Why doesn’t anyone like Brian Smith?
Roar Pro By Fred Magee, 27 Jul 2009 Fred Magee is a Roar Pro
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- 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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July 27th 2009 @ 6:36pm
Alan nicolea said | July 27th 2009 @ 6:36pm | Report comment
Brett
Agree he is the coach for the Bondi club at the moment. If Tim Sheens was also on the market, i would have preferred him but Smith has shown he has what it takes to turn around a club.
July 28th 2009 @ 10:06am
Mushi said | July 28th 2009 @ 10:06am | Report comment
Really Alan? Sheens would be looking for a new job if he had put in his tigers coaching performance with the roosters.
July 27th 2009 @ 9:10pm
Ian Jessup said | July 27th 2009 @ 9:10pm | Report comment
News Ltd and the Hadley circus performing bears have long had it in for Smith. If you prefer their version of events, fine, but if you’re after a battle of wits I must inform you that I refuse to fight an unarmed man.
I dealt with Smith over a few years on the league beat and he was always courteous and up front. Unlike News Ltd and the Hadley bears.
July 27th 2009 @ 11:30pm
Andystath said | July 27th 2009 @ 11:30pm | Report comment
Professional is probably the word I’d use Ian.
July 28th 2009 @ 7:51pm
Ian Jessup said | July 28th 2009 @ 7:51pm | Report comment
thanks, andystath, totally professional sums him up.
It’s interesting watching Wayne Bennett at Kogarah this year. He’s away from the News Ltd one-team town and one million fawning admirers, in supposedly hostile Sydney – and appears to be really loving it down here, without giving too much away as is hisway. I can’t stand the bloke much for various reasons but am in awe of his professionalism and success. When he turned over older players in favour of youth it was considered shrewd and sound future planning, but whenever Smith does the same at his clubs we find News Ltd and 2GB circus bears bag him for not sticking by players.
I remember in the early 1990s when Phil Rothfield used to break a substantial league story every day in the Tele – now he’s just a sad, angry News Ltd puppet trying to pretend he pulls the strings.
PS – after an Origin game in the early 90s I saw a 4WD with the number plate ‘LEAGUE’ parked outside the Touch of Class massage parlour. Curious. Who could that have been?
July 30th 2009 @ 11:27am
Lewie said | July 30th 2009 @ 11:27am | Report comment
How can everyone gloss over Smith’s massive (or as Ali G would say, ‘massif’) dummy spit when Parramatta announced a year out from his contract ending, that they would be seeking a replacement and that his contract would not be renewed?
10 years at the club with limited success, certainly he never reached his goal, which obviously is premiership victory. The club (Fitzgerald?) was perfectly entitled to act in the manner in which they did, but how did Smith react? Like a petulant child, that’s how, and Parramatta supporters were forced to endure months of his disinterest before he finally, and ungraciously stepped aside.
Now the shoe is on the other foot, although again he is actually breaking a contract, and everyone’s expected to just accept this behaviour in a positive manner? His actions smack of hypocrisy to me.
I’m not arguing against his right to change clubs, or break contracts, i just question the man’s character.