League: Smith quick on the draw for Jones

Craig Smith, who has played with and against Stacey Jones, is looking forward to the Warriors star's tussle tonight with another great halfback, Newcastle Knights' Andrew Johns.

Smith, a former Kiwis prop who is enjoying a renaissance at the Knights, expects a great game.

"The crowd should turn out in numbers because they're both all class. I know Stacey will lift for the occasion, he'll want to go out on a good note."

Johns was often labelled the game's greatest player but on his day Jones was his equal, Smith said.

He had settled in at the Knights since returning to the NRL.

Smith left in 2002, after repeated suspensions for raising his knee in the tackle. This season he's played all 19 Knights games, without a problem. "I haven't changed what I do, I know that much. Whether they were focusing on that or picking on me or what I don't know - it seems to be grapple tackles this season."

Smith was at Wigan between 2002 and 2004, where he was a Challenge Cup winner in 2002 and a beaten grand finalist.

He returned to Australia without any thought of continuing his career.

"I thought I'd done my time and I was happy with what I'd achieved," he said of his seven years in the NRL with Souths, the Steelers and the merged Dragons followed by three in Super League. He also played 12 tests between 1998 and 2001.

"When I first got a call it was a bit daunting. I thought about whether I was up to it and whether I wanted to do it, and having answered 'yes' to those I got on with it."

He enjoyed the early season, even when the Knights were losing.

"I know it sounds funny for a footballer to say he's enjoying it when he's losing but it was because I'd accomplished what I wanted to. I proved I was good enough.

"I knew we'd get a turn-around if we kept working hard and that's what happened," he said of the Knights' late run of wins.

He can feel the shift in his team-mates, though. "Everyone's smiling and joking at training. We all stuck together through a very hard period. They all learned from it."

Smith and long-term partner Nicole and their daughter Lani feel at home in Newcastle after years in Wollongong.

He has always surfed, since his days in New Zealand's Far North, and still does as often as training allow. "This will be my last club but I might stick around here," he said.

The Knights recently offered him another year's extension on his contract and he signed. "The body's in good shape and more importantly the mind."