Wests Archive would like to thank Wayne Smith for generously contributing his time and information in the preparation of this profile.
Wayne Smith grew up in a football family. His father, Alec Smith was a celebrated junior rugby league and representative coach. Along with other prominent locals, he was instrumental in re-establishing junior rugby league in the Enfield area. The Smiths were living at Enfield in the late 1950’s before moving to Merrylands in the early 1960’s. They retained their connection through the Enfield Federals rugby league club.
Wayne and his four brothers were playing rugby league from an early age. They played with Enfield Federals which had great success over the years. The Smith boys played for Wests at the junior representative level. Wayne and his brothers Rod and Bob went on to play First Grade with the Magpies.
To highlight the influence that the Smith family had on junior rugby league, both Wayne and his brother Rod were named in the Enfield Federals Team of the Century and their father Alec Smith was selected as coach of the Team of the Century.
Rugby league was only part of the Wayne Smith story. He attended the University of Wollongong and the University of Western Sydney where he graduated as a Teacher. He went on to have a successful career in education and combined his skills and knowledge to coach various school teams. Wayne also became involved in the schools representative system and continued in various capacities after retirement.
