Press Conference

[Guest]

Basically he said that the club is very excited about the prospects of our two wingers tonight, they just need to respect the pill, especially Tau Tau, I hope he learns quickly or something like that anyway!

Lol he is right

[Thirteen]

i like brian smith as our coach. Right guy for the job

gold!

[The Rooster Oracle]

So are you saying Bellyache made Smiff, Inglis, Slater???

Why when they are out can't he just make some other players play that way???

I mean it's not the only time Melba have been belted without Smiff and Slater. We did it to them late last year, the Faiders did it to them last week, it happened last year thru Origin against the Tigpies I believe and there's the 2008 GF. I'd hazard a guess Melbas record without Smiff is worse than ours was without Freddy.

I've never seen a side without stand out players win a comp, with any coach. I've seen ordinary coaches win comps on the back of great players. Ive seen great coaches win comps with great players.

I can't for the life of me think of the last side that won a comp without some outstanding talent in them.

Who are our outstanding players???

Yes I am saying that Bellyache had a significant contribution into making Smith, Inglis, Cronk and Slator who they are today!! Are you saying that Bellyache has had no contribution to the success of these players and the success that the storm have had in all the time that he has been coaching them??

Bellamy was not given players like Inglis, Folau, Smith, Cronk, Slater and Blair as already made established rep stars, he got those guys as young no bodies and they all became International rep stars while under him. This is what i want him to do with our young players for which Smiffy and Son are incapable of!!

I have NO doubt in my mind at all that had Smiffy been coaching the storm for all the time that Bellyache has, the storm would not have been anywhere near as successful and Inglis, Cronk, Smith and Slator would not be 'AS' good as what they are today!!

While under Bellyache the storm have not been given many hidings at all. Teams have on 'some' occasions racked up 40 odd points on them over the decade that Bellamy has been coaching them but that is bound to happen with the nature of the NRL. However they certainly have not had 50 odd on quite a few times or 60 put on them like we have had while under Smiffy the past 2 and a half years and we haven't had the amount of rep players out like the storm have had! Also I can remember I think it was last year in Melbourne the storm gave it to us without all their rep players! What was Smiffy's excuse for then?

Surely you would know that you can only get the best out of what each individual player God given possesses which is going to differ from player to player?? Not every player has the God given natural abilities of an Inglis or a Slator. Which is why Bellyache or any coach for that matter can not create every single player to be an international rep player, as not every player can be as big, strong and fast as Inglis!! Smith and Cronk on the other hand have no such God given abilities handed to them, except highly intelligent footy brains and being very mentally strong. Bellyache has played a 'big' role in developing their footy brains and mental toughness! For all the God given natural abilities handed to Inglis, they are all for nothing unless you have a great coach capable of bringing it out in him. You just have to look at when Inglis was being coached by Lang at $ouff$ as compared to this year under Maguire who I highly highly rate! I would KILL to have any of Bellamy, Hasler or Maguire coaching us!!!!!!

Of course no team wins a comp without 'some' outstanding talent in them.

Look at the dragons and how far backwards they have gone now that Bennett is no longer their to hold their hand. Coaches play a HUGE role in getting the best out of players!!!!!!! This is the prime example of why I disagree with your and Headless Chook's statement of "Quality players are quality players regardless of who coaches them". If that was the case then the dragons would be sailing along in the top 4 this year without Bennett, but alas they are not!! Do you disagree? Could the dragons have won the 2010 premiership without Bennett?

Why has Smiffy, coaching 1st grade since 1984 never won a premiership?? That is a bloody long time of coaching to never have won one single premiership wouldn't you agree?

Do you and the other Smiffy lovers believe that we have no good players so we need to get rid of all our players just to be able to keep Smiffy, and that we need an entire team full of internationals in order for Smiffy to win us a premiership??

We have 9, 10 players when Perrett was still with us playing in a grandfinal just 2 years ago, are you saying that they are ALL now suddenly $hit players? The new additions since that grandfinal Cordner, Tasi, Tautau, Kennedy, Taka, Mose, Guerra etc are they all $hit players?
I believe that Smiffy has enough talent to at the very least get us into the top 8!! And next year with SBW, Maloney and 1 or 2 other additions along with players like RTS coming on we will have a side good enough to win the premiership!! We won't though if Smiffy is still coaching us next year!!

I really do enjoy these chats with you Stsae, I think you are a top bloke and I don't want you to take anything that I say personally. I am just very frustrated and dissatisfied with Smiffy (which you may have guessed) and disillusioned with Nick!

[stsae]

Oracle I respect your posts and opinions and agree with a lot of what you say.

I am not or have never been a Smiff fan. I have nothing against him either.

I don't believe players make the coach or coaches make the player 100%. I believe it's a 2 way street. Class is not taught IMO. It can he ruined or harnessed, but a player either has it or doesn't. IMO there is very little true class in our current group.

I do know we don't have a top line player anymore. We had a few in 2010 who got the side playing good footy for the last 3rd of the season. Smiff obviously contributed, if he's contributed to the last 2 years he contributed to 2010.

We lack a genuine playmaker, someone who can control proceedings when games are tight and get us home. Our purchases for next season hopefully fix that problem.

Of course I'd love to get a better coach. Have said all along it's highly improbable Smiff will help us win a GF, I reckon he's had his chances. I will say he's never really had the players of the quality of the ones his sides have come up against in GFs. I suspect that's down to his coaching style and the players he recruits often.

The only reason I want him to see out his contract is the repeating of history. 06, 07, 09 and now we keep doing the same thing as a club. I believe other quality coaches will observe our sack a coach a thon style and steer clear of the job here. Sure we will find a rookie and maybe hit a good one or we will find someone of Smiffs quality and be thereabouts if we are lucky. But since the Waynekerr fiasco we have looked desperate as a club and if we can see it quality coaches will know our club is a risky proposition. We are reactive and irrational often in what we do, I genuinely believe it's a bad look.

That said I believe Smiffs finished. From everything I've been told another coach has lost this group. That's irreversible IMO. I'd make the change now.

IMO best option would be to move Smiff to an overseers role and let Taylor see what he can salvage for the season.

IMO our next coaching appointment will be crucial. I believe we have a good squad lacking some real class.

Time will tell.

[bondi-boy]

"We haven't been practising that part of our performance [kicking field goals], but we will be from now on" - Smith.

SHEEESH!


And that, ladies and gentleman, is part of the reason that we're down the 'bottom' of the ladder.

Another part is that we have the worst completion rate in the NRL.

[The Rooster Oracle]

Oracle I respect your posts and opinions and agree with a lot of what you say.

I am not or have never been a Smiff fan. I have nothing against him either.

I don't believe players make the coach or coaches make the player 100%. I believe it's a 2 way street. Class is not taught IMO. It can he ruined or harnessed, but a player either has it or doesn't. IMO there is very little true class in our current group.

I do know we don't have a top line player anymore. We had a few in 2010 who got the side playing good footy for the last 3rd of the season. Smiff obviously contributed, if he's contributed to the last 2 years he contributed to 2010.

We lack a genuine playmaker, someone who can control proceedings when games are tight and get us home. Our purchases for next season hopefully fix that problem.

Of course I'd love to get a better coach. Have said all along it's highly improbable Smiff will help us win a GF, I reckon he's had his chances. I will say he's never really had the players of the quality of the ones his sides have come up against in GFs. I suspect that's down to his coaching style and the players he recruits often.

The only reason I want him to see out his contract is the repeating of history. 06, 07, 09 and now we keep doing the same thing as a club. I believe other quality coaches will observe our sack a coach a thon style and steer clear of the job here. Sure we will find a rookie and maybe hit a good one or we will find someone of Smiffs quality and be thereabouts if we are lucky. But since the Waynekerr fiasco we have looked desperate as a club and if we can see it quality coaches will know our club is a risky proposition. We are reactive and irrational often in what we do, I genuinely believe it's a bad look.

That said I believe Smiffs finished. From everything I've been told another coach has lost this group. That's irreversible IMO. I'd make the change now.

IMO best option would be to move Smiff to an overseers role and let Taylor see what he can salvage for the season.

IMO our next coaching appointment will be crucial. I believe we have a good squad lacking some real class.

Time will tell.

Good post!! I agree with most of what you have had to say there mate.

First of all I am glad that you are not a Smiffy fan, fair enough you have nothing against him either. I do have something against him though and that is in my eyes he is doing damage to our great club and wasting our time and our players talents.

I agree that it is not 100% that a coach makes the player, but it is a very significant and crucial part! To me there are different levels of class when it comes to a player, and there has to be that potential in the player in the first place to become a classy player. To me players such as Tasi, Cordner, Tau Tau, Mose, Taka, Aubbo, Kennedy, FPN, BJ have that real potential to be quite classy players. SKD and JWH imo are currently classy players but can take it up another level under a better coach. Pearce and Friend are never going to be the level of class such as Thurston and Cam Smith, but they certainly can improve out of sight and become very useful players for us under a better coach! Bennett had the dragons win the comp with Hornby, Soward and Fien in the make up of their spine. I'm sure Pearce and Friend can match (and imo exceed) what Hornby and Fien managed to achieve, the key is having a bloody good coach to maximize their performance!

I have been saying all along that we have a good squad which is capable of making the 8 this year, we just need an injection of 3 or 4 good players for which SBW and Maloney are two of along with a bloody good coaching set up to become a premiership contender.

A good coach will back himself and not let himself be concerned with our past history of sacking coaches, so that should not be a real worry in attracting a good coach to our club.

We certainly agree by the sounds of it that Smiffy is finished, and that in the best interests of the club moving forward is to make the change now. We will lose to $ouff$ this weekend, it is such a shame that we do not make the change this week in time for $ouff$ as how many times has a new coach coming in mid season won their first game. Taylor is our only real and best option to take over from Smiffy this year and ideally keep the seat warm until we can get a Bellamy, Hasler or Maguire.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

I like Brian smith as our coach. Right guy for the job

The guy can coach.

He's took four different clubs to GFs (Saints - twice, Hull, Parra and Easts), I know he has been around a while but still no mean feat, can't have fluked then all.

I dont pay much attention to the number of premiership rings theory, as I always maintain its a helluva lot harder to make a GF than it is to win one.

My main concern with Smithy circa 2012 is whether the style of rugby league these days (mechanical, structured, suits athletes not footballers, over-policed by officials) is adaptable to his preferred coaching methods. The same may apply to other coaches of his generation too.

Its quite ironic that Smithy himself proposed the two referee system originally, which is now a real blight on the game. I think he may regret that now.

Regardless, hopefully all associated with the club (players, coaches, officials and fans) can progress the rest of the year in a spirit of cooperation and support to achieve some good things.

[melon....]

Good post!! I agree with most of what you have had to say there mate.

First of all I am glad that you are not a Smiffy fan, fair enough you have nothing against him either. I do have something against him though and that is in my eyes he is doing damage to our great club and wasting our time and our players talents.

I agree that it is not 100% that a coach makes the player, but it is a very significant and crucial part! To me there are different levels of class when it comes to a player, and there has to be that potential in the player in the first place to become a classy player. To me players such as Tasi, Cordner, Tau Tau, Mose, Taka, Aubbo, Kennedy, FPN, BJ have that real potential to be quite classy players. SKD and JWH imo are currently classy players but can take it up another level under a better coach. Pearce and Friend are never going to be the level of class such as Thurston and Cam Smith, but they certainly can improve out of sight and become very useful players for us under a better coach! Bennett had the dragons win the comp with Hornby, Soward and Fien in the make up of their spine. I'm sure Pearce and Friend can match (and imo exceed) what Hornby and Fien managed to achieve, the key is having a bloody good coach to maximize their performance!

I have been saying all along that we have a good squad which is capable of making the 8 this year, we just need an injection of 3 or 4 good players for which SBW and Maloney are two of along with a bloody good coaching set up to become a premiership contender.

A good coach will back himself and not let himself be concerned with our past history of sacking coaches, so that should not be a real worry in attracting a good coach to our club.

We certainly agree by the sounds of it that Smiffy is finished, and that in the best interests of the club moving forward is to make the change now. We will lose to $ouff$ this weekend, it is such a shame that we do not make the change this week in time for $ouff$ as how many times has a new coach coming in mid season won their first game. Taylor is our only real and best option to take over from Smiffy this year and ideally keep the seat warm until we can get a Bellamy, Hasler or Maguire.

If you acknowledge Smith is damaging our Great cklub, then you must surely acknowledge Nick's decisions and recruitment since 2004 have been the root cause of the problem. if you fail to lay blame at Nick's feet, your are not being fair dinkum.

I lay blame at Nick's feet. Teh pattern were seeing is all Kick's doing with his choices. Things like a handshake deal with Bennett...what teh hell was a businessman like Nick thinking? Same now with SBW...get the name in writing. HAndshakes my arse.

Poor silly form Nick.

[The Rooster Oracle]

If you acknowledge Smith is damaging our Great cklub, then you must surely acknowledge Nick's decisions and recruitment since 2004 have been the root cause of the problem. if you fail to lay blame at Nick's feet, your are not being fair dinkum.

I lay blame at Nick's feet. Teh pattern were seeing is all Kick's doing with his choices. Things like a handshake deal with Bennett...what teh hell was a businessman like Nick thinking? Same now with SBW...get the name in writing. HAndshakes my arse.

Poor silly form Nick.

I agree with you Melon, I do acknowledge that Nick's decisions since 2004 have been the root cause of our problem. It all started with not properly planning for life after Freddy. I recall we had the chance of getting Thurston but instead put all our faith in Finch and Brett Firman at the time. FMD! I believe that we became very complacent after our golden period 2002-04.

It was a f**k up of mammoth proportions with the whole Bennett handshake thing and ending up with Chris Anderson, then throwing Freddy in the deep end before he was ready. Nick listening to Gus and signing Smiffy after Smiffy's efforts at the knights and the last year he had at the eels, there was like 4 years of $hit from him. WTF was the thinking there I will never know??

I am going to back Nick at this stage with SBW. If SBW is with us for only 1 year though it is going to make Nick look like a total f**king idiot!! If Nick decides to stick with Smiffy for next year I believe will be a mistake and yet another wasted year for us! I hate beyond belief going into a season knowing that we have no chance of winning the comp, that happened at the start of this year and if we stick with Smiffy will happen again for next year. Really what is the point of sticking with him other than to save Nick a few dollars in the short term?

Next year is going to be a really big one for us with how things pan out. Who will Nick choose to coach us for 2013 and the decision made for 2014 and beyond, and if SBW agrees to stay with us for 2014 and possibly beyond.

[novice chook]

Oracle, Scummy Bill will only ever sign for 1 season at a time and sign the deal in January, so he earn the dollars playing Japanese yawnion during the off-season, which he couldn't do if he had a registered NRL contract. Them's the facts.

Politis has bought most of the problems at our club on himself and should take responsibility for them. Instead he prefers to take the easy option and have the coach take the heat. Any successful coach has no doubt figured that one out and will be giving our club a wide berth under his rule.

Politis may be seen by some as our saviour, but I believe he has also become an obstacle to our success.

NC

[The Rooster Oracle]

Oracle, Scummy Bill will only ever sign for 1 season at a time and sign the deal in January, so he earn the dollars playing Japanese yawnion during the off-season, which he couldn't do if he had a registered NRL contract. Them's the facts.

Politis has bought most of the problems at our club on himself and should take responsibility for them. Instead he prefers to take the easy option and have the coach take the heat. Any successful coach has no doubt figured that one out and will be giving our club a wide berth under his rule.

Politis may be seen by some as our saviour, but I believe he has also become an obstacle to our success.

NC

I can understand your, along with others on here dislike for SBW for walking out on the dogs like he did. I have a very very intense dislike (putting it mildly) for the dogs and $ouff$ so I had a big grin on my face when SBW walked out on them and will not hold that against him.

I applaud SBW for his confidence in his abilities. For him to back himself signing only 1 year at a time deals and not being like every other footballer looking for the safety of as long as possible contract they can get, I have strong admiration for that!! Signing 1 year at a time deals means he is always going to be hungry to do the best he can cause he is taking a risk. I think he is also smart in maximizing his income by doing the rugby in the NRL off season and boxing during the season (most likely when we are having a bye so it won't mean that he misses a game). I admire his get up and go, how many other footballers in their down time would rather lounge about watching dvd's or playing the playstation etc and SBW would rather be working out, boxing or playing rugby. I hope his dedication and professionalism as an athlete rubs off onto our other players and I'm sure it will!!

I really hope that SBW will stick with us for as long as possible and by allowing him to continue to sign 1 year at a time contracts in order for him to play rugby in the off season will benefit us in that we save a few hundred thousand a year on the cap.

Imo next year is a huge one for Nick, it can either make him or break him!!

[stsae]

The guy can coach.

He's took four different clubs to GFs (Saints - twice, Hull, Parra and Easts), I know he has been around a while but still no mean feat, can't have fluked then all.

I dont pay much attention to the number of premiership rings theory, as I always maintain its a helluva lot harder to make a GF than it is to win one.

My main concern with Smithy circa 2012 is whether the style of rugby league these days (mechanical, structured, suits athletes not footballers, over-policed by officials) is adaptable to his preferred coaching methods. The same may apply to other coaches of his generation too.

Its quite ironic that Smithy himself proposed the two referee system originally, which is now a real blight on the game. I think he may regret that now.

Regardless, hopefully all associated with the club (players, coaches, officials and fans) can progress the rest of the year in a spirit of cooperation and support to achieve some good things.

That's a very good post mate.

[novice chook]

Oracle, you do realise that any fight that Scummy Bill has during our season will more than likely be in South Africa who's organisers certainly won't be looking at when we have the bye when scheduling it!! And avoiding any inconvenience to the Roosters won't be high on that pryck Nassar's priorities either. I doubt you'll be too keen on his boxing career if he actually fought someone with any talent and was knocked out and out of action for a few weeks.

None of Scummy Bill's arrangements are about confidence in his abilities and risking taking - they are about making as much money as he can in the shortest possible timeframe. And he's spreading himself rather thin in order to achieve it, which brings possible injury into the equation.

And to be honest - I reckon Politis is already broken. He just won't admit it to himself, let alone anyone else.


NC

[The Rooster Oracle]

Oracle, you do realise that any fight that Scummy Bill has during our season will more than likely be in South Africa who's organisers certainly won't be looking at when we have the bye when scheduling it!! And avoiding any inconvenience to the Roosters won't be high on that pryck Nassar's priorities either. I doubt you'll be too keen on his boxing career if he actually fought someone with any talent and was knocked out and out of action for a few weeks.

None of Scummy Bill's arrangements are about confidence in his abilities and risking taking - they are about making as much money as he can in the shortest possible timeframe. And he's spreading himself rather thin in order to achieve it, which brings possible injury into the equation.

And to be honest - I reckon Politis is already broken. He just won't admit it to himself, let alone anyone else.


NC

NC we can't speculate yet about when his boxing bout will be scheduled, I'm sure SBW and Nick will be doing everything they can to make sure that it is during our bye. Of course I will be pi$$ed if SBW gets an injury from his boxing but I am happy to back his ability and his managers ability to organize easy enough opponents for him.

We will have to disagree about SBW not being confident in his abilities. He has to be confident as he is taking a big risk with less security of having a long contract. I love his confidence in backing himself and it will always keep him hungry to perform, unlike other players who once they secure their long contract seem to relax somewhat.

I can't blame him from wanting to maximize his income. His income depends on his body, and once he reaches his early 30's his main earning capacity is finished, so naturally he wants to cash in while the going is good. He is not alone in this department with being driven by money, most people in every field are. As far as I know though, he could be earning more in Europe or Japan and doing it far easier, so my hat is off to him for wanting to really test himself in the tougher competitions and for having the guts to come back to the NRL knowing that he is going to cop it!!