Manly boss fires back at Brandon Smith after brutal swipe at Aaron Woods
Tony Mestrov has hit out at Brandon Smith's claims that Aaron Woods is the wrong person to promote the NRL.
Why is Aaron Woods promoting the NRL in Las Vegas? That's the question Roosters hooker Brandon Smith – and many fans - posed this week as Woods, Campbell Graham (South Sydney), Spencer Leniu (Roosters) and Billy Walters (Brisbane) did the rounds in Sin City, promoting the NRL's double-header season opener in March.
The veteran Sea Eagles prop and Campbell were interviewed by America's Fox Sports during the halftime break in the Raiders-Vikings NFL game, with some fairly tame NRL match vision showing as overlay. Speaking on the James Graham Bye Round podcast, Smith said with a laugh: "Aaron Woods, I think a highlight got played and he was talking about explosive football and all these big collisions."
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"And they played a video of Aaron Woods and one of his highlights was the most far from explosive play," he continued. "We’re trying to sell our product, get something like Jared (Waerea-Hargreaves’) highlights.
"Like respect to Woodsy - he’s been a great player for a long time - but explosive and highlight reel is not quite his (strength). Good gig, jeez. Woodsy … all the fingers in all the pies. And Woodsy would be eating a lot of those pies. Has he retired? He's retired."
Manly CEO insists Aaron Woods was the right man to send to Vegas
But Manly CEO Tony Mestrov strongly defended the choice to send the veteran prop to Vegas. "Woodsy's at the back-end of his playing career and is looking to move into the media and we thought he was the perfect fit to promote the game in the States and I think he's doing a great job," Mestrov told Yahoo Sport Australia.
"He speaks well, he's full of enthusiasm and he's getting the message across and spreading the rugby league word in a positive fashion. He's also doing some content for Manly to help with some of the promotions we're doing around Vegas. To question why we would send Woodsy shows a lack of understanding and is a bit disrespectful."
Woods also sits outside Manly's top 30 roster and his absence won't impact the Sea Eagles' pre-season training schedule. Mestrov added: "Woodsy's got his own training program and has been following that while in the States. We love having him at Manly. His experience and enthusiasm, especially around the young players, is invaluable and he's a terrific ambassador for the club and the game."
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