Leeds Rhinos have got their man in Rohan Smith.
Firstly, for the Rhinos, it’s good that they have made a decision and they know who they want to take the club forward over the next three and a half years. There’s a couple of pluses around it: it’s a fresh set of eyes on the club with a new perspective and a new take on things.
Also, with that, Rohan has experience of the British game before with Bradford Bulls and he also has plenty of family he can lean on with respect to that - his dad Brian and uncle Tony. That will give him a better understanding of the game here and how it works. It’s different to how it works over in the NRL.
I imagine the Rhinos will be looking for Rohan to have a similar impact to how Michael Maguire had when he first came to Wigan or Justin Holbrook when he arrived at St Helens. They were both Australian coaches that weren’t head coaches at the time. But they came in and changed the dynamic and culture of those two clubs after they had been in the doldrums a little following some sustained periods of success.
You only have to look at Manchester United to see it is a difficult thing to manage after a long stint of winning. But you do need a catalyst and hopefully Rohan Smith will be the catalyst to allow Rhinos to be challenging at the top again. The competition as a whole needs a strong Leeds side: people who aren’t rugby league fans recognise the name of Leeds Rhinos.
On Tony Smith - who’s announced his decision this week that he’ll leave Hull KR at the end of the season - what an achievement to coach 500 Super League games. I think that is amazing. I’d say getting to 500 as a coach is more difficult than 500 as a player just due to the challenges you face and dealing with everybody.
I think that’s credit to Smithy and how he’s evolved as a coach over the last 20 years. I learned a lot from Smithy. He was a trailblazer when he first came through at Huddersfield and then at Leeds where he did have that success. He’d a great technical knowledge of the game: why you do certain things, why you need to be where you need to be on the pitch.
For me, he opened my eyes and really improved my ability to do that. For every action, there is a reaction and he was good at getting you to understand that: what were the repercussions of what your actions were on the team and on yourself as an individual. He definitely added to my game. The best coaches improve your game and Tony did that for me, for sure.
BETFRED - PASSIONATE ABOUT SUPER LEAGUE
