Former Roar skipper Matt Smith keen to take Brisbane City back to top tier of Aussie football

It’s been a good 35 years since their heyday but Brisbane City, are dreaming big with the appointment of Matt Smith as coach. And the former Roar skipper is ‘happy to accept the challenge’.

Brisbane Roar skipper Matt Smith announcing at a press conference that he has quit the club. Pics Tara Croser.

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Former Brisbane Roar championship-winning skipper Matt Smith is determined to return Brisbane City to the top tier of Australian football after being appointed the NPL Queensland club’s first-team coach.

Smith joined City in February from Gold Coast Knights as player, under-18 coach and director of football.

And while the 37-year-old defender is no longer City’s under-18 mentor, his full-time role at the former National Soccer League club has stepped up a notch after being named as the replacement for axed NPL coach Nick Green.

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Matt Smith is taking on dual roles with Brisbane City.

“I’m happy to accept the challenge,” Smith said of adding the club’s NPL job to his playing and director of football roles.

“I am ambitious about coaching in the same way I was and still am ambitious about playing.

“I’m stepping into the unknown a little bit in terms of combining playing and coaching, but I’ve always been somewhat of a coach on the field so I’m very comfortable with it.”

Smith, who won three A-League titles with the Roar, has high hopes for City, who spent 10 seasons in the NSL from 1977 to 1986.

“There is a lot of history at this club and I want to get us back to the highest level of football in Australia,” he said.

“We can get there and hopefully I can still be here when that happens.”

But before City can think about inclusion in an expanded A-League or even being part of a mooted national second division, their priority is to dominate Queensland football.

Matt Smith is relishing his latest role.

City have been overtaken by the likes of the Knights, Lions FC, Olympic FC and Peninsula Power in recent years, and were sitting in eighth spot on the NPLQ ladder when the 2020 season was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m not comfortable at all about where we are on the table,” Smith said.

“We want to be competing for the top (NPLQ) spot and we should be every year.”

Smith hopes the City squad can return to training next month ahead a possible competition resumption in July.

“It’s a little bit frustrating at the moment but I’ve still got plenty to do at the club to keep me busy,” he said.