Roosters Radio | Brandon Smith

welcome back to roosters radio and joining us now well he had a bit of a rest last weekend up there at the Gold Coast uh he's going to give us an update on his injury but it's a warm roosters radio welcome to the medum self Brandon Smith Cheez welcome thank you for having me I appreciate it this is my first time this first time this year yeah first time this year I'll take it yeah you were on last year it was actually hilarious um you had this backdrop of Victor Radley's head because it was um you were up at Queens when we spoke to you yeah it was a zoom so that was funny yeah time to face yeah now mate uh yeah you had the week off Cal injury a little bit of a niggle uh how's the uh how's it coming along where we see you this week yeah it was just a minor strain I sort of coped against the the eels and then I was a bit crooked at the start of the week so um I missed a couple of days of training and that kind of slowed down the process of the the healing and not being able to get Physio and treatment on it uh early enough so um it was actually pretty upset because I was meant to play my 150th game against the bunnies this year you're to miss out and my whole family have already booked uh my sister's flying over from New Zealand um everyone's coming over and now it's they got they got shirts made off and now it's just now it's just going to be Brandon's 149th game so um hopefully they can get my parents live in Brisbane so hopefully they can get up for the the game with the final on the following week but uh yeah I felt real bad having I I kind of ignor surely can stand the ticket for your sister for an extra week I ignored I ignored all their calls until I was I was dead set called out for the game then I rang him I was I'm so S I felt so guilty but at the end of the day that's footy and their f for booking too early so oh look we're going to get a holiday anyway just talking about semi-finals for a second there Brandon it feels like semi-finals have come early it looks like we got two games uh to play but they're really really important games must- Win games to cement that top two spot is a been much discussion about that over the past couple of weeks uh not really over the past couple of weeks cuz it it's only until you know this week we actually found out that we we're actually a chance of being second place and um fortunately cber you know rolled the the the Panthers and and our for and against is really good but um it's a discussion point now and it's a big one because a home home final at alian uh against penr is a lot better than going and traveling to penr to play them so um it's it's definitely a focal point at the moment to to get through these next two games and they're games that we should win but camber going off the back of the um form they've they've got and form they've gone against penrith it's it's a it's a tough a and it's a special game with it being the emergency round so um and the first one I think so I'm I'm looking forward to being a part of that I also think Ricky likes to get his boys up when he plays The Roosters I feel like there's a little bit of you know the history of sticky and how he left the club I think he likes to try and get one back on us as well yeah well there is some history and the the Grand Final I know that's still the I know he's still burning about that I know he's still burning about that and um yeah I expect them to be uh firing away at us well it's not an easy run in either like you speak about the history Ricky and the Raiders game and then you've got the history with the bunnies and the bunnies game and that's always a tough game coming into the end of uh you know the season you've been here before plenty of times coming into finals football you well experienced what do you say to say the young kids in the team that um it is their first experience coming in towards the back end of the season and into the finals how do you get them there and hyped uh I think I mean there's not many young boys in our team at the moment they're all pretty um seasoned vets I mean I think sand and Smith is probably Terrell May Terrell mayfu yeah nefu he hasn't been in the team lately but I think um things like finals the the you know you think the game is going at 100 milph you think that you've got to do all this thing but um finals mentality is more about it's more about doing the little things more consistently and not to trying to overplay your hand and just whatever got you to the to the finals that's what you got to do and you got to do it two times better um rather than trying to go make a miracle play but just all these little things you got to do the 1 perent is as everyone always says and I'm doing them over and over and over again and um then when all the little things are done obviously that's when the big things happen so um you just got to keep keep grinding out the hard stuff and and eventually you'll get the rewards I mean Robo talks about defense wins those big games particularly in semi-finals it's fair to say we've leaked a few points lately has that been a focal point you know this week and in the past couple yeah I think oh it's definitely a a point like a 16 points um on the weekend I think against Gold Coast [Music] 20 22 22 don't even watched the game um we that's that's that's not good enough um in the great scheme of things you you want to be letting about 12 points in that's the that's I guess the the best Mark for us but um at the end of the day we're winning games and uh some of the stuff we did against the the Titans on the weekend obviously Jared Simon didn't happen help and um put fatigue but I feel like we played a bit immature when we had the ball um and gave them a lot of possession uh well Jared was off I think we did like a scram and then we dropped it on the first play of the scrum and we're down 12 men if you're down 12 men you want to be holding that ball and um you want to be kicking the kicking the ball out and just trying to waste as much time as you can and I think we just didn't really do that and um but yeah we we're building towards a good team and we've we're not too bad in the defensive record I think we're like fourth best defense in the comp and um that's a good starting point but we just need to keep building on it and also going into the finals it's it's a big thing to win these next two games not only for the second spot but you want to go into the finals with momentum you don't want to go into the finals after winning against the team that you should have or after losing against a team you should have won against and um just building that momentum and that that um confidence going into those games I want to ask you a question just based on that we had Rober win a couple of weeks ago you know how people talk about playing 80 minutes of football you know they're an 80-minute team whatever I put that to Robo said teams can't play for 80 minutes you might play 20 minutes really well which we've been you know good at for the past couple we we you know after the first half we'll scored 20 or so on then the intensity drops for be fatigue or whatever it may be the way Robo put he said look I just hope that we can have a nil all Gap where then because we know the intensity will rise up again or a 6 nil or a 12 nil is that how you talk on the field like you could probably feel the energy in the like in the on the field is kind of dropping as well is there a sense of that where you you're back to the wall and you know you're in the grind for that because when it's when it's flowing and as fans we love watching it but there will be a point in time where that you know the the tries dry up so what's it like as a player on the field um man I always used to say when I when I was a bench player I always used to say mate when we were doing well I go mate wait till we get on everything's going to change it we're going to be tackling the whole time we're on the field but um there definitely is that like sort of the periods in the game I remember Camas Smith used to break down games in a 10-minute interval so like so he' have the four four games in the the first half and four games in the second half and um he'd just try win each one of them 10 intervals and not really against the opposition against his opposing number was one of his things but um I guess it's a good way to break it down and um as long as you can I guess stay in that 20 minute block where you when things aren't going well like Robo said as long as you don't get points or too many points scored against you um there's always that comeback and and when the boys I guess get that motivation to come back mate moving on to this week and it's the Emergency Services match now if you want a footballer and you could choose which be it the police firefighter ambos Brandon Smith which emergency service would you like to be in uh probably firefighter yeah yeah why is that um just because I don't think I could be an Amo I don't like to the contrary don't like blood and and and looking at gashes and I don't really like hanging out with sick people um it's not not my favorite thing to do hospitals don't really excite me too much um being a police officer uh I can't de deal with rat bags like myself uh I was going to say you got form might go against you I've got some bad form so I don't think the police offic yeah the police officers will let me in there so uh looking forward we' got the Raiders on Sunday uh you know Tuesday today we don't know anything about uh you know the Judiciary and what's going to happen uh or whatnot but what do we have to do to get the win up on Sunday um home game our last home game of the season which is fairly exciting so yeah taking into the game this weekend what have we got to do uh I think obviously we got to score more points in them that'll be a great start to winning the game but um I think it's our defense we got to really nail and I wouldn't care if it was a 126 Victory over over cber um but it's just yeah showing that maturity in our def and um yeah cuz I know they're going to come hard and they've got nothing to lose really apart like the final spot is a very glim hope for them and um they've got nothing to lose so they'll chance their arm everybody they can and we're going to have to expect the unexpected and uh just keep moving our legs and keep taking our legs over and um at the end of the day I think we'll get the win I think we got points in us uh we just yeah just got to work on that D going into the finals and build that confidence and that moment momentum and obviously mate it's our last home game so we get to send off you know quite a few of our players players that you've spent a lot of time with both here at the roosters and you know representing New Zealand has much been said about that this week and uh you know the boys going to rise as one to try and send our uh the boys who are leaving us at the end of the season out winners yeah I think it's uh it hasn't it hasn't been a a big talking point I I think the players that are leaving aren't those kind of people that want want to be told you know how good they're going or how much how much do we love them and stuff like that I mean Jared and sa they're pretty straight up sort of BLS and and and Luke kry and um but in the back of everyone's mind in this team I believe there's that extra motivation that extra Edge to want to send these champions of players and and um you know there'll be a life members and uh a way in the way they they should be left with this club and um yeah I guess I don't think Jared will be out there with us week but a player like ctii who I think over the last five weeks has just been one of our one of our best players obviously started on reserve great at the start of the year and um to see him like killing it I I can tell how much this jersey means to him and how much we're going to miss him and he's going to miss us so and I suppose Joey too like he's he came his story of how he got here you know from from New Zealand flying over on a on a Thursday just to get across to you know play Under 15s and stuff like that it's just an amazing story so I mean to send him off a winner be it not only this week but you know towards the fin final season too was something something I'm sure be in the back of the players Minds oh for sure Joey's one of the one of the love Childs of um Rober at this club and um he doesn't do a lot wrong Joey Maru so that's probably why Rober loves him so much but um I got a lot of time for Joe and um respect him as a international kiwis player and he's been one of the best centers for a long time in this game and um if we could send these guys away with another a Premiership and um you know really honor what they've done for not only this club but the whole game in general would be awesome well mate we want to thank you for your time today best of luck on the weekend and we look forward to seeing you uh in these next upcoming weeks as we play finals footy best of luck thanks for having me guys appreciate it