The Sydney Roosters aren't keeping Brandon Smith on a tight leash as the outspoken hooker makes his return to Melbourne to face his former club.
Smith started his career with Melbourne seven years ago, playing 107 games before heading north to Sydney, but counts some Storm troops as his closest mates.
One of those players is Melbourne No.9 Harry Grant, who Smith will go head to head with at AAMI Park on Thursday night.
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said he has spoken to the 26-year-old about tackling his former team but didn't have to rein him in.
"No - we had a chat, just about the week coming up and it was a really quick, short chat about what it was coming back to Melbourne for him and how we wanted to approach it," Robinson said on Wednesday.
"It took one or two minutes and then and then we moved on."
Robinson said details of the discussion were between him and Smith, but he didn't expect his rake to be ruffled by the Storm.
Former coach Craig Bellamy also felt Smith would remain focused on his game.
"I don't think he's going to get lured into not thinking about his game, not doing his game," Bellamy said.
"He obviously knows what his role is, and he's very good at playing his role and playing to his strengths."
Smith's form was a little patch early on but Robinson said he was settling into his new club's style of play, particularly as part of their spine.
"I feel like week on week that's happened, he's getting better," the coach said.
"We've got better each week with our combination about nine, seven, six and one and then also defensive combinations and around how he rolls his pack, so every week that we get with him we get a bit more knowledge."
Smith is a regular on a number of podcasts, with his honesty and humour at times landing him in trouble.
Robinson said he wasn't across all of the audio but had enjoyed getting to know one of the game's quirkiest characters.
"I've really enjoyed working with Brandon because the humour is his style but people only see that persona, when he makes a big statement.
"But then behind that is a guy that's really footy intelligent, enjoys having different conversations about different things so I feel like I'm getting to see that more and more of that."
He said he wasn't looking to change Smith but rather help him to become the "best version" of himself.
"We talked when we signed him about his development as a person ... this is not about changing him, we want him to be himself but then we also want him to get the best version of himself.
"We're here to assist that."
