Roosters happy to let Smith leave for Souths after podcast ‘flirting’

Brandon Smith batting his eyelids at Wayne Bennett and the South Sydney Rabbitohs has been the final straw in his possible move away from the Sydney Roosters, with the Bondi club now telling their injured hooker he can leave.

Smith — who calls himself “Hectic Cheese” — said he “hopes it happens” when speaking on The Bye Round podcast about a possible move to play in the cardinal and myrtle.

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“I am stoked he [Bennett] is interested in me but we had a pretty rough relationship. I did give him my word I was signing at Redcliffe and we all knew how that ended… I felt pretty bad,” Smith said on the podcast in question.

“I hope something happens. It is just not really on me… it is more about them.”

The Sporting Base hears Roosters bosses listened to the quotes and were far from happy.

“I can’t imagine anyone at the Roosters would be happy with Brandon publicly flirting with Wayne and the Rabbitohs and how much he wanted to play there,” Brent Read said on NRL 360.

Things progressed quickly from there, with Sydney’s plan to let Smith leave at the end of his deal now being accelerated somewhat. He’s already teed up to sign a $600,000-a-year deal with the Rabbitohs (as he’s a free agent for 2026 already) but the Roosters seem quite eager to let him depart early.

There is a sticking point: Smith is making $850K from the Roosters this year and may not want to drop the last of that coin before the end of 2025. Should they want him gone, Sydney may be facing having to pay a little freight.

Any cash they save would then go to upgrading debutants like Taylor Losalu and Hugo Savala.

There’s also the injury element that could speed things up for the Roosters; Smith isn’t due back to play until Round 15 as he manages an ACL injury. With less than 10 rounds to play after that, Sydney likes the idea that they move on immediately. Souths similarly like the idea that they would get Smith for the run towards the end of the year.

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Either way, expect Smith to put pen to paper with the Rabbitohs as soon as this week. Whether he’s moving in the 2026 preseason or in the next few weeks will be the big question.