Smith or Brown (best coach @ giants?) : Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:17 pm  

After reading how the wire fans hold tony smith in high regard for what he's done @ warrington and not forgetting how instrumental he was in turning us around from wooden spoon candidates into a half decent team! But with Nathan Brown walking on water at the giants right now, making huddersfield into a winning team with a winning mentality, thats still in the challenge cup and on course for a best league finish! NB is certainly bringing something to huddersfield that has been missing for a long time and is guiding us to the next level, so for me im going for Nathan Brown over Tony Smith purely because of where we are now, challenging for silverware winning more games than we loose etc (but i do wonder what Tony Smith could of done with this squad tho!)

what do you think Smith or Brown? Discuss..

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 12:15 am  

smith, the new dawn at warrington

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 6:55 am  

Horses for courses. I don't think you can compare the two because they came here under vastly different circumstances. Nathan Brown has come into a side that was capable and had some good players and only needed one or two tweaks and adjustments. Tony Smith came to a team that was pants and had been pants for a few seasons. A team and club that were lacking in confidance, morale or any real sense of direction in the wake of the merger. However he did something Nathan Brown hasn't done and that's beat Leeds and Saints and both in the same season. He also went through a league campaign undefeated, ok we were full time in a part time league but so were Keighley in 1996 and it didn't help them. Then again Nathan Brown hasn't lost 12 consecutive games or whatever it was, nor has he lost to Hunslet in the Challenge Cup.

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 8:03 am  

At the moment i will have to say Smith because the team he took over had a losing mentality and he changed that into a winning side whilst not having the players of the quality that Nathan Brown has or indeed the budget - he brought in average players who he got working hard for each other - players like Roarty,Slicker,Colella,O'Doherty,O'Hare etc who probably would never have played Super League if it wasnt for Smith.
Brown is lucky that he took over an established Super League team who were capable of pulling international class players to the club.

Brown has the opportunity now to make Huddersfield one of the top clubs in the game again and upto now is doing a damn fine job of it .

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:43 am  

Think you are being a bit unfair not mentioning Sharp. He did after all take a team capable of merely surviving in superleague and develop them into a team capable of making a major cup final and the play-offs. Ok, he lost his way a bit in the end, but still made a vast amount of progress for the club.

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:59 am  

Completely agree with LF13. Sharp was in charge when we made the Cup Final and then the season after when we made the play offs. He played a role in moving us on from a solid side that played to our strengths into more of a force. Since then Brown has taken us further but it's still early days in his tenure IMO.

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:00 pm  

Danril wrote:

Completely agree with LF13. Sharp was in charge when we made the Cup Final and then the season after when we made the play offs. He played a role in moving us on from a solid side that played to our strengths into more of a force. Since then Brown has taken us further but it's still early days in his tenure IMO.

This for me is the key.
Change and evolution, would anyone say for sure Mick Potter is a better coach than Daniel Anderson? Saints seem to be yet another level above this year. Im sure Sharp wasn't a bad coach but teams need to evolve and bring in fresh ideas. I think if you switched top head coaches say 3 times in 10 years would be brilliant.

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 4:22 pm  

Dico wrote:

This for me is the key.
Change and evolution, would anyone say for sure Mick Potter is a better coach than Daniel Anderson? Saints seem to be yet another level above this year. Im sure Sharp wasn't a bad coach but teams need to evolve and bring in fresh ideas. I think if you switched top head coaches say 3 times in 10 years would be brilliant.

I think Smith just shades it over Brown but both are vastly superior to Sharp who had the man management skills of an aardvark

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:31 pm  

i think the last 3 coaches have all had a very big impact on our recent history for different reasons


smith: changed the whole mentality of the club from losers to potential challengers
sharp: took on the challenge from smith and took this club further than it's been for most of our lifetime's
brown: hopefully now going one step further and not just challenging but delivering!

: Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:55 pm  

meast wrote:

i think the last 3 coaches have all had a very big impact on our recent history for different reasons


smith: changed the whole mentality of the club from losers to potential challengers
sharp: took on the challenge from smith and took this club further than it's been for most of our lifetime's
brown: hopefully now going one step further and not just challenging but delivering!

There's definitely something to be said for the interview process we have in place.