Jaw-dropping Triumph

Player agent New Zealander Tyran Smith, 37, knows he’s set himself a tough benchmark by brokering perhaps the NRL’s most extraordinary contract — a two-year deal worth A$1.7 million for 19-year-old Will Hopoate who had just announced he won’t play again until 2014 committing to a Mormon missionary role, writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Daniel Lane. For Smith, William Hopoate’s jaw-dropping deal with Parramatta was a personal triumph. “What does it mean?” he said of the deal. “With the stuff that has come out I’d like to think if anyone had doubts [about my capabilities] in the past they might think again.” Smith, who has represented New Zealand, wrote the handbook for his business based upon his experiences as a rugby league journeyman. Smith is one of only a few ex-first-graders who had taken their lessons from league’s school of hard knocks to help mould other playing careers and to consolidate their off-field futures as a manager. Smith said “educating” and explaining what it took a player in their everyday life to make the grade was his point of difference.