“It was sort of laborious seeing all of the medical employees, and all of the physios on the sidelines – that was powerful,” he instructed Fox Sports activities.

“It was bizarre listening to all of the names they had been calling out for all of the performs, I knew precisely what they had been doing which began complicated me … I began to overlook what the Roosters performs had been.”

He mentioned whereas he’s beginning to adapt, there may be nonetheless loads of room for enchancment following his first hit out.

He mentioned the Roosters weren’t taking the pre-season problem any extra critically than they may have in years previous, regardless of the carrot of $100,000 prizemoney.

“I do not assume the pre-season comp actually issues – I do not even know the way the factors system works,” he mentioned.

Storm go size of the sector

“For Robbo (Roosters coach Trent Robinson) it is simply I suppose taking what we have discovered in pre-season, going on the market and attempting to execute so we will take it into the true season the place all of the glitz and glamour is made.

“Hopefully we will try this within the subsequent sport – I believe we had been fairly poor tonight.

“We performed in opposition to all of the younger fellas within the Melbourne facet they usually actually gave it to us, so we have got a whole lot of room for enchancment.”

Smith mentioned one of many key variations between Robinson and Storm coach Craig Bellamy pre-seasons was the huge quantity of distance working in Bondi.

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The 2022 RLPA Dream Staff – as voted by each contracted NRL participant