Roosters’ stand in skipper Jared Waerea-Hargreaves couldn’t resist a cheeky dig at new halfback Sandon Smith as he gave him massive praise for leading his side to victory over the Knights.
Smith ran for 22 metres to go with three tackle busts, a linebreak, a try assist and 18 tackles against the Knights and stepped up after Luke Keary suffered a fractured jaw early in the game.
Waerea-Hargreaves revealed he saw good signs from Smith in a pre-season trial against the Storm.
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Newcastle Knights Press Conference | 03:58
“I told coach in the week I saw something pretty special when we played the trial against Melbourne at the start of the year,” Waerea-Hargreaves said.
“I stayed at home and I was watching and I thought, this guy has got some footy in him. He has been around our club for a few years.
“You get to see little glimpses I guess of a footy player.
“We said last week when he debuted that he is a bit of a rat bag, but it is good as a half. You want these guys to have a bit of swagger.
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“He is sharp and he can back himself and he plays footy. He knows his style of footy at that age.
“As an older guy you can see a younger guy take on the line at that age it is impressive. He knows that he has got skills.
“If he can keep working on that it is pretty cool.”
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Roosters coach Trent Robinson revealed Sam Walker will not be back for a fortnight at least, so Smith and Drew Hutchison will vie with Joey Manu, who was excellent at fullback against the Knights, for the halves roles going forward.
“Sandon and Drew got a good time out there and they got some lessons there and did a really good job,” Robinson said.
“It’s those two and Joey Manu that’s about our choices at the moment.
“Sammy Walker is not back for a couple of weeks. He has just come out of the brace.”