Warrington Wolves boss Tony Smith says you just have to cope (From This Is Cheshire)

Warrington Wolves boss Tony Smith says you just have to cope

2:20pm Friday 3rd July 2009

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TONY Smith has given his thoughts on how he feels the team is coping without the services of two key players.

Impact hooker Mickey Higham and playmaker Lee Briers are both currently sidelined and Smith said it has been interesting to see how the camp has coped.

So far, Simon Grix has started games at stand off while Vinnie Anderson and Michael Monaghan have been utilised as impact hookers.

“They are influential but we’re doing okay,” he said.

“With those two players in there you’re a different team. You have to be able to cope without them.

“I don’t want to sound like we’re desperate without them, though, because the players that are in there doing their best bring another slant on the game that maybe Lee and Mickey can’t bring to us.

“But at the same time they are good players in their own right.

“It’s good when they are there and we’ll look forward to when they are there but we have to cope when they’re not and that’s where our focus has been in the last couple of weeks.

“It’s interesting for us to see how we cope.

“Sometimes you get too reliant on certain players or certain ways of playing and you have to make some adjustments.

“That’s the challenges of playing a team sport and playing in Super League as well.

“When you do miss out on certain players at certain parts of the year you have to learn how to adjust and we’re still learning some of those lessons.”

Why two different emergency impact hookers so far? Did he feel that Vinnie Anderson brought something to the table at impact hooker that was needed against Catalans Dragons in Barcelona but something different was needed from Monaghan in the role against Hull FC at the weekend?

“A bit of that and a little bit of ‘suck it and see’, and the situation at the time,” he said.

“We needed to use Vinnie in the back row on the weekend as opposed to in the dummy half area so it’s a little bit of circumstancial stuff as well.

“For all the plans you make, something changes in the game and you’ve got to adjust with it.

“Even the best laid plans can go astray sometimes and it’s important you are able to cope under those situations.

“We had some of those at the weekend.

“We lost a half back for a while and that throws all the rotation in your replacement bench into turmoil because some of the things that you planned you can’t do if you’ve got people moving from back row to centres, half back to hooker.

“There’s all sorts of things that go on that the players have to adjust to and we have to take that into account sometimes when the performance isn’t as good as you would hope.

“Sometimes these things are just thrown upon you.”

It is very skilful to make instant judgements on changes after injuries or for tactical reasons.

Smith was asked if the ability to make those calls comes with experience.

“You get the indication that a player needs to come off and you’ve just got to react,” he said.

“Don’t always get them right, just like players don’t always get their jobs right and referees don’t always get their bit right.

“But we all make some good decisions sometimes and some not so good decisions too. We have to accept all those things.”

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