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i think Roostafarian has given the coach some top quality weed !!! 
Happy club gives coach a lot less to blow up about March 7, 2011
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...306-1bjll.html
The Roosters' mentor says the leadership of Braith Anasta and Steve Noyce has made his life a whole lot easier, writes Brad Walter.
Brian Smith estimates that he delivered only one half-time spray to his players last season - and it is something the Sydney Roosters mentor regrets. That may seem a far cry from the reputation Smith has developed, perhaps undeservedly, during 27 seasons of coaching with five clubs in Australia and two in England but he admits he has mellowed over the years.
After last year's grand final loss to St George Illawarra, Smith even asked at the post-match press conference whether the Herald's Richard Hinds was present because he wanted to shake his hand over a column he had written the day before on the game's transformation that was headlined ''How League Got Its Mojo Back''.
More than five months later and just four days before the Roosters open the 2011 season against arch-rivals South Sydney, Smith's mood hasn't changed. ''It is a fortunate life that I live,'' Smith told the Herald. ''It is great almost anywhere but the people who make up the Roosters club I feel comfortable with socially and professionally. I have got a great group of guys, good leaders and some experienced guys who take their responsibilities really seriously as senior players.''
For that, he gives a large amount of credit to captain Braith Anasta and chief executive Steve Noyce.
After the club was dogged by off-field incidents and poor on-field results in 2009, Smith admits some people had told him he was ''crazy'' to be joining the Roosters from Newcastle because ''it looked like it was chaos and it was pretty shabby''.
But Smith said the severity of the problem enabled the club to turn things around quickly.
''When the flood comes through your house you have to clean up all the stuff you might not have cleaned up for months or years or until you got round to it and that's the way it was,'' he said.
Through the leadership of Anasta and Noyce the Roosters climbed from wooden-spooners to grand finalists within a season and were virtually free of off-field scandal in 2010.
''Braith was the leader in almost everything that happened here,'' Smith said. ''There was a lot of hard work went in but it was a shared load and lots of people contributed to making that decision so productive for us.
''A bit of it was organisational and a bit of it fell into areas of personal and professional discipline. Some of it was technical, some of it was tactical but most of it was about a whole lot of people blending together to get the thing going in the one direction. We didn't have anyone dragging the chain, no one wasn't pulling their weight last year and certainly everywhere I have been [at other clubs] I couldn't say that 100 per cent. But in the face of what needed to be done it wouldn't have happened unless Braith had done that, or unless he had good allies in [Anthony] Minichiello and [Jason] Ryles and those sort of guys.
''The younger ones … the Martin Kennedys, BJ Leilua, Mitchell Pearce, Toddy Carney himself - they all followed that lead. It wasn't just them either. Everyone was harmonious and that is a rare item in volatile organisations like footy clubs.
''But 'Noycey' is such a good manager. He has a stunning effect on lots of people in our place, not just with their footy but with their lives.
''That permeates right across this club and when you talk about Braith and what he brings with his leadership and Steve and what he brings with his leadership, it really creates a fantastic environment for a coach to be in and I think I really only got stirred up one day last year and I was disappointed that I had to.''
That occasion was the round-eight clash with Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium and the Roosters came from behind to win 12-8 after Smith's half-time rev-up.
They started poorly again the following week against North Queensland but experience taught Smith not to repeat the blast.
''I could sense at half-time against Wests Tigers that there wasn't anyone who was going to do anything about it so I gave them a bit of a roasting that day and I knew what would happen,'' he said. 'The next week we were similar to what we had been in that first half against the Tigers. We addressed all of that and I said, 'If you wait for me to fire up every week you're not going to win a lot of games because I am not going to do that'. Some of them might have been used to that happening in the past but I wasn't going to go there.
''I did it when I had to but no more. I learnt that a long time ago. Sometimes you've got to do more of that rather than less but if you really believe in your players and you know what they are capable of you shouldn't be doing that too often. I'll probably do it one time this year but I hope it is only one.''
The Roosters have made few changes to their squad this season, with Justin Carney and Anthony Watts being the main recruits, and Smith said his main aim was to get the team playing more consistently each game, week in and week out.
''We lost some games last year with some really poor performances and we only really got going halfway through the year in a consistent way,'' he said. ''Maybe that was to do with Toddy moving to five-eighth but I think it had to do with some other things as well, being more familiar with what was required in preparation as well as performance and building better combinations.
''A lot of that is there now so if we are good enough and the players do well enough we've got a good chance to do that straight off the bat next Friday night.''
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...306-1bjll.html
The Roosters' mentor says the leadership of Braith Anasta and Steve Noyce has made his life a whole lot easier, writes Brad Walter.
Brian Smith estimates that he delivered only one half-time spray to his players last season - and it is something the Sydney Roosters mentor regrets. That may seem a far cry from the reputation Smith has developed, perhaps undeservedly, during 27 seasons of coaching with five clubs in Australia and two in England but he admits he has mellowed over the years.
After last year's grand final loss to St George Illawarra, Smith even asked at the post-match press conference whether the Herald's Richard Hinds was present because he wanted to shake his hand over a column he had written the day before on the game's transformation that was headlined ''How League Got Its Mojo Back''.
More than five months later and just four days before the Roosters open the 2011 season against arch-rivals South Sydney, Smith's mood hasn't changed. ''It is a fortunate life that I live,'' Smith told the Herald. ''It is great almost anywhere but the people who make up the Roosters club I feel comfortable with socially and professionally. I have got a great group of guys, good leaders and some experienced guys who take their responsibilities really seriously as senior players.''
For that, he gives a large amount of credit to captain Braith Anasta and chief executive Steve Noyce.
After the club was dogged by off-field incidents and poor on-field results in 2009, Smith admits some people had told him he was ''crazy'' to be joining the Roosters from Newcastle because ''it looked like it was chaos and it was pretty shabby''.
But Smith said the severity of the problem enabled the club to turn things around quickly.
''When the flood comes through your house you have to clean up all the stuff you might not have cleaned up for months or years or until you got round to it and that's the way it was,'' he said.
Through the leadership of Anasta and Noyce the Roosters climbed from wooden-spooners to grand finalists within a season and were virtually free of off-field scandal in 2010.
''Braith was the leader in almost everything that happened here,'' Smith said. ''There was a lot of hard work went in but it was a shared load and lots of people contributed to making that decision so productive for us.
''A bit of it was organisational and a bit of it fell into areas of personal and professional discipline. Some of it was technical, some of it was tactical but most of it was about a whole lot of people blending together to get the thing going in the one direction. We didn't have anyone dragging the chain, no one wasn't pulling their weight last year and certainly everywhere I have been [at other clubs] I couldn't say that 100 per cent. But in the face of what needed to be done it wouldn't have happened unless Braith had done that, or unless he had good allies in [Anthony] Minichiello and [Jason] Ryles and those sort of guys.
''The younger ones … the Martin Kennedys, BJ Leilua, Mitchell Pearce, Toddy Carney himself - they all followed that lead. It wasn't just them either. Everyone was harmonious and that is a rare item in volatile organisations like footy clubs.
''But 'Noycey' is such a good manager. He has a stunning effect on lots of people in our place, not just with their footy but with their lives.
''That permeates right across this club and when you talk about Braith and what he brings with his leadership and Steve and what he brings with his leadership, it really creates a fantastic environment for a coach to be in and I think I really only got stirred up one day last year and I was disappointed that I had to.''
That occasion was the round-eight clash with Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium and the Roosters came from behind to win 12-8 after Smith's half-time rev-up.
They started poorly again the following week against North Queensland but experience taught Smith not to repeat the blast.
''I could sense at half-time against Wests Tigers that there wasn't anyone who was going to do anything about it so I gave them a bit of a roasting that day and I knew what would happen,'' he said. 'The next week we were similar to what we had been in that first half against the Tigers. We addressed all of that and I said, 'If you wait for me to fire up every week you're not going to win a lot of games because I am not going to do that'. Some of them might have been used to that happening in the past but I wasn't going to go there.
''I did it when I had to but no more. I learnt that a long time ago. Sometimes you've got to do more of that rather than less but if you really believe in your players and you know what they are capable of you shouldn't be doing that too often. I'll probably do it one time this year but I hope it is only one.''
The Roosters have made few changes to their squad this season, with Justin Carney and Anthony Watts being the main recruits, and Smith said his main aim was to get the team playing more consistently each game, week in and week out.
''We lost some games last year with some really poor performances and we only really got going halfway through the year in a consistent way,'' he said. ''Maybe that was to do with Toddy moving to five-eighth but I think it had to do with some other things as well, being more familiar with what was required in preparation as well as performance and building better combinations.
''A lot of that is there now so if we are good enough and the players do well enough we've got a good chance to do that straight off the bat next Friday night.''
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