{"id":276700,"date":"2023-03-09T00:48:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T01:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=276700"},"modified":"2023-03-09T22:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T22:01:01","slug":"be-careful-roosters-brandon-smith-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=276700","title":{"rendered":"'Be careful': Roosters' Brandon Smith dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Roosters captain and NSW coach Brad Fittler<\/a> has urged players to think twice before singing their team's praises following the Sydney Roosters<\/a> first round loss to The Dolphins.<\/p>\n

\ufeffIt was the biggest upset of the NRL's opening weekend, leading to Maroons coach Billy Slater to call out the Tri-Colours for being cocky and not giving the Dolphins their due respect.<\/a><\/p>\n

Slater said: "\ufeffIt's dangerous practice when you hear players speaking about, 'we've got the best roster in the competition', and that's what I heard from some of the Roosters players over the summer."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Fenech protege leaves rival's jaw shattered\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

THE MOLE:<\/strong> Bitter NRL feud set to explode\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Smith baffled by latest Indian pitch mystery<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

On Wide World of Sports' Freddy and The Eighth<\/em><\/a>, Fittler agreed with Slater's assessment, while accepting that players showing personality in the media is a plus for the game.<\/p>\n

\"Freddy<\/p>\n

"To be fair we've been bitchin' that no one has got personality. Smith has got personality, Latrell has personality," he said.<\/p>\n

"They both back it up. It's been fed to the Roosters that their line-up is so good, they've got the best roster, and all of a sudden they get beaten.<\/p>\n

"You've got to be careful, that's the thing."<\/p>\n

In the lead up to the Rabbitohs' clash with Penrith at Bluebet Stadium on Thursday, Souths star Latrell Mitchell said the NRL premiers were "showing cracks" in their title-winning veneer.<\/p>\n

\"Panthers\u2019<\/p>\n

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary Cleary conceded the comments could be a factor in his side's effort.<\/p>\n

"I don't think we need the extra motivation, but yeah, potentially, that could," he said.<\/p>\n

"At the moment we are really just focusing on getting our own game right and going after the game and seeing it as a great opportunity to get our season going.<\/p>\n

"Each season is full of challenges, whether you're winning or you're not."<\/p>\n

Fittler believes such comments only fuel other narratives that should have no bearing on winning and losing, especially in a collective environment.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"If you want to play a team game you have to be careful what you say," he said.<\/p>\n

"You put pressure on your team.<\/p>\n

"I'm with Billy, I'd prefer players say nothing. Be blank, be vanilla. Take all the excitement out of the media."<\/p>\n

The Roosters have an abysmal round one record under coach Trent Robinson, having lost eight of 11 season-opening games since 2012.<\/p>\n

\ufeffAndrew Johns said the Roosters were caught short in relation to their attitude but things will change in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

"They're slow starters. A lot of their players have gone to (the) World Cup. They have key players missing, (Joey) Manu, Jared (Warea-Hargreaves), Angus (Crichton).<\/p>\n

"There's three world class players. They'll be fine, they'll be there towards the end of the year."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong> clicking here<\/strong><\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Roosters captain and NSW coach Brad Fittler has urged players to think twice before singing their team's praises following the Sydney Roosters first round […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276702,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276700\/revisions\/276702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}