Smith has not reached end of '˜shelf life' at Warrington

Tony Smith, who enjoys an unbroken spell of coaching in Super League going back almost to the turn of the century, will be out of contract at Warrington this year but reveals he is set to open talks on a new deal.

Smith, 49, paid his own air fare from Australia to attend an interview at Huddersfield in the summer of 2000 and, after guiding the Giants back to Super League, went on to take Leeds to two Grand Final triumphs before moving on to Warrington.

He took British nationality during his term as England coach from 2006-09 and he and his family remain settled in the country.

Smith last month celebrated seven years in charge of the Wolves and says he expects to sign a new contract with club owner Simon Moran in the next few weeks.

“Simon and I will be talking in the next little while,” said Smith, who was recently linked with the vacancy at Hull KR. “It will take care of itself.

“I’ve got a good owner and a great relationship with the management and board of our club. I’ve enjoyed the seven years that I’ve been here, we’ve been a pretty consistent club in that time and we’ve always had a good relationship.”

Smith is in a strong bargaining position, with Warrington flying high at the top of the table with just two defeats in their first 10 matches, and he believes the club are also well placed off the field to maintain their status as one of the big four.

“I’m not worried about strong hands in terms of negotiations,” he said. “We’re in a strong position as a club and that’s important.

“This club is going places, not just on the field, but off the field – we’ve probably been a bit behind in that area in some respects for a number of years.”

Smith masterminded three Wembley triumphs in his first four years in charge and took the Wolves to successive Grand Finals but they under-performed in 2015 when they failed to finish in the top four and suffered a surprise loss to Hull KR in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.

He freshened up his squad in the winter and the recruitment is paying off with Wolves sitting pretty as the first phase of Super League reaches the midway point with Friday’s trip to Huddersfield.

There is no seven-year itch and Smith believes he has combated the dreaded shelf life of a coach by bolstering his backroom staff, including the appointment of the experienced Richard Agar as his No 2.

“I used to believe in a shelf life,” said Smith. “It was more about freshening myself up. I’ve probably done that with our staff and changeover in personnel.

“I haven’t had to move to freshen us up. I’m working with a different group of people both on and off the field – our off-field staff has changed a fair bit in the last couple of years and it has freshened us up a whole lot.”

So how long does Smith see himself staying at the Halliwell Jones Stadium?

“I think Wayne Bennett did 20 years or so in his first stint at Brisbane and we’ve seen some of the greats in football spend a long time at one club,” he added.

“Some of the more successful clubs don’t turn over their managers very often. I’m certainly not trying to put myself in that bracket, but a lot of the successful clubs have stability in the management ranks and I think there’s a lot of worth in that.”