FORMER Super League head coach Tony Smith believes that a cross-section of opinions is needed to move rugby league forward in the northern hemisphere.
The Australian – who has been in the UK for over two decades following coaching spells with Huddersfield Giants, Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR and Hull FC – also believes that the sport needs to be united in order to achieve harmony across it.
When asked what he would do if he was in charge of the RFL, Smith was keen to emphasise togetherness.
“I would just bring everybody, keep united and have a decent plan together,” Smith told Super League Raw.
“I don’t think we are good at that and then we don’t promote ourselves on the back of that.
“How we promote ourselves hasn’t been great but how can you do that when you’re not all united?
“To be something special or to have a team that is highly successful – we are all a team together in rugby league – we can’t agree on too many things for too long.
“We don’t thrash it out, we don’t get enough opinions or cross-sections of opinions and we make frivolous decisions too often.
“We listen to one sector and make a decision without getting a complete cross-section. The blueprint has been there for years.”
Smith believes that the northern hemisphere game needs to take direction from the NRL.
“I’m not saying it because of my accent and my heritage or saying that everything is great in Australia but for years they’ve been getting a cross-section of players, fans, coaches, administrators, and marketers in the same room.
“We can’t do that – we never do that. We never get the chief executives, coaches, owners and representatives of players in the same room.
“The closest we’ve got to is when referees, coaches and players are in the same room. We can’t get all the stakeholders in the same room to get some consensus, opinions and have some good debates and arguments before we walk out and say ‘we are all in this together’.
“20 years ago, the NRL started doing some of that and we haven’t.”