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<\/p>\n
Smith is coming off a stellar 34-disposal, two-goal, 12-score-involvement display in Geelong\u2019s statement 41-point win over Brisbane last Thursday. <\/p>\n
He was the second-highest-rated player on the ground, pipped only by teammate Shaun Mannagh\u2019s six-goal explosion. <\/p>\n
Since Round 3 – in what\u2019s been the highest-rated six-week stretch of his career to date – Smith has been the competition\u2019s second-highest-rated player behind only Isaac Heeney. <\/p>\n
For the year, he\u2019s ranked eighth overall for player rating, with his 17.58 average rating points trumping last year\u2019s mark, when he was an All-Australian for the first time. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou watch Bailey Smith, and he clearly stands out. He does the basics really well,\u201d four-time flag-winner Jordan Lewis said On the Couch. <\/p>\n
\u201c(We) talk a lot about what comes with Bailey, the off-field stuff and everything that happens with that, but he\u2019s just got this amazing ability to lock in on gameday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buckley, a Collingwood great and now Chris Scott\u2019s right-hand man, jovially retorted: \u201cWhat is his off-field stuff? \u2026 Has there been anything this year?\u201d<\/p>\n
On a more serious note, Buckley, who\u2019s had the Smith experience firsthand, said: \u201cWhat I will say is, \u2018Baz\u2019 is one of the hardest-working players I\u2019ve seen on field. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s actually a lot stronger than people give him credit for, and he\u2019s a young man who\u2019s hungry and determined to become the best he can possibly be, and he\u2019s not done yet. <\/p>\n
Scott grilled on 2026 win-loss ratio | 04:03<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if there\u2019s a potential weakness in his game, or if there\u2019s something that doesn\u2019t stack up against the best players in the competition, well then, it is something that he turns himself inside out to go and improve.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd his preparation is second to none. His diet, his attitude to training, and his professionalism are through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith isn\u2019t popular among all in the footy landscape, having previously had his behaviour addressed by the league\u2019s bosses, amongst other indiscretions, but his strict football impact has lifted again this year as Geelong remains a force in the competition. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we can talk about what we think about his personality – like his social media personality – but if we strip that out and look at what you\u2019ve got from a football sense, he\u2019s an asset to the Geelong Footy Club, and clearly has been for the 18 months he\u2019s been there,\u201d Buckley added. <\/p>\n
Geelong premiership stalwart Tom Hawkins, despite never having played with Smith, also offered an insight into the star\u2019s impact based on conversations he\u2019d had with former teammates. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to a few former teammates, and I didn\u2019t get the opportunity to play with Bailey, but we\u2019ve had some strong trainers down at Geelong over my time as a player – Joel Selwood comes to mind as the most professional, hardest-working trainer that I\u2019ve seen – but the comment behind Bailey is this guy has improved standards out of sight,\u201d he said on Fox Footy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that they were low within the group anyway, but he just trains and brings people along. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s so charismatic as a person that people want to follow him. So, that probably took me a little bit by surprise, in terms of the feedback from some of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong assistant coach Nathan Buckley has given one of the more glowing endorsements of Bailey Smith, who\u2019s in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,327573,696,651,3237,9124,327569,13659,327576,2105,327574,327572,327568,3231,20865,19080,26511,677,327575,63371,701,327571,320285,327570,309544,85,327567,7200,5338,19118,16711],"class_list":["post-679652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-average-rating-points","tag-brad-scott","tag-brisbane","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-chris-hyde","tag-football-sense","tag-geelong-cats","tag-geelong-footy-club","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-glowing-endorsements","tag-hard-running-midfielder","tag-improved-club-standards","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-joel-selwood","tag-jordan-lewis","tag-nathan-buckley","tag-oceania","tag-off-field-stuff","tag-premiership-stalwart","tag-queensland","tag-rating-points-trumping","tag-second-highest-rated-player","tag-shaun-mannagh","tag-social-media-personality","tag-sports","tag-strict-football-impact","tag-sydney-swans","tag-the-gabba","tag-tom-hawkins","tag-win-loss-ratio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679652","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=679652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}