However, Smith is best known as a coach, having been at the helm of Illawarra, where he took over for the 1984 season,[3] before moving to Hull, St. George, Bradford, Parramatta, Newcastle and, most recently, the Sydney Roosters and the NSW Country side.
Illawarra would struggle on the field during the early days earning Wooden Spoons under Smith's tenure in 1985 and 1986.
He took the club to consecutive Grand Finals in 1992 (in which his younger brother Tony played from the Dragons' interchange bench) and 1993, losing both to Wayne Bennett's Brisbane Broncos.
[8] Smith returned to England for two seasons 1995 and 1996 to coach the Bradford Bulls to the 1996 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London in front of 78,550 fans.
[15] On 15 August 2009, Smith effectively quit the Newcastle club, with understudy Rick Stone to act as caretaker coach for the remainder of the season.
[16] For the 2010 NRL season Smith took over as Sydney Roosters coach from Brad Fittler who had been sacked the previous year.
The Roosters reached the 2010 NRL Grand Final but were defeated by Wayne Bennett's St. George Illawarra Dragons.
[17] Smith was sacked by the club with a year still remaining on his contract at the end of the 2012 NRL season, after the Roosters finished in 13th place with an 8–15–1 record.
[18] Smith also worked as an assistant coach for Steve McNamara for the English team in their 2010 Four Nations campaign.
[19] [20] On 31 May 2015, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats announced on Sky Sports coverage of the Magic Weekend ahead of their game versus Castleford Tigers that Smith had agreed to take up the position of head coach.
[23] On 8 February 2017, he coached a Thailand team in a 10–44 defeat to Hungary staged at Endeavour Sports High School, Sydney.