\u201cI went on a four-week holiday at a rehab facility\u201d, Smith told the podcast. \u201cIt\u2019s something I couldn\u2019t more highly recommend for people who are dealing with issues. Mine was alcohol and mental health, and abuse of pretty much every nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the last five years of my career … I had this identity as a party boy … and I played up to that … When I came out of that facility, the whole thing was about re-identifying myself as a professional athlete. I\u2019m not Brandon Smith, the party boy, I\u2019m Brandon Smith, the rugby league player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said it was his decision to go into rehab, but his South Sydney club had been supportive.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor so long I enjoyed the rugby league and party life, but I\u2019m a little bit allergic to alcohol now,\u2019 Smith said. \u201cI\u2019m doing everything I can to stay on the straight and narrow. I attend AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings and GA [Gamblers Anonymous] meetings. I do everything I can to just stay on this path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe life I am living right now is so much better than the life I was living this last couple of years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I\u2019ve left [rehab], I\u2019ve gone to at least three team functions where all the boys were having a fun time. But I managed to do it without alcohol … I\u2019m still an annoying larrikin, a pest of a bloke. I didn\u2019t need alcohol to do all that. It was refreshing to know I could do it without alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon Smith emphasised that re-identifying as a professional athlete and attending AA and GA meetings helped him. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Smith said he was continuing to have regular meetings with a psychologist.<\/p>\n
He said he met a lot of great people at the rehab facility, where he was only allowed access to his phone for 20 minutes a day.<\/p>\n
He said he had been trying to focus on more healthy activities. For example, he was watching the sunrise every morning.<\/p>\n
Smith has resumed training and said he now had no excuse not to be at his best on the field. \u201cI could show up on Monday after a big weekend where I had 20 beers and so I understand why I feel like shit. Now I have a lot of ownership of my own performance because I\u2019m doing all the right things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said he hoped to rekindle the love he had for rugby league. \u201cI\u2019d be f***ed if I wasn\u2019t a[n] NRL player, it was what I was brought on Earth to do!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had my struggles and I\u2019m going to continue to have them, it\u2019s never going to be smooth sailing … but I\u2019m on the right trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith did not refer directly to his criminal charges but in November, his lawyer said he would plead not guilty.<\/p>\n
\u2013 RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI went on a four-week holiday at a rehab facility\u201d, Smith told the podcast. \u201cIt\u2019s something I couldn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[36577,64,63,19302,17405,9401,8849,50885,15499,2877,35859,8936,19828,760,13477,85,4031],"class_list":["post-429195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-are","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bedford","tag-boy","tag-brandon","tag-days","tag-dean","tag-kiwis","tag-league","tag-my","tag-over","tag-party","tag-rugby","tag-smith","tag-sports","tag-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}