Tony Smith: Coaching Hull KR has given me my mojo back
Tony Smith won two Grand Finals with Leeds and three Challenge Cups with Warrington but says he is gaining more pleasure from his current coaching stint with Hull KR.
The 55-year-old former Great Britain coach, who was in charge of England for the 2008 World Cup, began coaching in Super League at Huddersfield in 2001 but quit the game altogether after leaving Warrington in 2017.
Smith, an Australian who took out British nationality when he coached the national team, was tempted back by Rovers in the summer of 2019 and, after they finished bottom of the table in his first full season, he guided the team to within 80 minutes of a maiden Grand Final in 2021.
He said: “By the time I finished my last stint, I was tired of it and tired of things in general. That happens in any walk of life.
“I certainly feel like I’ve got my mojo back in terms of coaching and a lot of that is down to the players I coach.
“They’ve helped me as much as I’ve helped them in terms of getting that excitement and fulfilment about coaching again.”
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A team thats enjoyable to watch
After transforming the club’s fortunes in 2021, Tony Smith has given himself a hard act to follow.
But he says he will not be influenced by raised expectations and insists his main priority is to entertain.
“I get more joy and react more when people tell me they enjoy watching the team I coach,” he said. “That means more to me than what the bookies say.
“The whole sport needs to be entertaining, we need to get people to come along and watch us. We’ve all got a responsibility as coaches not just to win games. We’ve got a responsibility to be entertaining as well.
“I’m not worried if we lose. I’ve experienced plenty of that throughout my career. Right back to the first 15 games I coached in this country which were all losses.
“I try to make sure that, no matter whether we lose or not, we play in a certain way and a certain style.
“I’m at a different stage of my career to a lot of young coaches. Some of them have got to win or find ways of not losing, whereas I’m trying to get my teams to take risks and put pressure on others teams to crack.”
Hull KR start their 2022 campaign against Wigan at Craven Park next Friday.
And Smith has been tapping into the experience of new signing from St Helens Lachlan Coote.
He added: “He sees things very quickly. I wasn’t like that as a player. I was much more conservative in the way I read things and saw things.
“It would be crazy to not tap into that knowledge.”
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