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Tony Smith - bad taste


Lowdesert

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2 minutes ago, fairfolly said:

What will his excuse be at the end of next season when they are in the bottom four again. Along with Wakey, Huddersfield and Toronto (if allowed in ) that is.

If Toronto go up it'll probably be "It's unfair, we had the most players denied Canadian visa's".

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Hull KR were joint bottom (which they were if you look at the table) because they were one of the two worst teams in the league. They need to concentrate on making sure they aren't there again next season - which, judging by their recruitment thus far, they probably will be.

Assuming Toronto qualify and are allowed in, they're likely to be even more in danger next season since Toronto will presumably spend their way to a higher league position.

He needs to belt up and concentrate on his own club

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Whether it's the right time for Smith to air his views or whether he should have just let it lie is one thing but I agree with him about the two London Saints games.

I am surprised that so many people are ok with Saints fielding an under strength team and losing. Maybe once is ok but twice against the same team seemed unfair to the other teams to me.

And to clarify, I was hoping for London to stay up.

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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And yet another moaning Aussie coach emerges, there all happy enough to take the money when they can't get a gig back home, then whinge about the system when they or their players aren't upto the job. Time a few people took a good, hard look in the mirror, I haven't heard Danny Ward bleating about relegation and as for the rubbish about weakend teams, should games be postponed if one team has a number of injuries because a relegation threatened team played them earlier in the season when they were at full strength?

You play what is in front of you, Smith et al should look at the amount of times their teams have lost games when in front?

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4 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Whether it's the right time for Smith to air his views or whether he should have just let it lie is one thing but I agree with him about the two London Saints games.

I agree with you on this, although it most probably didnt need to be said.

I can only assume that his thinking is that without the Saints results he believes London would have been relegated weeks ago and we wouldn't find ourselves a couple of months behind the others in terms of recruitment, as we have the last couple of years.

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55 minutes ago, JohnM said:

He shouldn't have become coach of an understrenght club in the first place. 

Not sure that's his issue.  Imo his main aim is squarely at Saints doing the same thing twice.  I agree with him  but how to prove it.  Too much of a coincidence for me.

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Just now, HKRBob said:

I agree with you on this, although it most probably didnt need to be said.

I can only assume that his thinking is that without the Saints results he believes London would have been relegated weeks ago and we wouldn't find ourselves a couple of months behind the others in terms of recruitment, as we have the last couple of years.

I wonder how much any of those 4 teams would have paid for 4 points.

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I think some of the criticism here is odd.

This is exactly the time to criticise the system, as he has done plenty of times. Now his team have survived it cant be dismissed as sour grapes.

I dont agree with him necessarily, but while has constantly criticised relegation, as have many. 

The fact that the record-breaking winners of the LLS provided London with four points is really, really questionable no matter how many times people try and make out it was a normal occurrence. 

If this was a sport like boxing or horse racing it would be a scandal.

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The comments about Saints fielding a weakened team against London make me laugh.  We did the same against Leeds (and we beat them too) but they didn't end up in the relegation zone.  That might be because they managed to win enough games to secure their place rather than relied upon other teams to stay up, as HKR did.  I notice that HKR lost their final game so had London won, HKR would have gone down.  Maybe Smith needs to take stock of his coaching creds rather than moan about London and Saints.  Maybe Smith needs another break from the sport.  He went out whinging and it seems he's only been back in the sport five minutes before he's whinging again.  

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As Dave T says, I think the criticism of Smith is a bit over the top. He said a similar thing mid August and he has expressed that view again, despite the fact his team survived. If they had gone down, he would have been accused of sour grapes and excuses. Now they have survived he could just be highlighting an area that needs looking into. 

Here is what he said in August.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/tony-smith-super-league-system-3213697.amp

We’ve got no reply to anybody putting out a team of whatever standard they want which leaves the sport open for manipulation of how the competition could finish.

“For instance, if there were a couple of teams in the final week that were vying for promotion or fighting against relegation, if there was a preference a team could field a weakened team against one of those lesser teams and there’s nothing we could do about it.

“Promotion and relegation works on the basis of attrition and if it’s done properly the weakest team goes down. I think there will be conjecture at some stage this year unless one particular team goes down.

Whether you agree with his point or not, the absence of any operational rules around fielding weakened teams does leave the sport open to criticism on manipulation of results. 

"The history of the world is the history of the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." — Sir Humphrey Appleby.

"If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" — Sam Harris

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I think he is right, especial the 2nd time Saints put out an almost academy+ team.

I see some using the first weakened team to make their point, but it doesn't wash for the really weak team 2nd time around. As I've said before it also shows what they really think of the paying public.

He is right to bring it up again as their needs to be some rules that can be applied to such circumstance. A body that can look at the team prior to and immediate after together with medical advice as to how blatant or reasonable any weakened team selection is.  

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