Smith’s teenage dream becomes reality

Newly-appointed Leeds head coach Rohan Smith has long held ambitions to be a head coach and will now get his opportunity at Betfred Super League level after being named as Richard Agar’s permanent successor

Rohan Smith realised at a relatively younger age than most of contemporaries that coaching was where his future lay, although the signs were perhaps always there for the new Leeds Rhinos chief.

Being around rugby league his whole life as the son of – among other clubs – former Hull FC, Bradford Bulls and Wakefield Trinity head coach Brian Smith and nephew of one of his predecessors in the top job at Leeds and now rival Betfred Super League head coach Tony Smith meant he was perhaps pre-ordained to be involved in the sport anyway.

But whereas others in their teens dreamt of lifting trophies or representing their country as players, the younger Smith was already targeting becoming a head coach, including never being afraid to tell his uncle where he was going wrong during the current Hull Kingston Rovers boss’ playing days back in Australia as half-back for St George Dragons.

• Leeds Rhinos appoint Rohan Smith as new head coach

“I was surrounded by coaching and in the dressing room from a young age and listening to coaches speak and having chats in the car,” Smith said.

“I remember driving home maybe as a 10 or 11-year-old when I was a ball-boy at St George telling Uncle Tony how he should have played in the game thinking I was an expert.

“When I was playing with my mates, I loved playing footy, but I was always trying to help them to play better footy and didn’t really have that selfish gene to think I needed to knuckle down and do it myself.

“I was 18 when I started teaching swimming at university to make some money, and I was teaching four to six-year-olds swimming eight or 10 metres, and that was probably when I really knew helping people to learn skills was something I was really passionate about.”

Over the past two decades, Smith has amassed an impressive coaching CV both on these shores and in Australia, working with the likes of compatriot Tony Rea at London Broncos, plus former treble-winning St Helens boss Daniel Anderson and current Sydney Roosters head Trent Robinson.

His own head coaching experience has seen him take charge of the Tonga national team and follow in the footsteps of his father by leading Bradford in the Championship in 2016 – a spell which was brought to an abrupt end when the financially-stricken club went into liquidation.

In the five years since, Smith has been back in his homeland leading Norths Devils in the Queensland Cup, where he estimates 50 percent or more of players in the competition have been in NRL systems, and has now been offered the chance to follow in another family member’s footsteps after being named as the man to succeed Richard Agar at the Rhinos on a permanent basis.

Indeed, the only thing missing from the 40-year-old’s CV which many of his contemporaries and his staff at Leeds have is much of a playing background, with his own experiences on the field being limited to playing for community club Stanningley when Brian was coaching Bradford and low-level rugby with his fri