Buderus tackles Brian by the book
BY BRETT KEEBLE
KNIGHTS legend Danny Buderus has revealed the breakdown in his relationship with former coach Brian Smith after the controversial player clean-out in 2007 made him feel unwanted, and convinced him to leave the Knights with a year left on his contract.
Buderus, who was disillusioned and despondent during what he described as the toughest year of his career, provides explosive details about those issues in his autobiography, Talent Is Not Enough, to be published early next month by Random House Australia.
Buderus, now 31, said he considered leaving the Knights at the end of 2007 to play out his career in England with Wigan because of Smith's "personal attack" on him at the peak of the club's contractual wrangle with Kirk Reynoldson.
Exasperated by the lack of communication from Smith and Knights management about the treatment of his friend Reynoldson and the "dismantling" of the roster, Buderus writes that he was talked out of leaving by former teammates Stephen Crowe and Paul Harragon.
Buderus stayed and played another year in 2008 until he ruptured his biceps against the Cowboys with two games left in the season, then left to join Leeds at the start of this year.
He explains he had already discussed with his manager, Darryl Mather, the idea of finishing his career in England, but the turmoil of 2007 "helped make up my mind".
The 2004 Dally M Medallist says he regretted his decision to publicly air his grievances he told a Sydney newspaper the sweeping changes Smith made were "too much too soon" but stood by the sentiments he expressed in that article published in August 2007.
"We had our say in a good heart-to-heart phone conversation a few days later, something I wish we'd had before anything came out in the media, but I have to be honest and say our relationship was purely 'business only' after that," Buderus writes.
In the same chapter, he says he and Smith "didn't talk much; I didn't find him nearly as approachable as [predecessor] Michael Hagan.
"I know Brian would not have got any pleasure out of telling a player he had to move on and was not required; it was a tough job for him and the club had given him a brief."
Buderus was incensed when Smith spoke to the media the day before Manly crushed the Knights 50-16 at Gosford and "hit back with what I felt was a very personal attack on me and my right to have my view".
"I think Danny could have done it in a different way but like I said, if you want to find someone who's not at the top of their game and is going to make an error of judgement, then you go to someone who is suffering from severe disappointment," Smith told reporters at the time.
"Danny's a real proud man. He wanted to have an enormous effect and he has. He's just not seeing and feeling that as the new captain of the Knights after Joey [Andrew Johns] left.
"He wanted to be an effective and winning captain of the Origin series and it didn't turn out that way. His position as No.9 in the Australian jersey is probably under threat.
"For a proud guy who's done so much service for Australian footy, and particularly the Knights, when it's not going well you're likely to find a bloke who is going to say the wrong thing. I wish he hadn't said it. I'm sure he does, too, but them's the breaks."
Buderus writes: "Some of those comments got my back up; I thought what he said was condescending and belittling.
"And plenty of people obviously agreed; my phone rang hot from people fuming at what had been said, including players from other clubs he had dismantled, who wanted to lend me support.
"To suggest I was too out of touch to know what morale was like, when I had been at the club for 13 years and spoke to the players more than the coach, CEO or the board did; to suggest I had made wild statements because I was the losing Origin captain and being under pressure for my Test spot, or that I was frustrated by not being a winning captain at Newcastle after succeeding Joey what did that have to do with what I said?
"I was the one fielding all the comments from players about how they felt because no one in the club seemed to care; that was the whole issue of my concerns.
"I went to our operations manager, Steve Crowe, and told him I'd had enough; that I didn't want to be at the club anymore because, like a lot of other players, I no longer felt wanted.
"I asked him about getting out of my contract at the end of the season even though I had a year, and an option for a further year, to go.
"I went to Paul Harragon, who was on the board, and asked the same thing. I wanted to go overseas and play because I couldn't bring myself to play against the Knights.
"What had happened, especially with Kirk Reynoldson, showed that NRL football had become a hard-nosed business and I didn't want to be part of that anymore; I'd had a gutful."
When contacted by The Herald yesterday, Smith said he had not read the book and did not want to comment.
Buderus is due back in Australia this week to attend former NSW and Test teammate Steve Menzies' wedding, then he has planned a holiday before embarking on a publicity tour to promote his book. The Herald understands the Newcastle launch will be held at EnergyAustralia Stadium on November 5.
Buderus, who expresses an interest in returning to the Knights in a coaching or mentoring role after he retires, stands by his feelings of two years ago. But he says Smith, who was replaced by assistant Rick Stone with four games left in the 2009 regular season, would leave a "legacy" at the club.
"He has stripped the system right back to the core in a technical sense and introduced a new structure, then reintroduced some of the principles that the foundation of the club was built on," he writes.
"As tough as he was with how he approached things, he has improved a lot of players. The club would be smart to continue the principles he introduced, and build on them."
Herald
