The rise, fall and remaking of the greatest rookie in NRL history - ABC News https://apple.news/AxWohVkejRUqwjQZa8TwS0Q
Another link to the article
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-11/tim-smith-nrl-parramatta-eels-2005-try-assist-record/105260356
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Makes me sad for Tim, not just as an Eels fan thinking what may have been , He truly was an outstanding player and deserved to make the most of his talents . Worst thing the club ever did in hindsight was hire Piggy Ridell. It's not Piggy's fault , however I still feel if he wasn't at the club , Tim wouldn't have had so much trouble staying on track. Ridelll was out on the piss 24/7 back then , but he could obviously handle it.
If he stayed on track he had John's and Thurston covered for talent easily.
Great story - I forgot how good he was... He could of been anything.. Anyway looks like he is living a great life - looks happy..
What a season. Hard to believe how good he was in his first year.
One of my favourite all time footy memories came from that season. Was sitting at home mid Saturday afternoon. One of my long time school friends, who lives in Newcastle, calls me up and says he has free tickets to Newcastle Stadium in one of the open air corporate boxes and asks me and my girlfriend to attend. This is pre-kids for us, and because we have nothing better to do, we jump in the car and drive 2 hours down the highway to go to the footy. It was Round 14, 11th June 2005. The Eels win 50 nil and Tim Smith runs riot. It was such a slaughter and the Knights fans were leaving in droves well before full time. I think we were some of the last to leave the ground that night after drinking all the drinks in the box and whatever was leftover in the nearby boxes from the salty Knights fans who left early.
After the horrors of the 2001 GF, it was some some of payback for me.
I was so confident we were going all the way that year ...I couldn't believe the prelim. I thought it was some sort of nightmare. Devastated me so much I didn't watch the GF or even read any league articles until the following season.
Losing both Hindmarsh and Fui for the finals really hurt us. Our best defensive and attacking forwards.
Fantastic blog, Amigo! It brings back a lot of memories!
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