First of all guy's I apologise for there being no review of our game against Wigan. I've been at work all weekend on 12 hours shifts. Given that its now Tuesday and we have all seen the game at least once and read the paper reviews I don't see the value in now reviewing the game. But just to say we were well beaten by Wigan, for whom George Williams was terrific. He did to us what Sandow did to Wigan at the Piedome last season. However I do think we played better than we did in our previous game against Salford, although I admit that wasn't hard to do. Instead of a match review I want to take stock, looking at our current position and what we as a club should do to get our season back on track.
Only 4 short weeks ago and prior to the start of the season, we were along with Wigan the bookies favourite to win both the league leaders shield and the Grand Final. Yet here we are in mid March languishing at the bottom of the table, having not only lost all of our Super League games, but been well beaten by each of our opponents. How as a club have we ended up here? and in short a short space of time. What has happened to the team of 2016 that swept all in front of them winning the LLS, reaching both of our games Final's? Is there a comparison to the Leeds Rhinos team of 2016. In 2015 Leed's won the treble only to spend 2016 hugging the bottom of the table. This was after losing the services of the mercurial Kevin Sinfield & Jamie Peacocok and the 2015 Man of Steel, Zak Hardacker. Can our current position compare to that of Leeds Rhinos 2016?. I would say definitely not, since last year our notable departures are Chris Sandow and Mitch Dodds. Their loss is somewhat negated by the fact that both of these players spent most of 2016 on the injury list. Their loss to our club for 2017 is no where near the impact that Leeds endured in losing Sinfield, Peacock, Hardacker and Kylie Leuluai. In addition since 2016, I think we have actually strengthened our squad with Mike Cooper, Kevin Brown, Andre Savelio and Dom Crosby. These are all quality players and are not the reason for current league position. Evaluating our squad, I think we have the best pack in super league. Clark, Hill, Cooper, Westerman, Savelio and Ben Currie are all quality. Do we have the same quality in our backs? The tries we have conceded out wide would suggest not, with nearly all the tries against us this year coming on our wings. Last Friday a Wigan teenager scored 4 tries against our centre and wing partnership. Similar happened when we played Castleford. Rhys Evans, Ryan Atkins, Toby King, Matty Russell and Tom Lineham have conceded too many, whilst not themselves scoring enough.
So what about our Coaching team of Tony Smith and Richard Agar. Tony has been our head coach since taking over from James Lowes in March 2009. In his time at Warrington we have been to Wembley 4 times, Old Trafford 3 times and won the league leaders shield twice. We are now definitely seen as being part of Rugby Leagues elite. These achievements have been gained because of the coaching skills of Tony Smith. He has turned us around from being a team of also rans, to a club that contests for and wins trophies. Mr Smith has also been a big part of the team that has turned our club around off the field. It should be noted that our off the field turn around has been aided by fantastic work by Simon Moran and Steven Broomhead. Mr Moran in particular has been as important to the rise and success of our club as Tony Smith has. Moving back to Mr Smith, I strongly feel that Tony Smith has been our greatest coach in the super league era and he is the reason for all our trophies and final appearances. But for all of Tony's achievements both on and off the field there is one trophy that we have not won that defines and separates Warrington from super leagues true elite of St Helens, Leeds, Wigan and Bradford. Mr Smith's failure to win the Grand Final is becoming a weight around his and our clubs necks that is becoming all consuming. Many of our fans now say that only a Grand Final win is good enough and the league leaders shield and challenge cup are very much secondary to a win at Old Trafford.
Does a coach at any club have a shelf life and has Tony Smith reached his "best before date". Reading the views of our fans on social media the clamour for a coaching change has grown. With many of our fans calling for Tony to either resign or be sacked, stating our lack of Grand Final success given the resources Tony has been allocated as clear evidence of Mr Smiths short comings. These people do have a point, no other coach in super league has had the financial backing that has been given to Tony Smith. The transfer fees paid for Daryl Clark, Joe Westerman and Tom Lineham amply illustrates this point. Earlier I mentioned that our back line has conceded far too may tries, all these players are Mr Smiths choices and he has selected and trained them. So given all that I have written, the lack of a Grand Final win and our dreadful start to 2017 is it time for Warrington Wolves and Tony Smith to part their ways? It is my firm belief that they should not. I whole heartedly believe Tony Smith is the best available coach for our club. To sack Tony after just 4 losses would be a scandal and the wrong decision based soley on the emotions of our predicament and ignoring the success he has brought to our club over the last 8 years.
So if its as I say, that we have that we have a good squad and the right coach why are we here at the bottom of the table playing awful rugby league? I think its just that we are having a terrible run of form of confidence all at the same time. We played badly in games last year but they just weren't grouped together as they are now. You can see that our team is playing with zero confidence and this is affecting all of our game. Winning becomes a habit and breeds confidence, not only in the individual but in the way a player perceives his team mates. To turn things around we need some wins and lets all hope this starts on Thursday against Leigh.
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