Roosters coach Trent Robinson has backed Brandon Smith’s future at the club after the star hooker was handed a breach notice and left out of the team to face the Eels on Saturday night.
The decision came after Smith missed a team meeting and training session following the Tricolours’ loss to the Cowboys in Round 13.
On contract at the Roosters until the end of 2025 with a player option, Robinson dismissed speculation of the 28-year-old being out of favour with the management officials and emphasised that “normal transmission” would resume next week around selection, but said the club’s strong stance in discipline was important.
“It’s pretty simple – he fell out of favour for this week because it was really important for us,” Robinson said. “We breached him and he’s not playing this week because we want a higher standard.
“People care about how we perform each week, and, in that occasion, he said [by his actions] that, ‘that’s not important to me’. Myself and the club wanted to say ‘no, this is what we do and what we do here every day is important. We value you, but we want you to value us as much’, so we took those measures.”
“The worst part of it is when it opens up all the conversations that start happening around it. All you want to do is hold your club to a high standard and get performance out of your players. We didn’t feel like we got that that week and it’s cost him this weekend.”
Robinson backed the strong stance taken by senior players, who expressed their disappointment in the Kiwi international throughout the week.
Captain Luke Keary and representative forward Victor Radley both said that Smith’s actions “weren’t good enough” in keeping with the club’s standards – comments the Roosters mentor fully supported in building trust in the team as they begin their finals charge.
“It’s a bit like being a parent,” Robinson reflected. “If you want change, how do you discipline and love someone at the same time?
“That’s what you have to do, but when you do it in our game it becomes very public. When you take away the thing people really thrive off, it often creates change in a better way. You can do it privately and ask for change and all of that, but until you say ‘you don’t value the game, you don’t play a game’ then that creates the change that we want.
We really want to support him and get him better, but it has to come through discipline.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson
“What does support look like? It does look like ‘no, these are the standards, we support you by telling you the truth’.
“Lots of teams won’t tell you the truth – they won’t sit you down face-to-face and tell you what they think. They’ll say it behind your back, but the senior players [here] told him what they wanted from him and told him the truth.
"It’s a hard conversation and it’s honest but that’s where trust gets built.”
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Connor Watson will take on the lion’s share of the hooking duties this week in Smith’s absence, returning to the side after missing the last month with a throat injury that denied him of a potential Origin debut for the Blues in Game One.
The 28-year-old is believed to be firmly in the running for a potential bench utility role for Game Two, with just 80 minutes to prove his case to coach Michael Maguire having not played since Round 11.
“I don’t know where they’re at with selection and all of that,” Robinson said of Watson’s chances of a Blues debut.
Mansour picks his Blues for Game 2
“But Connor brings energy, he brings communication and there’s a belief in the way he goes about his business so it’s a good opportunity for him to put that on show tomorrow night.
“I feel like the combination between Brandon and Connor really has developed this year. I feel like that’s been a real positive part.
"We get in a sweet spot with Connor and Brandon playing – you can really see it and we’ve played a fair bit that way this year.”
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