Jimmy Smith grew up on a property so remote that Wagga Wagga was the big smoke. Aged 15 he was off to boarding school at famous St Gregory’s College, Campbelltown, as his old man Frank had before him.
And there he played footy every day and, under the tutelage of the great Peter Mulholland, he learned, and improved, and became a ball-playing forward who was never much of an athlete but was smart enough to attract attention from the top Sydney clubs.
One of which was the Roosters. And given he was living in the eastern suburbs (and studying agricultural economics at Sydney University), the club was an obvious choice.
But first, a meeting with the long-serving big boss – Ron Jones.
Roosters boss Ron Jones (left) with the great Arthur Beetson.
Smith and his father turned up in the lobby of Easts Leagues Club in Bondi Junction where they were met by Roosters operations manager Barry Van Heekeren.
Cordial greeting was followed by small-talk before Van Heereken stressed the vital importance of one thing: Mr Jones must be addressed as “Mr Jones”.
“Barry kept repeating it ,” says Smith. “He said Mr Jones is very particular about being called Mr Jones.
"He must've said it five times. He said it in the lobby, in the elevator on the way up, and again just before we went into the office: how very important it was to address Mr Jones as 'Mr Jones’.
“I nodded along, of course. If that was the rule, that was the rule. My old man nodded along, too, but he had a funny look in his eye.”
And so Van Heereken opened the door to Jones’s plush top-floor office and ushered Smith and his father in to see him. Jones rose magnanimously from behind his massive desk to meet them.
Then the bushie in Frank Smith took over.
“Dad walked straight up to him and said: ‘G’day, Ron! How are ya, Ron!’
"They shook hands, and dad said, 'What do you do know, Ron?'
“Then every time dad started a sentence he’d preface it with ‘Well, Ron’, or ‘Yes, Ron’.
"He must’ve called him ‘Ron’ nine times, just for the sake of it!
“I didn’t know where to look.
“But I still got the gig.”
For these tales and more listen to Breakfast with Joel and Jimmy at 1575 AM Wollongong, 801 AM Gosford or download the SEN App here.
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