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He\u2019s working his way back from a series of calf injuries that are related to the devastating ACL rupture he suffered in 2024, while the club has remained loyal as Smith waits to fight betting and drug charges in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cParticularly with all the off-field stuff that I\u2019ve gone through while joining the Bunnies, it (loyalty) is something that is very important to me,\u201d he said in a rare interview after last week\u2019s win over Parramatta.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot just Wayne Bennett, but the whole club has stuck by my side and helped me through anything I could that I\u2019m going through. I\u2019m not saying any other club (wouldn\u2019t have done it), but they\u2019re doing a very good job with me at the moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cWayne\u2019s just a pleasure to work with because he reminds me a lot of Craig Bellamy. He\u2019s less angry and the heart rate\u2019s probably a lot lower, but he\u2019s just a coach that you want to play a game of footy for. <\/p>\n
\u201cI have it in the back of my mind I don\u2019t want to let Wayne down. I don\u2019t want to let my teammates down any week, but especially I don\u2019t want to let the coach down because he\u2019s one of those people that he\u2019s got your back through and through, and you just want to repay the favour to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 10: Brandon Smith of the Rabbitohs passes during the round 23 NRL match between Gold Coast Titans and South Sydney Rabbitohs at Cbus Super Stadium, on August 10, 2025, in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Smith had some nice moments against the Eels with a lovely try assist for Euan Aitken, but he\u2019s still getting back to full fitness, with the club having to burn three interchanges to take him off, bring him back on and then replace him again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been tough, I can\u2019t say it\u2019s been easy. But the Bunnies have done a great job in limiting my minutes throughout my comeback and hopefully building my body back into shape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably didn\u2019t do enough with my knee after my ACL and there\u2019s been a lot of backlash from that. My calf\u2019s been going because of that, it\u2019s the same knee, but the Bunnies have been doing a great job. <\/p>\n
\u201cI probably could have played a lot earlier a few times, but they kept me back just to keep going, and you\u2019ve probably seen I\u2019m using up three interchanges every game, but that\u2019s all purposeful stuff. <\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, I stay on the field at the end of the day and just keep building the engine. I feel like it was a lot better (against the Eels) but it\u2019s still a work in progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I take my job for granted a lot because it\u2019s a pretty easy job (apart from the) body getting sore. A lot of people have it worse than I do. I still get paid even though my calf\u2019s (injured). I still get paid, so it\u2019s pretty chill. <\/p>\n
\u201cMentally, it\u2019s been awesome to be back on the paddock and being able to be a part of this team and be on the field. I\u2019m extremely grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Smith has opened up on a difficult couple of years on and off the field, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-773416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773416","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=773416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}