TONY SMITH has revealed why he left both Hull KR and Hull FC as head coach.
Smith enjoyed a three-and-a-half year spell in charge of Rovers, turning the East Yorkshire club from perennial strugglers into silverware potential.
But, the Australian left Craven Park midway through the 2022 Super League season just as the Robins were preparing for a Challenge Cup semi-final.
After a prolonged spell out of the game, Smith returned to coaching in 2023 with Hull FC, but now the 58-year-old has revealed how his sudden exit from KR came about.
“I enjoyed my time at hull KR, it was good fun and was a bit of a different project,” Smith told Super League Raw.
“Unfortunately, it ended a bit sooner than I would have liked but that was more down to personalities from above.
“That’s the first time I’ve really had throughout my career where I couldn’t work with someone that I didn’t trust.
“That’s a value that I stick by.”
Of course, Smith’s premature exit from Rovers midway through the 2022 season would eventually pave the way for a move to bitter cross-city rivals Hull FC.
Ahead of the 2025 Super League campaign, the 58-year-old was appointed by the Black and Whites as an earlier Smith connection helped Tony be more welcome at the club following a spell with KR.
“Brian Smith (Tony’s younger brother) coached there in 1989 so that was part of the move. I think there was a bit of an acceptance from FC fans because of the Brian Smith connection.
“That made the transition a bit more palatable for some of the supporters. I was also still living in Hull at the time when Adam Pearson (Hull’s former owner) approached me.
“It was a bit of ‘well I’m here, and it’s a big project’. I like when there are difficulties but I perhaps didn’t realise how difficult it would be.
“It takes time to turn a culture around I was prepared for that. The problem was resources in terms of there’s now being an influx of resources at Hull which makes it easier.
“It doesn’t guarantee success but it makes it more likely. My owner wasn’t in that position to be throwing in that money to attract the players we needed.
“It was a consolidation period of time where we trying to bring our young players through and buy some bargains with some risks being taken on players that probably weren’t quite right for the Hull fit.
“But, we couldn’t afford other players such as Peta Hiku and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and so it was going to be a long project.”
Smith reveals that it was the impending change in ownership that saw him exit the club.
“I understand a change of ownership and the owners’ situation and I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to work with the management team.
“It wasn’t going to be the right fit and a case of total respect either way. I would have loved to have seen the project through and had more resources but it was what it was.
“We were poor for long periods of time and it’s probably the most challenging of cultures I’ve had to deal with.”
