Brian Smith driving for Uber after being sacked from Warriors
He famously lost four grand finals in a career that spread across five rugby league clubs. Now the polarising former coach is talking footy from behind the wheel of an Uber.
NRL
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Phil Rothfield reveals the best gossip from the sporting world in another edition of What’s the Buzz.
SAINT
The excitement around the resumption of junior rugby league in parks across Sydney on Saturday, with little boys and girls wanting to be the next Kalyn Ponga or Jess Sergis finally getting the footy fix they’ve been craving for months. Despite COVID-19, the NSWRL has more than 82,000 registered junior participants, down just under 20 per cent on last year.
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SINNERS
Ian Callinan QC, 82, former dual international Michael Cleary, 80, and ex-Kangaroos skipper Max Krilich, 69, are on the NRL appeals committee that lifted the deregistration of Bulldogs bad boys Jayden Okunbor and Corey Harawira-Naera. Perhaps Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo should remind the panellists about the modern-day behaviour expectations.
SPOTTED
Former Steelers, Dragons, Eels, Roosters and Knights coach Brian Smith driving an Uber in Brisbane. The 66-year-old was punted as the Warriors’ football boss last year. A passenger told us Smith is more than happy to talk footy, even the painful stories of the four grand finals he lost as a coach, including the Eels’ unlosable 2001 decider to the Knights.
SPOTTED II
My old mate Phillip Gould catching up with Sharks boss Dino Mezzatesta and police commissioner Mick Fuller on Tuesday at a cafe in Yowie Bay.
SPOTTED III
SCG Trust CEO Kerry Mather and chairman Tony Shepherd at lunch with Sydney Roosters supremo Nick Politis at Beppi’s in Darlinghurst.
SPOTTED IV
A book will be released next month on the life story of Brisbane Broncos star Darius Boyd, his long-time relationship with Wayne Bennett and his tough battles with mental health. Battling the Blues will be in bookshops from August 25.
SHOOSH
Don’t be fooled by the Sydney Swans wanting to lock out crowds in the interests of stopping the spread of coronavirus. It’s more that fans weren’t interested in watching them play Gold Coast Suns at the SCG on Saturday. The Swans made thousands of tickets available but only a handful of fans took up the offer.
SHOOSH
Which NRL coach refuses to accept genuine criticism of his team and tactics, bombarding journalists with complaints whenever anything remotely negative is written.
SHOOSH
There is a rumour ex-Souths boss Shane Richardson is a contender for the Brisbane CEO role, however we’re hearing highly regarded NRL 360 host Ben Ikin is the frontrunner.
SHOOSH
Which NRL club official was hit by the karma bus after he gloated about a rival team’s biosecurity breach, only for his own side to be caught up in an even worse transgression? The official in question was revelling in his rivals’ misery, sharing photos with journalists. Hours later, his club was on the receiving end.
VOSSY HAS AN EYE FOR TROUBLE
Commentator Andrew Voss has been stood down from weekend NRL calling duties at Fox Sports after undergoing more eye surgery.
Voss on Wednesday had a Vitrectomy — a form of surgery to repair scar tissue on the retina and to stop a blood vessel haemorrhage behind the eye.
“I couldn’t see a person’s face a metre in front of me,” he said, “So they put me back in and operated.”
We revealed last week how Voss required surgery on his right eye. But his sight deteriorated again and he was sent for more surgery at Sydney Eye Hospital.
This time specialists have told him not to even watch the football this weekend, let alone try to call a game.
“I’ll be glued to the radio,” he said.
Doctors insist he will make a complete recovery.
CODE-HOPPER TO REPLACE COTRIC AT RAIDERS
Wallabies winger Curtis Rona is to quit rugby union to make an NRL comeback — possibly at the Canberra Raiders.
The 28-year-old former Bulldogs and Cowboys star has been playing rugby in London.
His agent contacted Canberra recruitment boss Peter Mulholland to pitch him as a replacement for Nick Cotric, who has signed a three-year-deal with the Bulldogs.
Interestingly, Cotric wanted to move back to Sydney to play for the Roosters, but the premiers wouldn’t offer him anywhere near the $650,000 a year he’s getting at Belmore.
FOOTY JERSEY RIP-OFF REVEALED
Penrith has had to remove a $300 jersey from the club’s website that was advertised as signed by the entire first-grade squad.
A fan, who bought the jumper, has complained that half the team were missing — including coach Ivan Cleary and Nathan Cleary, James Tamou, Dean Whare, Dylan Edwards, Jarome Luai, Apisai Koroisau, James Fisher-Harris and Kurt Capewell.
The club refunded the fan and has taken the jersey off its site.
CRIMS V FOOTY PLAYERS
Jeff Fenech has done a podcast with legendary underworld enforcer Graham Abo Henry in which he reveals details of the night he took a baseball bat to a group of South Sydney Rabbitohs over a card game.
The great Craig “Tugga” Coleman, Buddy Cain and teammates had to flee an inner-city pub back in the early 80s as Henry and his notorious gang of heavies turned on them.
With no integrity unit in those days, footballers and jockeys would often mix with underworld figures in bars and nightclubs. The Standing8 podcast is available on Apple podcasts and Spotify.
FIVE-DAY PREPS A WINNER
It has become a myth in rugby league that teams are disadvantaged with five-day turnarounds.
You only have to check out the results from this year.
Teams with five-day preparations have won six out of seven games.
The only team to have lost on a short back-up was St George-Illawarra to Penrith way back in round two.
This includes the Roosters knocking off the Parramatta Eels and Canberra’s outstanding victory over the Roosters at the SCG on Thursday night.
MORE NRL NEWS
Sack them all- and start with ‘Big Three’ Broncos
Why this time will be different for Matt Moylan
AFL READY FOR EARLY START
The AFL will consider bringing forward its grand final by a week should the event come to Sydney.
Gill McLachlan and his team realise that going up against an NRL GF on home turf could end in embarrassment … especially if it’s Port Adelaide v Gold Coast. Good luck selling that to punters in the Harbour City.
TIM’S DREAM FOR EMILY AND ARLO
Tim Kirkby had dreams of being a champion malibu board paddler.
At 19 he was first diagnosed with the deadly cancer Lymphoma but he kept fighting, undergoing chemotherapy treatment and a stem cell transplant.
Tim met the love of his life, Emily, and they were married in 2017.
They had a beautiful baby boy Arlo — Tim’s pride and joy who was soon wearing a South Sydney jersey.
Two weeks after Arlo was born, the cancer returned. Tim fought just as hard but died a week before Arlo’s first birthday.
He was just 28.
Emily and Arlo are facing a tough battle.
His old mates at Freshwater Surf Life Saving Club and the local community are rallying to support his wife and son.
They have set up a GoFundMe page ‘Tim’s Dream for Emily and Arlo’ that is well worth supporting.
Originally published as Brian Smith driving for Uber after being sacked from Warriors