Im one of the few that actually liked David Smith.
Rugby league is a boys club and very insular. They like to believe that the way things are done are better than others and so forth.
David Smith approached the NRL like a business, this had some short comings, but I think he did a lot of good in securing some financial security for the game. Convincing the Government to chuck a heap of cash at the Stadia project being a good example.
I know he is copping some flak over the NRL TV deal, but until the AFL did their's we thought it was amazing. Like or not, the AFL is going to get more for their deal than us because they can sell adds in 6 markets, and AFL fans watch more related programing than league fans. The AFL shows on fox rate enough that they are of value. The league programs dont rate as highly.
I didn't mind Smith either for the reasons you listed as well Goose.
AFL fans have an entire channel dedicated to the game so there is a broader range of related programming. The league programmes on Fox don't rate because the Matty Johns show is another TFS type League themed entertainment show. If they did a show where they talked tactics and in depth analysis it would be a much bigger success IMO. A 90 minute show where it's 5 mins of football and 85 mins of former players backslapping, inside jokes and carrying on like peanuts is not a good formula. The only reason why TFS has survived is because FTA is starved of any Rugby League related programming and the casual fans consider that to be better than nothing.