Why doesn’t anyone like Brian Smith?
Roar Rookie
By Fred Magee, 27 Jul 2009 Fred Magee is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Brian Smith, Newcastle Knights, NRL, Rugby League
Rugby League has always been full of players and coaches that have polarised fans and media alike. That Brian Smith is one of them astounds me.
Last weekend, it was announced that Brian Smith would be leaving Newcastle with one year remaining on his contract to take up the coaching position at Bondi Junction. What followed has been more than a week of column space, talkback calls and airtime on the act of betrayal that he has perpetrated on the Knights as well as questions as to why he is staying to the end of the year and the damage that will be done to Newcastle’s charge to the semi finals.
My question is what has Brian Smith done that is so unusual? Walking out on an existing contract for greener pastures is accepted practice in Rugby League these days and we have reached the stage where it should no longer raise any screams of dismay.
In the case of Brian Smith it has been different. The calls of betrayal have been louder and the fear that it would derail the semi final run of Newcastle has been greater. No doubt the loss to Manly on Friday night will be used as justification for these calls – despite the fact that the Knights led 14-0.
Brian Smith is someone who it seems attracts the ire of supporters and sections of the media alike.
It could be the fact that he hasn’t won a Premiership that makes him an easy target. It could be that he doesn’t seem to want to play the game with the rugby league media. It could also be that he is willing to make the hard decisions, as he has done in Newcastle as he sought to rebuild the club post-Andrew Johns.
In his final years at Parramatta he was the prime target of certain sections of the rugby league media who seemed to take great delight in highlighting his mistakes and lead the charge to have him leave the Eels. It was an orchestrated campaign, the likes I had not seen before nor have I seen since.
Despite this, he never seemed to lose his cool or take the bait. It was only when the position became so untenable that he decided that enough was enough and left the Eels mid-season.
After that, came the slings and arrows he took when he started to do the job he was employed to do at Newcastle; to clean out the club and build for the future. If you believed most of the stories that came out over the last few seasons, Brian Smith’s charter (and his alone) was to singlehandedly destroy not only the Knights but the city of Newcastle.
A manager I used to work for once told me that you don’t buy a new broom without a reason. Most people seemed to forget that the Knights management played a role in this rebuilding phase but rather focused their rage on coach.
So now, Brian Smith has taken the opportunity (as provided by Newcastle) to scout the market for a better job. He found one with greater pay and greater job security. As a result, he has been treated as Public Enemy Number one. It’s something that I just don’t get and to me illustrates all that is currently wrong with rugby league.
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Alan Nicolea said | July 27th 2009 @ 10:20am | Report comment
That’s the media for you mate. Its much easier to focus on the stuff on the playing field for mine. I never held a grudge against Brian Smith in his time at the Eels or Newcastle. I really respect him as a coach. I can only hope the respect i have for him transcends into all the Roosters players and staff for next season. Otherwise he will have a heart attack.
Chop said | July 27th 2009 @ 10:32am | Report comment
I think the only people who don’t rate Brian Smith are media types with specific agendas and players he’s dumped from teams.
He’s a smart guy with the intestinal fortitude to make the tough calls on players. I wanted him to stay at Parramatta, although he would not have lasted with the new board anyway (that’s a whole seperate issue).
Brett McKay said | July 27th 2009 @ 10:45am | Report comment
spot on here guys, on all counts. To answer Fred and Alan’s questions, I can only conclude Smith ran over Phil Rothfield’s cat at some stage, and in the process of reversing, cleaned up Ray Hadley’s as well. Those two have led the charge to the anti-Brian Smith soapbox ever since.
Conversely, I think Smith, Newcastle, and even the Roosters have handled the situation well this week, even if the Roosters erred in the initial stages. There’s no doubt that Smith is the sort of coach needed at Bondi, but if Smith thought the fans at Parramatta and Newcastle were parochial, then he’s got another thing coming. Hasn’t he Alan?!?!
And actually Alan, in light of the reason for Fittler becoming the coach at Easts, I thought “Otherwise he will have a heart attack” was a curious choice of words!!
Fred Magee said | July 27th 2009 @ 12:36pm | Report comment
I had been mulling over this for the last week but what sent me over the edge was listening to Mark Geyer on the Sunday Roast yesterday who spoke about how devasted the Knights players would have been and that they wouldnt been listening to Brian Smith now that he wasnt going to be there next year….I am sure that there would have been hardly any sleepless (K)nights since the news broke out.
Personally, being a Dragons supporter I dont hold any grudges against Brian Smith as a result of his time there. He got the side to the semis for the first time since 1985 and back to back GF’s. He rebuilt the club to a force again prior to Super League and that was no mean feat.
More than that, the way he conducted himself in the last couple of years at Parramatta where the criticism was relentless (particularly from 2GB) showed what sort of man he is. As the great Ali G would say “Reh spect!”
Mushi said | July 27th 2009 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
Loyalty is a two way street with little to no place or value in a professional sport. Whilst we can have shades of loyalty, players and coaches taking less money to enable their team to retain them, but at the end of the day the clubs will kick a player or coach to the curb the second they believe they aren’t the best use of the cash.
Why should players and coaches have to stick around when the shoe is on the other foot and the club becomes a millstone around the neck of their careers?
Newcastle were pretty blatant in their perform or join the dole queue by their performance driven contract “extension” so why shouldn’t Smith seek other options, so long as he does it within the confines of his contractual arrangement with Newcastle?
Newcastle’s administration could have forced him, in the background, to play on and kept this under tight wraps (provided Phil Gould didn’t find out) and pass it off as just one of the 2,000 coaching rumours.
But they didn’t because he had been recruited for a job, to be the clubs rebound coach as they tried to move from their love affair with Joey. He’s pretty much done that and so they aren’t going to be heart broken when he walks out the door with both of them getting what they wanted. Security for Smith, and a rebuilt club structure for the Knights
Tom Alexander. said | July 27th 2009 @ 1:36pm | Report comment
Be interesting to see if he can bring to the Roosters next year what Bennett has bought to the Dragons this year. 2 different coaches with 2 different styles but when you look at their records, very similar results. Smith achieved great success in England before he came back to the NRL.
Andystath said | July 27th 2009 @ 1:50pm | Report comment
The reasoning behind so much vitriol against B.Smith can only be traced back to the News Limited rag,he fought against them in Super League war and has never been forgiven.The most recent example of this was the lack of disclosure in articles regarding Knights management giving PERMISSION for Smith to persue other offers.
Clarky said | July 27th 2009 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story to sell a few papers!
Fred Magee said | July 27th 2009 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
God knows that the truth shouldnt stand in the way of generating some talkback calls as well…
AndyRoo said | July 27th 2009 @ 3:37pm | Report comment
He makes hard decisions and doesn’t put up with petulant stars. At Parramata he got on some peoples bad sides by getting rid of guys that didn’t fit his system or meet his standards. A fair number of which were star players.
I was upset he dumped Chris Lawler from the first team when he started at Parra but Smith has been vindicated in that the few players he dumped that did go onto perform for other clubs all seemed to have needed a wake up call.
I think he was brought in to get rid of the small town mentality at Newcastle where people like Newton were allowed to get away with too much. Newton then had a better season at Storm than in the last few years in Newcastle. He wouldnt have performed like that if he had of been allowed to stay at Newcastle but beeing moved on put a rocket up him and he delivered.
The squad Newcastle has looks a lot worse on paper than some of the teams below him and I think if a coach leaves a team in better shape than he arrives he has done a good job.
I also think a lot of those players at Newcastle will keep performing for Smith because they know the board wern’t keen on Smith (so he hasn’t abandoned them) and he has done a lot for the individuals. None of them were big stars before his arrival.
Certainly will be interesting how he goes in Bondi. It’s wether the board will back him or wether they will undermine him by being two faced with the players and painting Smith as the bad guy in any diciplinary action.