I'm sorry, no, no sympathy for Tony Smith AT ALL. Forgive me, but I'm going to give a total character assassination of the "much revered" Tony Smith:
He brought the whole thing upon himself through an irrational act of petulance / temper in that bizarre press conference in which he gave the chairman (who was abroad in the USA at the time) 2 minutes notice (local time in USA about 0500 the day after Hudgell ran the Boston marathon) that he was going to announce he won't be staying beyond the end of the season. The club had no prepared statement and were forced to rush out to respond. The reasons Tony Smith gave were vague and he showed absolute contempt for our club in that moment of arrogance.
I don't care who you are, it was a massive dummy spit from him and entirely unprofessional. As we understand it, his relationship with CEO Paul Lakin had soured, but you don't act like that, no matter what your reasons. I'll be honest in that I've never truly warmed much to Tony Smith (though I don't doubt you could quote my hypocrisy back to me from my previous forum posts!
)- I know he gets a lot of good press in that he shakes the opposition players hands after games etc, but ever since he has joined us he has looked awkward in press conferences, evasive, arrogant, never looks you in the eye, fidgety, scratches and generally looks uncomfortable and its only got worse since his announcement. It was fine when the going was good, bit strange when it wasn't. His press conference after the Toulouse defeat on the weekend was just painful to watch, arrogant, evasive and awkward.
Even before his dummy spit, on the first breath he used to proclaim how much he used to love working at the club, and in the second breath he would refuse to rule out a return to Leeds when that vacancy became open. A club can't make long term plans on the whimsy of its head coach and his flip-flopping, will he-won't he, attitude to staying. We can't continue on giving him a year on year rolling contract - how can you plan for that?!? So Paul Lakin was rightly seeking out potential replacements in Australia and the rumour is Tony found out - but how on earth can you blame Lakin for that? I'd have done the same!
If at a job interview I turned round to my potential employer and said that I didn't want a permanent contract, I just want a year rolling and see how I go, I aren't going to get offered the job! Its a crude example, but you get my point, you don't want somebody working for you who doesn't know whether they want to be there or not and Tony Smith seemingly pushed this to its limits. It may not have been the straw that broke the camels back, but its up there with the Takairangi incident. The writing was on the wall when Hudgell came out to do a press conference and said he would have appreciated more than 2 minutes notice! If your owner/employer feels like that, then you aren't in a good position - its not healthy, its inevitable.
George King, our best forward was clearly shocked when doing the media round on the day of that bizarre conference, even though Jordan Abdull came out today and said “If any of the boys say that Tony’s announcement affected the way that they played, then shame on them for looking for an excuse." - well, maybe, but the run of form since the announcement has been nothing short of catastrophic. He's clearly lost the confidence of the dressing room.
If Tony Smith really had beef with the club, he should have just resigned there and then and the blowtorch would have been directed straight towards Lakin and the club management. Because he didn't, he has born the brunt of that flame, entirely of his own making. The professional thing to have done would have been to have informed Hudgell, let the club craft the message and announce it on their terms, not spooking the players or the fans and give the impression they are in control and planning for the next head coach, Willie Peters. He didn't do that, he is now reaping what he sowed and on gardening leave, for want of more horticultural references!
What is telling is a poll on the unofficial fans forum website (a strong and vibrant private community, well modded and sponsors of players each year), showed that 91% of respondents thought today's announcement was the correct decision (6% undecided and 3% wrong decision) with 200 votes (so a significant amount).
I'm glad he has gone, in fact he should have gone straight after his "announcement". I can understand why Hudgell was reluctant - he was waiting to see how it goes and not do anything rash. But this run of poor form lies squarely at the feet of Tony Smith. I'm hoping that we have done enough to stave off relegation for another year and am really looking forward to Willie Peters starting - 3 new overseas signings in Rhys Kennedy, Tom Opacic, Jesse Sue, there are reasons to be optimistic. This means the end of the road for our overseas flops such as Takairangi (good player in there somewhere but has been woeful), Korbin Sims (not lived up to the same standards as his brother) and Albert Vete (doesn't get anywhere near enough minutes).
The sad thing is that 3 months ago Tony Smith was untouchable.
The real shining diamond in the big mess of today's news though is Danny Mags staying for another 3 years!
).
