Grix: We’re all feeling a bit guilty that we’ve cost a man his job
THERE were a lot of emotions when Tony Smith parted company with Hull FC last Thursday, and for Simon Grix, the club’s interim head coach, one of them was guilt.
There was guilt for his part in it, which has seen Hull lose seven of their opening eight games and, ultimately, a man lose his job.
That’s the honesty we will all come to expect from Grix, who fronted up at his first Hull FC press conference yesterday.
But that guilt is collective. It’s not just down to one man, with the playing group, and indeed the whole club, taking responsibility. That’s how it has to be, with an acceptance that there is universal hard work and nothing but hard work ahead that will get this club out of its current situation.
Asked how the last week has been, Grix said: “Chaotic. Surprising. A bit uncomfortable, to be honest. One man loses his job in these scenarios, but we’re all part of it, so we’re all feeling a little bit guilty about it. For me, I thought Tony was doing a good job, but it’s not uncommon, and it’s normally the coach who feels it, and the buck stops with him. I think there are a lot of factors in play here as to why we find ourselves in the position we’re in, and there’s a long way to go to get this club back to where we would like it to be.
“There are hard yards to go through, and we’re in them at the moment, but we have all let him down; it’s just one man; it’s not just players, coaching staff, but everyone, collectively, it’s not been good enough. The factors involved in that are perhaps for another time, but the obvious ones are injuries, bans, and the availability of players.
“Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong for us. We are where we are, and we need to look forward. If we spend too much time looking back, we’ll never get anywhere. We’ve got to get on with things.”
Grix, who has known Smith since his playing days at Warrington Wolves, added: “It’s disappointing.
He’s a friend to me as well, Tony, so I’m pretty gutted for him, but he’s good. He’s got mixed feelings.
“He’s very disappointed. He thought, as much as we did, that he had the time, the tools, and the experience to turn it around, but we’re not here to make those decisions, it’s the people above us who make them, and his time now coaching Hull FC is done. It would be great to see him pop up somewhere else in the future.
“We’ve just got to get on with things now. There were a couple of days for us to get over it all. It was a shock. But then you get on with the next part, which is getting ready for the next game.”