The Yorkshire Post's rugby league writer, James O'Brien, assesses the departure of head coach Tony Smith from Hull FC by mutual consent and what it means for both club and coach going forward ...
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00:00 Tony Smith has become the first coaching casualty of the 2024 Super League season. He leaves
00:12 his post at Hull FC after around 18 months in charge. It's fair to say he hasn't had
00:17 the impact or the influence he would have liked at the MKM Stadium. Hull finished 10th
00:23 last year and they're 11th this year after seven rounds. They've lost seven out of eight
00:27 games in all, they've conceded 302 points, which is quite remarkable and there's no defending
00:33 that really. But their habit of capitulating goes all the way back to the days of Lee Radford
00:39 really when on the back of their Double Challenge Cup success, they did have a habit of capitulating
00:45 and suffering heavy defeats. So it's not something that's just happened on Tony Smith's watch
00:52 and clearly it's not going to be an overnight fix at Hull. These problems are deep-rooted.
00:59 But this is the first step in trying to change things, I guess. I know big changes are coming
01:05 to the off-field operation and obviously the first team as well with Tony Smith leaving.
01:12 There's going to be a few player departures, Tex Hoy is one of those. There's going to
01:16 be a few players coming in, some signings from the NRL, some potential domestic recruits
01:21 as well. So Hull are trying to rescue the season. It's not going to be an easy task.
01:28 The playoffs are still there for them, the playoffs are there for anyone in theory, but
01:33 it's on the field that matters and Hull are lagging a long way behind their rivals at
01:37 the moment. It's a bit of a cliche, but this next coaching appointment is a huge one and
01:45 I understand the next head coach will have support around him as well. So it will be
01:49 an interesting few weeks at Hull and also with Tony Smith as well. He was sacked by
01:55 Hull KR in his last job, in his previous job, for the first time in his career and now sacked
02:01 by Hull. He has had a lot of success in the past, revived Huddersfield Giants a long time
02:08 ago, now back in the early 2000s, won two grand finals with Leeds, three Challenge Cups
02:14 with Warrington, but his reputation has taken a hit. It remains to be seen whether he'd
02:19 want to get back into the rugby league as well, given these past experiences.
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