the coach under the bus then just carry on. It's every year with hull . It's a never ending circle. Smith should have the bottle to drop those not performing which would be a lot. But at least it would show who's boss. For me the squad he picks for Huddersfield will say a lot.Our forwards yesterday where awful. Since I've been watching rugby if your forwards are getting mullered you won't win a match. Plus Smiths excuses are wearing thin. I'd have said that display is not acceptable there in training Sunday Some will be dropped next week the others are on last chance saloon.

BP1 wrote:I made this same point last night on the game thread.

When it's not going very well, go back to basics and start afresh from there. It is a truism in all sports, be they individual or team. Keep it simple, keep it direct, keep it straightforward.

Even if you are not the best in your sport, there are two aspects that everyone can work on and improve: Fitness and organization. If we could see positive indicators within our team that those two aspects were being addressed then there wouldn't be half the amount of criticism being aimed Smith's way that there is today.

The fact that we can't see even the basics being carried out to an acceptable level (in fact they would appear to be getting worse judged on the season so far) has to be the responsibility of Smith, and him alone. We would excuse/accept the fact that there is simply a lack of quality within the playing squad if this was to be the case, but fitness, organization, commitment and desire have nothing to do with being a world-class player.

Smith's position this afternoon looks, to me, the same as Peter Gentle the day after the Huddersfield play-off humiliation, untenable. I've tried to back him, given his track record as an experienced coach, wanting him to succeed, to turn our club around, I've tried to search for positives (even small ones) as I'm not someone who believes that sacking your coach/manager every time you hit a bump in the road is a way to find stability, but even I ran out of patience during yesterday's shambolic first-half.

My feelings about Smith this afternoon are exactly the same as I felt about Gentle after that Huddersfield game; he looks a busted flush I'm afraid. Whether replacing him (and with who?) will change matters (given the low-level squad we will still have) I have no idea, but this current situation simply cannot be allowed to continue or drift along aimlessly, we could disappear for good.

Reading this forum today, it's difficult to escape the feeling that something fundamental snapped with the faithful yesterday afternoon. The final straw being thrown in the bin. It's not even a saviour we are looking for, just someone to instil some pride and commitment into proceedings, to give us back a club to believe in once more, as we have all believed in for a large proportion of our lives (whatever our different ages, some older than others). We have reached the point of no return. We need a change, but I fear it might not be coming.

UllFC wrote:Tbf to Gentle he managed to finish 6th with a squad assembled at last minute in 2012 with I think our best home record ever at the MKM. Even though the 2013 playoff defeat was embarasing lets not forget it was a round 2 playoff defeat and we'd lost at Wembley in a game spoilt by a downpour. Legend has it the players downed tools, we never know what might have been had he stayed (2014 and 2015 were poor under Radford)

Id take the above level of league and cup finishes right now!

Chris71 wrote:Said it many times Gentle certainly wasn’t the problem and had AP backed him to do his job we certainly wouldn’t be anywhere to the mess we are in right now.

For me the way AP handled things then was probably the start of the problems that have become deep seated issues that are now ingrained in to the fabric of the club.

The one coach he needed to give time too he pulled the trigger on far too early and then hired the one who lead the revolt all because Gentle was a proper coach and made train hard