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I don't think this has been put up before. From the Courier Mail on Aug 3:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/...-1225900200956
I HAVE grappled long and hard with this concept and to be honest something still doesn't sit right, but I think I want Brian Smith to win the NRL premiership.
OK, I've said it. As bizarre as it might sound, but I reckon the bloke deserves one.
While I have never had any love for the Roosters, particularly their propensity for plundering talent from others, you can't help but admire the manner in which Smith has converted them from bottom of the table headless Chooks to title threats – and all in the space of less than 12 months.
He is always going to have his knockers: 23 seasons in top flight rugby league without a premiership tends to make you an easy target.
The fact he has a reputation as something of a prickly pear, albeit a mellowing one, also hasn't endeared him to the media over the years. But does anyone seriously doubt whether Smith can coach?
While he doesn't have the titles boasted by Wayne Bennett or Tim Sheens – the other two modern masters with more than 500 games experience to their credit – neither has he had the benefit of top class cattle.
Some of the Broncos teams that Bennett oversaw, and the Canberra side that Sheens inherited were once-in-a-generation outfits.
Smith has rarely had a team better than middle of the road.
In the early 90s he took a fairly average St George team to consecutive grand finals against Brisbane and then his very good, but hardly star-studded Parramatta side was ambushed by Andrew Johns and Ben Kennedy in 2001.
Back then there was a feeling Smith tended to over-coach his men. The Parramatta players talk about how he used to bombard them with text messages, ensuring they were looking after themselves, eating right, not out boozing.
Over the years he has seemed to have become a better man manager and appears to have learned how to get the best out of the talented and the honest alike.
As he told The Courier-Mail recently: "I am more relaxed. But I don't want to become too mellow. I think you still have to have that edge about you."
Look what he did at Newcastle. He took a fairly average team and made them appear intimidating.
They were probably never going to win the competition last year, but they were a far better chance until Smith announced he was going to Bondi.
As Wayne Pearce recently pointed out, with Smith at the helm Knights such as Zeb Taia and Junior Sau started to look like world beaters.
If they haven't gone backwards since he departed, they certainly haven't kicked on.
Likewise at his new post, he got rid of more players than he recruited, but he has fine-tuned their talents, veterans and youngsters alike.
Most importantly he has them all pulling in the same direction, believing in each other and the cause.
The senior brigade headlined by Braith Anasta and Anthony Minichiello once had reputations for being as active on the eastern suburbs social scene as they were on the field.
Now they are setting the benchmarks for work ethic at Bondi.
Similarly Smith has convinced Mitchell Pearce and Todd Carney to get off the booze and realise their undoubted abilities.
He did it, not by waving a big stick, but through conversation and encouragement.
Some feel Carney is still a time-bomb ticking, but it seems his time up in Atherton might have truly helped him turn the corner and realise life as a rugby league professional should not be taken for granted.
You have to feel for Canberra, the club Carney pushed to the point where they had no choice but to sack him.
They always knew his talent, but unfortunately he wasn't ready, at that stage of his life, to make good on it.
Then there are others such as the devastating but rarely consistent Frank Paul Nuuausala who is throwing his weight around, not just on a whim, but every weekend.
Likewise Nate Myles has pulled his head in and is playing the best football of his career. So too is the much underrated Mitchell Aubusson and speedsters Phil Graham and Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Bringing Jason Ryles home from France looked a risk on paper, given his age and history of injuries, but the former Dragon has emerged as a genuine forward leader.
In a competition as open as this one, the Roosters deserve to be considered as a genuine threat.
Some will suggest Smith, and the baggage he carries when it comes to the pursuit of the holy grail might, through his over-analysis, unravel the good work done thus far.
I'm hoping he proves them wrong.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/...-1225900200956
I HAVE grappled long and hard with this concept and to be honest something still doesn't sit right, but I think I want Brian Smith to win the NRL premiership.
OK, I've said it. As bizarre as it might sound, but I reckon the bloke deserves one.
While I have never had any love for the Roosters, particularly their propensity for plundering talent from others, you can't help but admire the manner in which Smith has converted them from bottom of the table headless Chooks to title threats – and all in the space of less than 12 months.
He is always going to have his knockers: 23 seasons in top flight rugby league without a premiership tends to make you an easy target.
The fact he has a reputation as something of a prickly pear, albeit a mellowing one, also hasn't endeared him to the media over the years. But does anyone seriously doubt whether Smith can coach?
While he doesn't have the titles boasted by Wayne Bennett or Tim Sheens – the other two modern masters with more than 500 games experience to their credit – neither has he had the benefit of top class cattle.
Some of the Broncos teams that Bennett oversaw, and the Canberra side that Sheens inherited were once-in-a-generation outfits.
Smith has rarely had a team better than middle of the road.
In the early 90s he took a fairly average St George team to consecutive grand finals against Brisbane and then his very good, but hardly star-studded Parramatta side was ambushed by Andrew Johns and Ben Kennedy in 2001.
Back then there was a feeling Smith tended to over-coach his men. The Parramatta players talk about how he used to bombard them with text messages, ensuring they were looking after themselves, eating right, not out boozing.
Over the years he has seemed to have become a better man manager and appears to have learned how to get the best out of the talented and the honest alike.
As he told The Courier-Mail recently: "I am more relaxed. But I don't want to become too mellow. I think you still have to have that edge about you."
Look what he did at Newcastle. He took a fairly average team and made them appear intimidating.
They were probably never going to win the competition last year, but they were a far better chance until Smith announced he was going to Bondi.
As Wayne Pearce recently pointed out, with Smith at the helm Knights such as Zeb Taia and Junior Sau started to look like world beaters.
If they haven't gone backwards since he departed, they certainly haven't kicked on.
Likewise at his new post, he got rid of more players than he recruited, but he has fine-tuned their talents, veterans and youngsters alike.
Most importantly he has them all pulling in the same direction, believing in each other and the cause.
The senior brigade headlined by Braith Anasta and Anthony Minichiello once had reputations for being as active on the eastern suburbs social scene as they were on the field.
Now they are setting the benchmarks for work ethic at Bondi.
Similarly Smith has convinced Mitchell Pearce and Todd Carney to get off the booze and realise their undoubted abilities.
He did it, not by waving a big stick, but through conversation and encouragement.
Some feel Carney is still a time-bomb ticking, but it seems his time up in Atherton might have truly helped him turn the corner and realise life as a rugby league professional should not be taken for granted.
You have to feel for Canberra, the club Carney pushed to the point where they had no choice but to sack him.
They always knew his talent, but unfortunately he wasn't ready, at that stage of his life, to make good on it.
Then there are others such as the devastating but rarely consistent Frank Paul Nuuausala who is throwing his weight around, not just on a whim, but every weekend.
Likewise Nate Myles has pulled his head in and is playing the best football of his career. So too is the much underrated Mitchell Aubusson and speedsters Phil Graham and Shaun Kenny-Dowall.
Bringing Jason Ryles home from France looked a risk on paper, given his age and history of injuries, but the former Dragon has emerged as a genuine forward leader.
In a competition as open as this one, the Roosters deserve to be considered as a genuine threat.
Some will suggest Smith, and the baggage he carries when it comes to the pursuit of the holy grail might, through his over-analysis, unravel the good work done thus far.
I'm hoping he proves them wrong.
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