By BILLY GRIMSHAW
WARRINGTON Wolves coach Tony Smith says Wayne Bennett’s abortive England training camp in Dubai has “tipped on its head” the coming Super League season.
As the longest serving boss in the competition, Smith is well placed to gauge the challenges he and his 11 contemporaries face over the coming months.
“I’m not looking forward to some aspects of this season,” Smith said at Warrington’s media day, adding, “I think it’s as challenging as I’ve come across in the 16 years that I’ve been here in terms of trying to prepare a team for what’s ahead.”
The competition’s structure has, according to Smith, been “tipped on its head” due to the controversial plans of England’s super coach Wayne Bennett. The Brisbane Broncos supremo proposed a warm weather training camp in Dubai for an initial train on squad, which would have eaten into pre-season training time for Super League clubs.
“I think there’s been some huge sacrifices being made for the international campaign,” Smith said. “Let’s hope it’s all worth it. The structure of our whole sport has been tipped on its head. I hope it’s for the right reasons.”
After widespread criticism of the idea from Super League head coaches, the camp was shelved. However, due to the late notice of the cancellation the double header fixture weekend placed on the Spring Bank Holiday designed to compensate for a later league start will remain.
Smith continued: “I think the structure of the season makes it hard. Having two Easters over the season is going to have an impact on some teams – hopefully not mine – but I think it’s going to take its toll on many teams.” (continued below)
Clubs will also face disruption in May when England travel to Sydney for an international against Samoa, which was another aspect of Bennett’s plan to mastermind a first northern hemisphere World Cup triumph since 1972.
“We’ve also got a mid-season Test which will provide a big ask of our international players, having to travel to the other side of the world. In the past it would have been played in Europe which has an effect on them of one week.”
Expanding on the disruption the international friendly will cause Smith said: “Travelling to Sydney and back is a big trip to make in what is already a rigorous season, along with having training sessions throughout the season with the national team, on top of what they already do at club level, so there are some huge demands and some huge juggling.”
Warrington are again regarded as one of the favourites for all three trophies in 2017, after coming agonisingly close last season to both the Challenge Cup and Super League prizes.
“We’re very proud of what we did last year – we weren’t far off all three available trophies – but we can’t take anything for granted,” Smith said.
“I think we’ve got a better team than last year and I think some of the other teams will be better than last year too.”
Smith highlighted 2015 treble winners Leeds Rhinos’ 2016 plight as an example of the unpredictability of the Super League, while giving some examples of clubs he had been impressed by in pre-season.
“There’s always a few surprises along the way. Who would have predicted what happened to Leeds last year? That’s the beauty of our sport, there’s always some twists and turns. Catalans are an unknown quantity to some degree because they’ve got a lot of fresh faces, Cas have recruited well, Salford had a strong hit-out against a strong Hull team at the weekend.”
