Paul Kent: Cameron Smith decision could cost Storm Harry Grant or Brandon Smith
With Cameron Smith yet to decide on his NRL future, a frustrated Storm have some big decisions to make with Harry Grant and Brandon Smith also vying for the No.9 jersey in 2021, writes Paul Kent.
Opinion
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Balmain, it must be said, is a Harry Grant kind of town. Melbourne, where he passed through on his way to the NRL, is a place for men who wear scarfs and suits without socks.
Say you’re off to knock the froth off a few in Balmain, where Grant plays for Wests Tigers, and old wharfies will shed an amber tear.
In Melbourne, knocking the froth off a few means a half-decaf soy cappuccino after dessert.
Still, Grant caused some furrowing of the brow around the inner west some weeks back when he stated rather too matter of factly for some that he was contracted to return to Melbourne next season and, as per that contract, that is where he would be heading.
This is where the matter rested until earlier this week when the host of a little footy show on Fox League, Ben Ikin, broke from type and mischievously tossed up the possibility that Brisbane should enter the market for Storm captain Cameron Smith and offer him a deal next season.
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Smith, Ikin pointed out, would go a long way to fixing all of Brisbane’s problems very quickly.
Now, as everyone knows, Grant has a clause in his contract that states if Smith stays in Melbourne he can be immediately released and join the Tigers. This was concerning for many who, only some weeks back, chanted Harry’s name as he walked off late in the game against Brisbane.
This is not a situation young men find easy to ignore but Harry, with the good sense that comes from being raised in country Queensland, blushed and bowed his head and somewhere inside glowed.
Still, he was returning to Melbourne.
Until this week, though, when in the clearest sign yet of the absurd rumour mill that is rugby league, mail emerged that Brisbane was preparing a “lifetime” offer to Smith that would bring in a playing season next year followed by several years on the coaching team.
The goldythroats in Melbourne radio quickly began foaming at the mouth. Cameron Smith, the only NRL player in Melbourne they could identify, was about to be stolen by Brisbane?
How would they fake their support if he left?
It barely needs to be said that the rumour is complete invention, though, which failed to be uncovered in their investigations. It began in a chat between Ikin and several incorrigibles and was later raised on NRL360 as a thought nobody at Brisbane had yet to think of, but which could quickly turn the club’s fortunes around.
The Broncos should be exploring Smith, Ikin said.
It makes so much sense it should be hurting the big brains at the Broncos that they have not already explored it.
Smith is 37 and, on current form, could play until he was 48. There is a great chance Smith’s hair will leave the game before he does.
Still, this being rugby league, nobody wanted to let a good rumour go to rest until it had done the rounds at least twice, even though it was never true.
So Thursday it got crazier again when rumours swirled, at about double the speed the Brisbane mail did, that Gold Coast was now entering the market for Smith.
Fresh after signing David Fifita, it was delirium.
Except it had as much truth to it as the Brisbane rumour.
There are real consequences at stake, though.
Smith said three weeks ago that he would make a decision within the next three weeks.
Given maths are never a strong point in the sports section, the stats guys were called in and reliably passed on the information that, sometime on Friday night, nobody is quite sure of the hour, Smith’s three-week deadline passed.
Since the Storm has a game on Sunday against Newcastle Smith will have been granted a stay but, trust me, the Storm is waiting.
Privately, the Storm is frustrated Smith has not made a decision.
Coach Craig Bellamy is on the record saying Smith has given so much to the club he would not disrespect that by pressing Smith to make a decision before he is comfortable doing so.
There are some, though, who believe chief executive Dave Donaghy or chairman Matt Tripp need to force Smith to an answer at once.
After all, much is at stake.
Grant’s contract has a clause allowing him to opt out of Melbourne if Smith elects to play on next season, which affects him directly.
While Grant is considering this, it’s worth a shout that Grant’s decision should not be not whether Cameron Smith stays in Melbourne, but if Brandon Smith does.
Grant’s clause was inserted because he wants to play hooker and obviously can’t if Cameron Smith continued playing.
While Grant leads the Dally M Player of the Year voting, a revelation in his first season, there is a belief in Melbourne Brandon Smith might actually emerge the better player.
Grant is regarded as clever and consistent over 80 minutes, with an enormous engine to keep him going. Not quite as fit, Brandon Smith is less consistent over 80 minutes but could have more upside.
The Storm has not missed that Brandon Smith, in every game, often comes up with two or three plays on either side of the ball that immediately change the game’s momentum.
Either way, the belief within the club is that if Grant and Smith do play together next season they will both want to play hooker.
And this is where it gets fun.
Grant’s coach at Wests Tigers is Michael Maguire, who is desperate to keep him at the Tigers given the way he has sparked their attack.
The New Zealand Test coach is Michael Maguire, who has told Brandon Smith that if he wants to be the Kiwis hooker at next year’s World Cup, and he desperately does, then he needs to play regularly in the position.
Maguire can’t afford to pick a player, he told Brandon Smith, not playing dummy-half full time.
Two into one can’t go, even in Melbourne.
It’s an equation not only the mathematicians in the stats department are aware of, but the Tigers coach as well.
SHORT SHOT
There are growing concerns around the NRL, the deeper the NRL gets into the season without a vaccine for COVID-19, about what next season might look like.
It’s the possibility you do not dare mention.
The season is not due to end until November, with a three-week Origin campaign following that, and every player according to their CBA must have eight weeks holiday.
With the prospect of a normal looking season next year some clubs are hoping to get a little off-season training in before Christmas in order to get them in better shape.
Most clubs are attributing the high injury toll in the game at the moment to the effects of having the nine week suspension after round two, which effectively negated the pre-season games and all that training.
But if players are back training in December, as they normally would be, with no change in the Covid situation, it means the players could be asked to go into a 10-month lockdown next season the same as they are enduring now.
Given how tough players have handled life in the bubble this season there are growing concerns what effect it will have on the competition next season.
This season’s sacrifice has been monumental, but to do it two years in a row …?