Sydney Roosters hooker Brandon Smith has quashed rumours he could be heading to South Sydney next season, as the fallout continues from his recent breach notice.
The 28-year-old has been recalled to the Roosters’ starting side after utility Connor Watson was selected for NSW duties.
Reflecting on being dropped for last week’s clash with the Eels, the Kiwi international admitted to being “shaky” as Parramatta began to gain momentum in the second half.
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“It wasn’t too bad, I knew the consequences were coming. I sort of expected it to happen, so when I got told it wasn’t so bad,” he said on The Bye Round podcast of being dumped from the team for disciplinary reasons.
“It was a little bit shaky after half-time when the boys were playing a bit bad and started going down, because then you start going in your head, ‘Shit, this is my fault I’m not helping out’.
“Fortunately they came away with the win and Connor has been picked in the Origin side.”
As rumours persisted around Smith’s future at the club, speculation began that the Rabbitohs could be a good fit considering Wayne Bennett’s impending arrival and the potential exit of Damien Cook from the club.
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However, the likelihood of that happening has been quashed by Smith.
“There’s only one thing I did see, someone said I was off to the Bunnies which is pretty interesting,” he said.
“That’s not true, just to get that out there.”
Smith also admitted he’s gone off social media since the furore around the missed team meeting at Bondi began to dominate the headlines.
However, despite the coverage around his behaviour and his future, Smith explained he’s got no animosity towards the media.
“At the moment, I’m off socials so I’m not seeing it and I don’t read the paper,” he said.
“You’ve got to take the good days with the bad days and recognise that because you’re in the papers for being bad, it’s because you’re being bad.
“They don’t purposely target you all the time and you’re usually in there for doing something negative, if you can turn that around and do something positive you’re going to get in the papers for doing something positive.
“Journos get a bad rep … they report what’s the hot news and I don’t have any concerns about them writing bad stuff about me because at the moment, I’m not being good enough and I’m not doing what’s up to the Roosters standard.
“The leadership group have told me that, it’s a kick up the arse like Rads (Victor Radley) said … now it’s about turning those newspaper articles around from something negative to something positive and I can do that through my footy.”
The Roosters this week will have the chance to make it two in a row after their win over the Eels.
And while Smith confessed he’s been getting into training early, who they were playing did surprise him.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t know we had the Dogs this weekend. Is that outrageous?” he said.
“For some reason, I thought we had the Tigers. Obviously I haven’t been to the meeting yet … we will move on from that.”