Brian Smith has been employed as a consultant with the Wests Tigers
James Hooper and David Riccio EXCLUSIVE
The Sunday Telegraph
June 01, 2014 12:00AM
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YES, he’s back. But Tigers supporters can rest easy, ex-NRL coach Brian Smith is not gunning for the off-contract Mick Potter’s job at Concord.
The Tigers have hired one of league’s most polarising figures in a consultancy role as the club embarks on a review of its football operations.
Tigers CEO Grant Mayer confirmed Smith is midway through a month-long examination of the club, from its coaching pyramid to the playing roster, junior development and key football staff.
A sighting of Smith at the Tigers’ Concord headquarters last Thursday triggered conjecture about whether the veteran coach was being interviewed to replace Potter next season.
But Mayer has hosed down the notion of Smith making a return to the NRL coaching ranks, with the off-contract Potter expected to be rewarded with a new deal over the next fortnight.
“Brian is the first one to say coaching is behind him now. I think he genuinely believes he’s got a role to play and so do we. I spoke to Brian four months ago initially about this sort of project,” Mayer said.
“He still loves the game and wants to be involved in some way. We need some experience and Brian fits the bill as a completely independent individual. I can categorically say he’s not interested in coaching again. The reality is we want to pick his brain. Brian Smith has a varied experience base in elite football and also junior development.
“I want him to speak to people in our club who have also come from varied backgrounds. His job is to basically extract as much information out of the people in the business as he can so we can continue to grow our business.”
Smith, who coached 601 NRL matches in a career spanning five clubs and 28 seasons, last week was busy interviewing staff and players and will file an internal report to the Tigers in the next fortnight.
Players and staff being interviewed are told to speak as frankly as possible in an anonymous format, with Smith to refrain from detailing who said what in his final report.
Tigers coach Potter, who played under Smith at St George from 1989 to 1993, welcomed the review and said he held no fears in terms of his own job security coming under threat from his ex-coach.
“I can understand people coming up with an equation by seeing Brian Smith wherever they’ve seen him and coming up with an assumption,” Potter told The Sunday Telegraph.
“He’s been around and he’s put some great programs in place over the years and I don’t think his experience should go unnoticed and unused.
“We’re hoping to get a little bit of a restructure out of it and to also implement some best practice procedures.
“Whether that be around facilities, medical, junior league development, it’s far reaching as far as our department is concerned.”
Potter confirmed star fullback James Tede$co, who announced his defection to Canberra last week, was expected to be available for next Sunday’s match against Newcastle at Hunter Stadium.
Injured young gun Curtis Sironen also played his second match of NSW Cup against Wentworthville on Saturday and the promising rookie is expected to soon press for inclusion in the Tigers NRL line-up.
With six wins and five losses this season, Potter only needs one more victory to equal the Tigers’ win-record posted last season, underlining how the coach has earned the right to be tabled a new contract.
