Monarchs appear to have failed in a bid sign another Australian to fill their problematical Number 6 position. Scott Smith is like Christian Henry a Queenslander. Scott is 20 years old and rides at the same track at Labrador. He finished third in the Australian Under-21 Championship earlier this year behind Travis McGowan and Kevin Doolan.
His problem was thought to be in obtaining a work permit. It transpires that Scott has an Italian mother and this will mean that Scott can ride in the Premier League on a 3.00 average as an European Union national. David Kinvig reported in the Edinburgh Evening News that beause his mother is a naturalized Australian, details of his grandparents needed to be produced to obtain official clearance.
However furter invesigation revealed that there was insufficient paperwork to allow Scott in unless he can get a work permit and that he would come in on a nine point average. He is not eligible for a work permit! Scott had a try out at Armadale on Friday and at Berwick on Saturday. He will have to wait a few day for the paperwork to be cleared before making his Monarchs debut and is unlikely to figure against Newcastle on Friday.
Alex Harkess commented in the Evening News having been interviewed before the above problems were identified:
"Scott needs to produce certain documents before we can do anything. Although there his mother is Italian, she is a naturalized Australian. So he needs to roduce his grandparents' passport as they are European."
"This must then go to Canberra to recieve a stamp on his passport allowing him to ride in the UK. Once this is done, we can tie up the loose ends here."
David McAllan will now return to the side in the number six position. The number six position has been a real problem for Monarchs ever since the injury to David McAllan in the middle of last season. His replacement Brian Turner has been dogged with injury ever since. Many others have been tried in the number six race jacket including Jon Swales, Jamie Birkinshaw, Aidan Collins, Gary Phelps, Phil Ambrose, and most recently Neil Painter. None has really succeeded in scoring many points consistently. There were some notable contributions from Swales although he was usually let down by his equipment. Hopefully, this signing will bring Monarchs up to a seven man team after running so far with an effective six man team.