Elliott's prowl for a stand-in skipper leads him to a Panther with a bit of growl
Greg Prichard | July 10, 2009
Penrith coach Matthew Elliott wasn't exactly looking for a hero - although the Panthers wouldn't say no to one coming out of nowhere for tonight's game against South Sydney, since they have so many players out - but he did need a new captain.
First-choice skipper, prop Petero Civoniceva, would have been in the Queensland team for State of Origin III had he been fit, but he was unavailable because of injury anyway. Second choice, back-rower Trent Waterhouse, was unavailable because he is in the NSW team to play the Maroons at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday. Second-rower Frank Pritchard and utility Luke Lewis were also among those unavailable, both injured, which didn't leave much experience in the team. Neither of the halves could be seriously considered. Five-eighth Wade Graham is 18, and halfback Luke Walsh is 22, and didn't join the club until after this season began.
Prop Frank Puletua, who is 31 and has been at the club since 2004 in his second stint with the Panthers, was an obvious contender, but there was a problem in that he doesn't average much more than 50 minutes on the field per game.
So the coach settled on 26-year-old lock Nathan Smith, who usually plays the full 80 minutes and has the utmost respect of his teammates because of the way he puts his body on the line in defence on a weekly basis. But did Smith see it coming?
"No, it was a massive surprise," he told the Herald. "I thought they would probably go for someone who's been at the club a bit longer than me. But if that's the way they want to go, I'm very happy to do it. I guess it's an added responsibility, but I won't be afraid of it."
Elliott said he believed Smith was capable of steering the team back on to the right track if it lost its way during the game. "Nathan has been in our leadership group in the past," Elliott said. "He is assertive when he needs to be. He's not short of an opinion, and at his age it's only natural that he assumes a role of experience in the team.
"I needed someone who is probably going to be on the field for the whole game, and that's Nathan. If there's something that needs to be said to the players, I'm confident he'll come up with the right words. Plus, if there's something we need to talk to the referees about, he's well equipped to go about that the right way, as well."
Smith said while he felt he was up to the challenge of captaining a first-grade side, it would be a whole new experience.
"I've never been captain before, going back to the juniors," he said. "Ask me after the game and I'll tell you how I went, but I'm looking forward to it. Matt came up to me on Tuesday and asked me if I'd like to be captain, and I was honoured to do it.
"He told me to play my normal game, and that if anything comes up, just deal with it as I see fit. I haven't looked for any advice about how to handle the job. If I think I need to talk to someone, I'll have a chat to Petero before the game. If I have to talk to the refs, or talk to the players about something, I'll just take it as it comes. I'll probably be someone who mainly tries to lead by example. I like the way [Canberra captain] Alan Tongue leads by example and gets his teammates to follow, so I'll try to do it that way."
Elliott was unable to consider nine members of his first-grade squad because of injury and Origin commitments when he picked the team this week. The coach said those problems had enabled his players to concentrate on their own jobs, rather than be lulled into a false sense of security by the Rabbitohs having lost five games in a row.
"It actually makes the training week a bit easier," Elliott said. "You don't get distracted by the opposition. My job has been to get each individual to focus on what he has to do for the team. We've had a lot of work to do on ourselves, so we haven't spent too much time thinking about what the opposition is going to do."
