Cameron Smith set to becoming first forward in league history to pass 2000 career first-grade points
STORM skipper Cameron Smith, 33, is bearing down on becoming the first forward in league history to pass 2000 career first-grade points.
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CAMERON Smith needs three points to continue his cavalcade of rugby league records.
Smith, 33, is bearing down on becoming the first forward in league history to pass 2000 career first-grade points, having scored four points in Melbourne’s 12-6 win over Canterbury last week to move to 1997.
The latest milestone will probably fall when the Storm meet the Warriors in Auckland on Friday night.
Johnathan Thurston is poised to pass the same milestone, as he has 1999 points going into the Cowboys-Broncos collision at Suncorp Stadium.
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Only four players, all backs, have gone past 2000 points in NSWRL/NRL history, topped by Hazem El Masri with 2418 for Canterbury.
“It’s not that many, 2000. It’s only about 1820 more than I got,’’ said champion Queensland and Australian hooker Steve Walters.
Smith does not have the downtime other forwards have to draw a breath of air while goal kicks are taken.
“The thing about him is he never gets interchanged, he’s heavily involved, punches out all those tackles and then he has to kick the goals as well,’’ Walters said.
“It’s hard to get your head around what he does. He’s set the benchmark high.’’
Smith holds the Origin record of 39 games and will break Darren Lockyer’s 355-game NRL record if he reaches 21 games for the Storm this season.
The durable Melbourne and Australia captain comes off contract at the end of next season, at which stage he would be 35.
Injury or illness is the only barrier to Smith playing his 50th Test on May 5 in Canberra against New Zealand. Lockyer’s Test caps record is 59, a mark which Smith said late last year he had “no chance’’ of erasing.
The Warriors tend to play well against Melbourne, who take on the physicality of the home side without their Kiwi Four Nations captain Jesse Bromwich, who has a broken thumb and will also miss next week’s home game against the Broncos.
Melbourne’s Tim Glasby will start at prop in Auckland, with Joe Stimson to make his debut from the bench.
It is the first Friday night home game for the Warriors since 2011 and the time difference with the Australian east coast makes it a great alternative for the NRL, which has two Friday night games to fill and many Australian clubs not wanting to host a 6pm kick-off at the end of the working week.
The Warriors will become an even tougher assignment at home if Kieran Foran can sustain a comeback in coming weeks.
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