Melbourne Storm skipper Cameron Smith says he plans to play on for one more year
AHEAD of his 382nd NRL game on Friday night, Cameron Smith has delivered the news Melbourne Storm has been waiting to hear. And the outcome of the premiership race won’t change his mind.
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CAMERON Smith insists a Storm premiership will not herald his retirement, with the Queensland champion set to sign one final contract in his quest to become the first player in history to reach 400 NRL games.
Smith enters Friday night’s finals opening against South Sydney without a contract for 2019, triggering fears the Storm skipper could follow teammate Billy Slater into retirement at the end of the season.
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Renowned as the NRL’s Mr Unbreakable, Smith has battled minor foot and back problems this season, injuries that suggest Father Time is creeping up on the 35-year-old ironman.
Leading the Storm to back-to-back titles could be viewed as the perfect platform for Smith’s exit, but the 381-game stalwart has outlined his plan to soldier on for a remarkable 18th season of first grade next year.
“At the moment, I would like to play on,” said Smith, who shocked the code in May with his sudden retirement from representative football on the eve of this year’s Origin series.
“I still feel I am contributing to the side, I still feel well enough mentally and physically to go on next year.
“When you think about retirement, you are a long-time retired and you don’t want to live the next part of your life regretting or wishing that you should have played on.
“I have no thought in my mind at all that I want to finish or that I’ve had enough of playing.
“That was the case with my rep footy, I was well and truly done with that, but as far as club footy goes, I am enjoying it as much as I ever have.”
Smith’s revelation will come as a relief to the Storm, who are watching the erosion of their Big Three following Cooper Cronk’s move to the Roosters this season and Slater’s upcoming retirement.
Smith, Origin’s most-capped player with 42 appearances, plays his 382nd NRL match on Friday night at AAMI Park. He attended Cbus Super Stadium last Saturday to farewell his good mate Johnathan Thurston, but admits the Cowboys playmaker’s final game did not prompt him to consider his own legacy.
“I had a lot of different emotions at JT’s game on the weekend,” Smith said.
“It was quite surreal for me to be there and actually come to the realisation that this is the last time he would play NRL.
“But I wasn’t sitting there reflecting on my own career and what’s going to happen over the next 12 months.
“I was there to enjoy one last 80 minutes for JT.
“I’m not really worried (about his legacy), because all I can control is what I do on the footy field and the way I handle myself away from the field.
“Whatever people want to think of me, I have no control over that.
“I just go about my business like I have done since my first game and what people want to say they will say.”
Smith skippered Melbourne to a commanding 34-6 rout of the Cowboys in last year’s decider, but he insists he is hungry for another premiership ring.
“This is an opportunity to defend a title,” he said.
“It’s nothing to do with winning a premiership without Cooper (Cronk).
“This year there has been no thought process about proving anything or winning things without ‘Coops’, it’s been about doing our best with the squad we’ve got.
“It (back-to-back) titles is something a team hasn’t done for a long, long time (since Brisbane in 1992-93), that is in the back of our minds.
“We want to give ourselves every opportunity to do it.”
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Originally published as Melbourne Storm skipper Cameron Smith says he plans to play on for one more year
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