Missing a century when he offered no shot to impressive Tigers' paceman Luke Butterworth on 98 and being given out lbw might have been bad enough.

But worse was to come when the former Test all-rounder dropped both Tasmanian openers in consecutive balls late in the day.

Standing at second slip, Smith grassed Steven Cazzulino then Ed Cowan, both off the bowling of Scott Coyte as the Tigers finished on 0-24 in reply to NSW's first innings of 7(dec)-341.

``They were two tough chances, both low ones and for Stevey to drop those, they must be tough ones,'' said teammate Ben Rohrer, who made 83.

``He is pretty disappointed and he does take these things pretty much to heart.

``He'll get his head up overnight.''

Batting at No.3, he looked to have made some progress when he survived the early seam movement that removed Test discards Phil Hughes (one) and Usman Khawaja (21) to hit 13 fours and a six.

Smith put on 122 with Simon Katich for the third wicket, after the Blues had been 2-39, and cut a forlorn figure when he trudged off with the score 3-172.

Veteran Katich will be assessed by medical staff this morning after suffering concussion when he was struck in the face and forced to retire hurt when on 46.

Katich was taken to hospital for X-rays but was cleared of any fracture, suffering bruising and mild concussion when he edged Butterworth and was hit above the left eye.

``He's looking horrible at the moment,'' Rohrer said.

``We joke around that he's as tough as Chuck Norris and I think he showed that today.

``He's got a huge egg on the top of his eye and he wanted to go back out there and bat.''

Rohrer's innings kept the momentum with the visitors, while the Tigers' catching didn't help them.

They'd missed Katich when he was 12 and dropped Rohrer twice in the first two overs after tea when he was 30 and 31.

The home side bounced back to take four wickets in the evening session before some lusty hitting from Sean Abbott (19no) and Trent Copeland (15no) set up NSW's surprise declaration.