Despite a rocky relationship with coach Wayne Bennett, star hooker Brandon Smith looks like he has played his last game for the Roosters and is set to make a mid-season switch to South Sydney.
Smith and Bennett had a falling out three years ago when the Kiwi international had been offered a lucrative deal to join the Dolphins for their foundation season.
Bennett thought the deal was over the line but was shocked to find out Smith then signed with the Roosters.
Smith has been told he is free to leave by the Roosters as he heads into the final year of his contract and he is hoping to return in June after suffering a major knee injury late last season.
The 28-year-old hooker told The Bye Round podcast that his looming switch to join Bennett was still not yet locked in.
“I am stoked he is interested in me but to be fair we had a pretty rough relationship. I did give him my word I was signing at Redcliffe and we all knew how that ended up,” he admitted.
“I felt pretty bad, hopefully he has forgiven me for that. I don’t know what the go is yet. I hope something happens. It is just it is not really on me, to be honest. It is more about them.
“The whole relocating thing. Souths would be perfect because it is so close by to where I am staying at the moment.
“Souths was my favourite team as a kid. My playing strip as a junior was red and green. Issac Luke was my favourite player. For me, I just feel like the writing was on the wall. To the Roosters, I don’t think it is a shock I am going anywhere – they pretty much asked me to leave.”
The Rabbitohs have tabled a two-year deal to Smith’s agent and are examining medical records to ensure his knee injury will not be an ongoing issue.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson on Thursday said he did not want to speculate on Smith joining their bitter rivals midway through the year.
“We won’t get into hypotheticals around all of that,” he said.
“Brandon’s training well, working hard and he’s getting ready for mid-June. It’ll be good to get Brandon and Sam [Walker] back.”
O’Brien explains silence over Brown deal
Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien has defended his club’s signing of Dylan Brown on a mega-deal and explained why he would not speak about the coup 24 hours before the 26-12 win over the Dolphins.
O’Brien had copped flak after his pre-game press conference on Wednesday when he refused to discuss Parramatta playmaker Brown signing on a 10-year, $14 million dollar deal from 2026.
The Knights were superb in their home win over the Dolphins on Thursday night in Newcastle.
“That’s what the whole thing was about. I know I was copping a little bit for not talking about Dylan Brown but my number one job yesterday was not to talk about next year when these guys were 24 hours away from playing,” O’Brien said at his post-match press conference..
“I apologise if the media felt disrespected. I know it is your job to report on news and it is newsworthy. I get it, but what might have come across as disrespectful was coming from a place of respect.
“I was respecting a process of a 10-day cooling off period. I was respecting Parramatta.
“The last thing Parramatta wanted me doing during that period was talking about how we were going to play their player. There will be a point in time we need to talk about Dylan but yesterday wasn’t that day.
“That has since been waived so I am happy to talk a bit more about it now.”
O’Brien had also drawn criticism for not explaining to the Knights fans the Brown signing when the news broke, but the coach would have none of it.
“I know the red and blue army was mentioned and how they have a right to know,” he said
“I know them pretty well. They’d be real disappointed in me if I was talking about next year when we had a game tonight.
“They have been through all that stuff before and don’t want to hear about rebuilds. They want to win now. So do we.
“That is the reason for not commenting yesterday. I probably didn’t handle it well by straight-batting it and I apologise for that but I don’t apologise for shifting focus on what was the most important thing, which was tonight.”
Knights legends, including Matthew Johns, have questioned the length of the Brown deal and the coach was quizzed on the naysayers.
“We’re happy with our purchase,” O’Brien stated.
Kalyn Ponga. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
“It’s up to us and it’s up to me to make sure that we get this right. It won’t be up to Dylan and it won’t be up to KP (Kalyn Ponga).
“We’ve got an obligation if a player of his expertise comes onto the market.
“It’s what this town deserves. It was only 10 years ago they were on the first of three wooden spoons. We don’t want those days back.”
Ponga was magnificent at fullback against the Dolphins and often played in the halves as a first or second receiver. Five-eighth Fletcher Sharp was also dangerous in his running role.
“It’s maybe a little bit of a window into what we’re thinking down the track,” O’Brien said.
“Kalyn and Fletch can play second and third layer, being fullbacks, so getting their hands on the ball at first layer makes us a bit more dangerous.”
with AAP
The Roarhttps://https://ift.tt/SJmKHge News: Roosters star set for mid-season Rabbitohs switch, O’Brien breaks silence over Brown mega deal
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