Last week, I had the privilege of catching up with Ryan Smith. A mainstay in Queenslands starting line-up over the last couple of years, Ryan performed well in 2023, even while battling a shoulder injury for a large part the season. When teams season ended, he underwent surgery and has been slowly getting back into action since then. We spoke about how he and the team are traveling, as well as what it was like witnessing Brothers Premier championship win from the sidelines.
Ryan is also known for heading up the Queensland Reds "Socks Up" podcast, something I've really enjoyed listening to this year! It's still available on all platforms for anyone interested in going back and listening to it.
It's clear that my interviewee is gifted in more areas than just rugby and I asked him if he's considered a career in media when he finishes up with rugby! He also gave a new "socks up" award to some of his team-mates.... Ryan is always good for a laugh, so I'm sure you'll love reading my interview with him!
No worries. It’s good to be here!
It’s good to see you back training with the Reds squad, after your surgery, running, passing, but avoiding heavy contact. How’s the shoulder feeling at the moment?
It feels really good. Yeah, just trying to avoid as much contact as I can, like you said. But it feels really good being back in the group. Rehab's pretty tough for sure, being apart from the main group I find is probably the hardest part, but it’s really good to be back and getting around the training. I’m doing most of the stuff, but I'm not quite back into the line-out lifting, all the mauling and all the big tackles yet. It’s great to be back with the boys though!
This Sunday and also next Saturday (November 4th) the Reds are playing the Saitami Panasonic Wild Knights - who are here on tour from Japan! How’s the team training going at the moment?
Yeah it’s been really good. We obviously had a really big change since our last game, we have a completely new head coach, a new forwards coach and a lot of new boys as well. Obviously a lot of the boys are still not back from the Wallabies trip with the World Cup, but the team looks really different and we’ve been building each week, this weeks been better yet again since the last couple. I thought today was pretty sharp and the next few games will be exciting!
Is your shoulder good enough for you to be water-boy this weekend?
(Laughs) Yeah I should be good enough to run a few bottles out. I think I’ve done enough to earn the jog and got enough in the lungs too, that’s probably going to be the tough part. I’m sure that Damien Marsh- the head of "high performance" - he’ll be cracking the whip on the water boys, making sure they get out there quick enough, but that’ll be a good fun job. And it’ll be cool to get a bit of of insight, behind the scenes into what the coaches are like on game day.
How has it been, training under Les Kiss?
Yeah mate, he’s been really good. He’s a bit of a Larakin, he loves to have a bit of a joke around with the boys. It’s been pretty different tactics to what we’ve had over the last couple of years. It’s been exciting, you can’t just fall back into the same routine that we’ve done previous years. It’s cool to push yourself and be challenged, and it’s a guy who’s looking for different things. He’s looking for a highly skilled pack, which I don’t know if we’ve quite been over the last few years. It’s been good to be forced into that and I’ve been really enjoying that challenge.
Congratulations to you and the Brothers squad for winning the final! You are on the road to recovery and obviously weren’t able to play the game against Wests, so how was it for you watching and supporting from the sideline?
Yeah I was really excited. It was a big day, I’d got to most of the tail end games, so I knew the team was looking real good for that final.
It was cool. I was there in the hill when the team won in 2016 and I was playing in 2019 when we lost the grand final, so it was good to be back and fantastic to see all the boys hard work over the year, the last few years really, come to fruition. Plus, it was good to send the coach, Brendan Gabett out on a win and Carl Marshall as well.
What was your favourite moment from that game?
Dom Fraser’s try under the sticks was pretty good, he gee’d the boys up... But overall, I think just hearing that final whistle, we couldn’t quite see from where we were on the hill if they’d gotten over in that maul, so it was pretty cool to look across and see the scoreboard still in Brothers favour. And then the big run across the field, to jump into everyone… a great feeling!!!
Let’s talk about “Socks Up”! You hosted a great podcast for the Reds this year. I listened to every episode! How did you balance doing that, with your important role with the team?
Yeah. It was really fun actually. Thanks for listening! I'm glad we had a few listeners there. Hopefully we can take off and get ready for another year next year. It was a little tough to juggle, but I just did it early on the Wednesday - we usually get that day off, depending on when game day is. I would get in and do an early one with Pete and whoever I could organise to come along. Sometimes that was the challenging part, convincing one of the boys to come in early on their day off, into the Triple M studios there.
But it was really fun, I really enjoyed it. We're hoping to get some new episodes going for next year and I know we've got a lot of new boys, it might be easier to convince the new boys to come in and get on the mic.
That answers my next question about next years podcast…my next question is have you considered a career in media, after you finish with rugby?
I’d have to definitely stick to radio, I don’t know if I have the head for the TV stuff, but I’d love to do media! I think I’d probably have to get to him and step up the vocabulary a little bit, but apart from that… I think it’d be a really fun job and really rewarding staying connected to the sporting community in a different way and being able to get access to players, similar to the stuff you get to do Tommy.
What’s your mindset and personal game plan heading into the 2024 Super Rugby season?
I’m trying to build on the last couple of years. I was sort of disappointed in my last season, obviously I was battling that shoulder for a lot of it… I’m just excited to put my best foot forward in front of the new coaches and hopefully out my hand up for selection for the first couple of rounds and get into the swing of things.
We’ve been building and we’ve made the finals the last couple of years, but we’re really keen to get deep into that finals series and try and go all the way. I think we’re definitely building with the squad and with the coaching staff we’ll definitely continue to do that this year.
Final question, seeing as though we have the socks up man himself here. Who do you think needs to pull there socks up this week?
Oooh you put me on the spot. Everyone’s been pretty good to be fair. Everyone’s sort of walking around on egg-shells with the new coaching staff in, so I think everyone’s been pretty good.
Hmmm I’ll put it out to all the backs, I think they need to bring a bit more energy in the gym. Every time we walk in, I think the backs are just walking around pretty quietly, whereas the forwards are jumping around, bringing a bit of energy around there.
So maybe the backs can bring a bit more energy to the gym sessions and make it easier for the S & C’s [strength and conditioning coaches].
Thanks heaps Ryan for taking the time to catch up, all the best for your rehab this year. And all the best to the Reds for the exciting match-up this weekend!
Thanks mate. It’s been a pleasure, good to catch up again. And yeah, go the Reds and hopefully we’ll have a good 2024!
The Queensland Reds are lining up for a special game against the Saitama Panasonic Wild-Knights this Saturday. The team have travelled from Saitama, Japan to face-off at Ballymore Stadium!
Kick off is Saturday, November 4th, at 3:05pm. See you there!
