The fact that Greenberg is a f**king scumbag doesn't make Smiths time iin charge any better, Smith was a moron. All these extra appointments and increased operating expenses at NRLHQ were questioned by the clubs, nothing changed except we had a lot more money to spend so Dave did his best to spend it. Hired a bunch of people and the quality or quantity of the product didn't change, in fact you can argue the quality got worse with all the ridiculous rule changes. Smith got played by Shane Richardson ffs, he was an idiot. This muppet head of the ARLC needs to go, he has given us two complete duds so far.
Thats the other thing that made me like DSmith; he didnt seem to care all that much about the NRL....
He was announcing programs and partnerships every few weeks for the junior level and international comps, but all the fans ever worried about was "the wasnt a foward pass, that was clearly a penalty!!"
The on-field product is as good as it has ever been (and that wasnt even his job). The presentation was shit, but that was C9.
It looks like you ate up NewsLtds campaign against him though.....
As for Smith, I maintain he was the right man to run the business. But not the game. People seem to forget there's a difference - the NRL or ARLC are not the game. The game is the thing the players are doing on some grass between 2 goalposts every weekend.
Smith making money decisions and his Head of Football effectively pushing the game in the right direction would have got the results we needed.
Alas, his Head of Football was Greenberg.
Yeh, this pretty much sums it up...
Aside from the punch and shouldercharge rules (which, given the whole concussion lawsuit thing, i think he has been vindicated for), DSmith never seemed to have much to do with the on-field product.
I still find it ridiculous that he brought in Toddles as head of football given that is where you would want the actual football experience
