He got it right: experts say in-form Knights vindicate Smith's clean-out
ROBERT DILLON
8/05/2008 6:00:00 AM
FOUR of rugby league's most-respected analysts believe Knights coach Brian Smith has proven his critics wrong and statistics confirm that last season's player cleanout has transformed Newcastle into a competitive force.
Former premiership coaches Phil Gould and Warren Ryan and commentators Peter Sterling and Matthew Johns unanimously agreed yesterday that the Knights are reaping the benefits this season of Smith's tough calls and astute recruiting in 2007.
And The Herald can today reveal statistics (see Page 76) that indicate the array of big names who were released by Newcastle at the end of last season have been replaced by players who are performing at least as well, and generally better, than their predecessors.
Gould, Ryan, Sterling and Johns concurred that the Knights, who are sixth on the premiership ladder after finishing second-last in 2007, were bona fide play-off contenders.
And they believe such success would have been extremely unlikely had Smith stuck with the same nucleus of players he inherited when he arrived in Newcastle at the start of last season.
"Newcastle was badly in need of a Brian Smith, and they're going to be very grateful for whatever time he spends there," Gould said yesterday.
"I think he's totally turned the place around . . . he's turned around a lot of clubs over the years that were going no good when he got there."
Gould said Smith had no choice but to dismantle the club and rebuild it from the ground up after the retirement of Andrew Johns last year.
"Brian was faced with a team and a group of players that could never win without Andrew Johns," he said.
"He would have been unwise to persevere with the same player pool who had already proven they couldn't win without Andrew.
"What's he done is give the team a whole new fresh start and the club a fresh start. When you make big change, you obviously get people who resist and you open yourself up to criticism.
"He's never been afraid of that. The easy option would have been to play the popularity card, and that way you hold onto your job and you don't get criticised in the media.
"But Brian's always been prepared to put his reputation on the line and withstand any criticism from those who don't understand."
Gould was not surprised that Smith's makeover featured a host of unheralded imports.
"You look at Brian's history, he's never, ever bought big-name players," Gould said.
"He's created a few, but he's never bought them."
Gould labelled the new-look Knights a wildcard in the finals race and said they had already proved a point to Smith's doubters.
"The critics have gone very quiet," Gould said. "They'll sit on the fence waiting for him to fail, but I have to giggle because I just know in the end he'll prove them wrong."
Johns admitted he had reservations about Smith last season but had since revised his opinion.
"I'll put my hand up and say that at times last year I had concerns," Johns said.
"Some of the noises that were coming out of the club, I think everybody had certain concerns.
"But there's no doubt Smithy's coached for a long, long time and he knows what he's doing.
"I saw him after Newcastle lost to Parramatta in that golden-point game [in round three] and I said to him then, 'I was probably doubting what was happening last year, but I've got to take my hat off to you'."
Johns disputed suggestions that the Knights had previously relied on a home-grown "culture".
"You don't need to grow up in Lambton, or have been a Cessnock boy, to live up to the Knights' culture," Johns said.
"Some of the Knights' greatest players over the years have come from out of town guys like Tony Butterfield, Robbie O'Davis and Ben Kennedy it goes on and on.
"It doesn't matter if you come from Maitland or Auckland, if you live up to the principles the club was built on, the supporters will accept you as one of their own."
Johns said that if Newcastle can emerge relatively intact from the Origin stage of the season "then who knows how far they will go".
"I think they've got every chance to go a long way in the competition," he said.
Ryan was impressed with the resolve Newcastle showed in beating Gold Coast 13-12 last weekend and believes they are bound for the finals.
"Looking at them now, I think they'll make the eight," he said.
"At the start of the year, I didn't think they would be. I thought it would take him [Smith] a year to get them rolling.
"But he's done a terrific job . . . I think if you've got eyes to see what's happening, he's proving a point very steadily.
"What he copped last year [from the media] was malicious and unwarranted."
Sterling said a play-offs berth was "an achievable result" for Newcastle.
"If you were a Newcastle fan, I think every game this year you'd be proud of them and say that they tried their hearts out together as a team," Sterling said
"Win, lose or draw, that's what fans want. They want a team that's putting in . . .
"The thing that has always appealed to me about Brian Smith and the way he coaches football teams is that he's prepared to make tough decisions.
"Brian understands that if you make decisions based on popularity, you fail."
