Luke Brooke-Smith gets all whites call up
RH3 Director Braedon Makgill caught up with RH3 Academy graduate Luke Brooke Smith as he was sitting at the Airport ready to fly out to Canberra after the latest news in what has been a pretty insane 18 months for Luke. Luke reflects on his journey, starting with a memorable encounter in 2018 with Clive Herbert as a 10 year old.
"One of the first things that comes to mind was, I think it was 2018 I was 10 years old. It was my first ever RH3 holiday program in Whangarei and Clive Herbert was there, and he got me to do some skills after training, and done some one on one stuff. Then he came up to me and my dad and said, you're going to go pro one day. And I remember, as a 10 year old, sort of brushing it off a little bit oh, that's cool. That's obviously the dream" but looking back now Luke recalls " I think that's something that I remember now, because I think how young I was, and how for him to say that to me was so special."
Since those early days we then discussed some of the journey with RH3 and the opportunities that came about due to the Academy relationship. Luke went on to discuss some memories in NZ and the tour to Melbourne.
"Probably my my favorite tournament was, 100% the Shepparton Cup, when we won. I think obviously we played two A League Academy teams in Melbourne City and Western United as well. And coming from New Zealand as you know, everyone's like, what's it like? What are the professional academies like, and so on. And I think with us beating both of them, was like, almost well, we're actually not that far off where we want to be."
Luke then touched on some memories from the internal tours that RH3 undertook during the lockdown and how much fun that was.
"On the New Zealand tour. I remember the last game we played one of the Wellington teams. And we were playing like two ages up, yeah, it was like six, five, or something massive like that. And it was like, one of my favorite games I have ever played"
Luke acknowledged and thanked Ricki Herbert for his guidance and involvement in the journey and the opportunities Ricki and the Academy has opened up for him.
And in Lukes words "My phones blowing up here." He finished with this final thought "It probably reinforces how close as a system and as an academy, RH3 actually is to those setups right. And if you think about those people training, imagine if you could get the best RH3 players in each group training every day like they are"
As always the RH3 Academy is very proud of Luke and what he is achieving and cant wait to see him on the pitch against Australia and continuing on his journey.
Keep doing what your doing young man and we look forward to chatting again soon.
Luke Brooke Smith coaching at our Player Development Program in Cambridge - June 2025
