Footy bad boy Brandon Smith makes a shocking confession about being dropped by the Roosters - and breaks his silence surrounding wild rumour about his playing future

NRL bad boy Brandon Smith has made a shocking confession ahead of the Roosters round 16 clash with the Bulldogs - before addressing a startling rumour about his clouded playing future.

It comes after Smith was dropped by coach Trent Robinson after failing to attend a  mid-season review during their recent NRL bye week.

The club also issued Smith a breach notice, fed up at his latest indiscretion since he arrived from the Melbourne Storm in 2023.

'I'll be honest, I didn't know we had the Bulldogs this weekend. Is that outrageous?' Smith said on the The Bye Round podcast with James Graham.

'For some reason, I thought we had the [Wests] Tigers.'

Smith then denied he is poised to jump ship and join bitter rivals South Sydney from next season.

'There's only one thing I did see [on social media], someone said I was off to the Bunnies which is pretty interesting,' he said.

'That's not true, just to get that out there.'

Despite Smith's denials, the speculation will now only increase after Rabbitohs dummy-half Damien Cook told his teammates on Wednesday he will join the Dragons on a two-year deal from 2025.

Meanwhile, Smith was recalled by Robinson to face the in-form Bulldogs in Gosford on the NSW central coast this weekend after Roosters teammate Connor Watson was picked for his NSW Origin debut ahead of game two at the MCG on June 26.

Knowing he is running out of chances, Smith is determined to stay out of the headlines and play good footy.

'You've got to take the good days with the bad days and recognise that because you're in the papers for being bad, it's because you're being bad,' he said.

'They [media] don't purposely target you all the time and you're usually in there for doing something negative, so if you can turn that around and do something positive you're going to get in the papers for doing something positive.

'Journos get a bad rep....they report what's the hot news and I don't have any concerns about them writing bad stuff about me because at the moment, I'm not being good enough and I'm not doing what's up to the Roosters standard.

'The leadership group have told me that, it's a kick up the arse like Rads (Victor Radley) said....now it's about turning those newspaper articles around from something negative to something positive.'