Craig Smith (born 26 February 1973) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer who played in the 1990s.

Biography

Smith made his first grade rugby league debut for

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

in 1995, playing two games late in the season, including the Bears' qualifying final defeat. Joining

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

during

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

, Smith scored 20 points in the Bulldogs' 1997 reserve grade premiership win over

Auckland Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

, before signing a two-year contract to play with

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

, who entered the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. Smith was

's leading point-scorer in the club's debut year (110 points), but had to sit on the sidelines for much of 1999 due to the good form of

Matt Geyer Matt Geyer (born 5 September 1975) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A New South Wales State of Origin representative , he played his club football primarily with the Melbourne Storm of the National Rugby League comp ...

. Smith trained in Melbourne, but flew back to Brisbane on weekends to play with the Storm's feeder club,

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They pl ...

, in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by four ...

competition. Smith was re-instated on the wing before the 1999 semi-final series when coach

Chris Anderson Chris Anderson may refer to: Sports * Chris Anderson (baseball) (born 1992), American baseball player * Chris Anderson (cheese roller), 22-time winner of annual cheese rolling * Chris Anderson (footballer, born 1925) (1925–1986), Scottish footb ...

dropped his son Ben and moved Geyer to . Anderson also made Smith the primary goal-kicker. Smith's boot proved the difference in three sudden-death victories, culminating in his three goals and penalty try from the wing in the

1999 NRL Grand Final The 1999 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 1999 NRL season. It was contested by the competition's two newest clubs: the Melbourne Storm, competing in only its second year (having finished the regular season ...

, despite playing with knee injuries and a broken rotator cuff in his shoulder. Smith rejected Melbourne's offer for the

2000 NRL season The 2000 NRL season was the 93rd season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the third to be run by the National Rugby League. Fourteen teams competed from February till August for the NRL Premiership, culminating in the 2000 ...

and retired. After moving to Perth where he lived for many years, he now lives back in Melbourne. In 2017, Smith spoke about his time in rugby league saying "We were walking around in Melbourne and were three times the size of everyone else, that is how they knew who the rugby league players were back then, nobody knew anything about the sport. At our first game they were cheering and I don’t think they knew what they were cheering about".

Statistics

NRL

: ''Statistics are correct to the end of career''

References

1973 births Living people Australian rugby league players Melbourne Storm players North Sydney Bears players Norths Devils players Rugby league wingers Rugby league players from Armidale, New South Wales {{Australia-rugbyleague-bio-1970s-stub