Inside the Round 18 NRL match at centre of Brandon Smith betting allegations

“There’s a bit of a rumour going around, that he came without his boots today,” Channel 9 commentator Phil Gould said of Smith during Manly’s clash with South Sydney on a sunny afternoon at Brookvale Oval on July 6.

“His girl had to go to Rebel or something and buy him some boots. You haven’t played for a year, I suppose you can forget your boots.

“It’s the first thing you pack, don’t you?”

As well as a drugs supply charge, Smith is accused of providing “inside knowledge to a changed starting team for a person to make a relevant bet” and allegedly telling an accused drug dealer he would start the Round 18 game against Manly.

Smith was originally named in the No.22 jersey on an extended Rabbitohs bench for the July 6 match, which marked his Souths club debut following his return from a long-term knee injury.

All NRL teams must name a 22-man squad on the Tuesday preceding that rounds’ games. That list is culled to 19 players, and then to a match-day 17, with an 18th man included as a reserve. It’s not unusual for players outside of the originally named 17 to come into the match-day squad,

“Brandon is contesting all matters,” said Sydney lawyer Paul McGirr, who is representing Smith.

“Brandon has told someone he is the starting side. I don’t believe that breaches the law.

“Telling your family, grandparents and friends that you’re starting would be happening right across the country, so to suggest that because of that you’re going to score a try is really stretching the bow to the nth degree.

“This is a bloke who’s excited to play and was confident in his abilities on the field.”

The information allegedly led to the drug dealer placing an exotic bet on the match, which never paid out.

South Sydney lost the match 30-12 and Smith did not score a try.

In fact, Smith only attempted to cross the try line on two occasions in the entire match. It doesn’t scream of a player desperately seeking to land a betting plunge.

“There is a chain that has to be connected in relation to giving people information and then ensuring that you’re aware they are actually making a bet,” McGirr said.

“Furthermore, that someone is placing a bet based on your information only and that you will be doing something out of the ordinary in order to enable the result of that bet to be enacted on. In this particular respect, there was no money collected on Brandon Smith because he didn’t score a try.”

Smith’s first opportunity to attempt to score came in the opening three minutes when, playing at hooker, he touched the ball 13 times as Souths enjoyed a wave of early possession.

Smith had eight possessions inside Manly’s 10m line and six just 5m from the tryline. But he only chose to run the ball once — on every other instance he passed to a teammate.

On the one occasion Smith ran himself, he went into dummy half following a quick play-the-ball from teammate Jacob Host that left the Sea Eagles with only one marker — you are allowed two.

Sensing the advantage, Smith tried to catch out the short-side defence to score, as most good hookers would. He fended off Manly marker Corey Waddell one-on-one, and fell to the ground where Sea Eagle Jazz Tevaga dived on his legs to stop Smith just short of the try line.

“You not only have to disclose information that’s not available but it also has to be information that can be used to give someone a betting edge,” McGirr said.

“Then you need to establish whether a player has made that person put on a bet, or recommended they place a bet, and furthermore, you then have to play a different role in the game to obtain the desired result.

“Every player I know, and certainly Brandon, would be trying to score in every game he plays.”

It wasn’t unusual to see Smith being replaced after 20 minutes when Manly scored the first try. It was his first NRL game in a year and Smith’s lack of match fitness was starting to show.

He returned midway through the second half in a different role, as a ball-playing lock. He had plenty of touches in his 18-minute stint, but it was spent mostly distributing the ball to teammates as a playmaker.

Smith had only one more scoring opportunity.

It would be his final play. He received the ball and ran at the Sea Eagles’ defence, and was felled in a tackle where Manly’s Matt Lodge landed heavily on his leg, injuring his knee and ankle, forcing him from the field.

More Coverage

Shock drug call to add ‘explosive’ edge to NRL’s fiercest rivalry

Brent Read, Peter Badel

Radley unwittingly dragged into Smith drugs drama

Thomas Chamberlin, Brent Read, Michael Carayannis, Dean Ritchie

In all, Smith had 39 possessions in 38 minutes of playing time, and only tried to score twice, despite having the ball seven times just 5m out from the line.

“Every player I know, and certainly Brandon, would be trying to score in every game he plays,” McGirr said.

“There are a number of ingredients in order for the prosecution to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.”