Smith refuses to rely on poultry excuse for poor form
Sun Herald
Sunday August 9, 2009
BESIEGED Newcastle coach Brian Smith insists the club's past two losses aren't the result of his decision to shift to the Sydney Roosters.The Knights have lost consecutive games, to Manly and the Roosters, after news broke of Smith's move to Bondi Junction in 2010. After a shock loss to his future club, Smith must today overcome his former outfit, Parramatta, or face the prospect of his side's dropping out of the top eight.Smith, however, believes the Knights are well positioned to make a genuine assault on the title and suspects the previous two losses were not linked to his decision to request an early release."It doesn't matter what I think. It's a matter of what everyone else seems to think," Smith told The Sun-Herald."You'd need to speak to every individual. It's not concerning me greatly, personally, with my own approach. But you'd have to go out there and check everything out."You guys in the media have done a good job of making a really big deal of it but I don't think there's any proof that we wouldn't have been in the same situation given the way the two teams we played performed on the night."We could well have lost anyway, no matter what else was going on."[The scrutiny following the decision] doesn't help but in a lot of cases it adds more fuel to the fire for some of us €“ it just makes us more determined. It's very hard to know how any individual reacts to that."Smith is determined to finish what he started at Newcastle. There was speculation ahead of last week's board meeting that Smith could be asked to stand aside immediately for assistant Rick Stone but his tenure wasn't discussed. The 55-year-old said he had no concerns about being shown the door early."It was a ripple," he said. "It was like going down to the beach and watching one wave roll in."The Knights have lost five of their past seven games to drop to eighth place on the ladder, while the resurgent Eels come into the contest on the back of wins against Melbourne, the Bulldogs and Cronulla. However, Smith refused to label the Parramatta Stadium encounter as a season-defining game."No, it can't possibly be that," he said. "There's too many more important games to come after this."We'll deal with this one and then the one after that. And probably, the way things are going, there will be plenty of twists and turns between now and the end of the season."For some it will be in round 26 and for others it will be one week later. We want to be one of the ones who go through to the end."One of the highlights of the encounter will be the battle of the fullbacks. Jarryd Hayne is a form player, while Kurt Gidley is returning to his customary position after a surprise shift into the halves against the Roosters.Explaining his reasons for the switch, Smith said: "It was an opportunity we felt was worth having a look at. As a coaching staff we've often thought about it and not gone through with it."We've decided to not mess with what Kurt brings to the team but this time we saw it differently because of Shannon [McDonnell]'s good form."Also it was an opportunity to give Mullo [Jarrod Mullen] and Kurt an opportunity they've not had. It was too juicy a chance to miss."It just didn't work and now we're back to what we know does work, which is Kurt being at fullback."
© 2009 Sun Herald
Share This