NRL 2020: Harry Grant to take on Cameron Smith as Wests Tigers back Jake Simpkin
Wests Tigers are preparing for life without Harry Grant, and coach Michael Maguire believes their hooker problem will be solved by a teen they pinched from under Broncos noses.
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As Wests Tigers prepare for an immediate future without Harry Grant, coach Michael Maguire is bullish about the club’s next hooker – and they pinched him from under Broncos noses.
Grant has been a revelation during his time at Concord and was leading the Dally M leader board before it went behind closed doors after round 10.
But with a return to the Storm imminent as he honours his contract through to 2022, Wests have been forced to find a replacement – and it comes in the form of Jake Simpkin.
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The 18-year-old from Toowoomba represented Queensland in the U18 State of Origin last year and was a key player for St Mary’s Toowoomba in the private school’s elite system.
And coach Michael Maguire is bullish about his Simpkin’s future.
“We’ve got another player in Jake Simpkin coming through as well that we always believed is going to take us into the future,” Maguire said.
“He’s robust and a strong carrier of the ball. He’s a thicker build for a hooker.
“What I saw of him coming through in Queensland, he was a real talent and I’m looking forward to giving him his opportunity.”
Like Grant before him, Simpkin has a reputation for being one of best young hookers in the country and is already built for NRL, weighing in at 91kg on a 181cm frame.
Maguire, who has coached some of the best hookers in the modern game including Issac Luke, Cameron McIness and Damien Cook, is confident, between Simpkin and Jacob Liddle, the Tigers have enough talent to cover for Grant once he departs the club in 10 days.
The teacher faces the student
Future Immortal and Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith spent three years teaching rising rake Grant everything he knows about rugby league.
On Saturday, the boom Wests Tigers hooker will use that knowledge to try to topple Smith when the two go head to head for the first time on the Sunshine Coast.
“I hope this weekend I don’t sit back and admire him too much,” Grant said.
“It’s going to be weird I guess, training against him for a few years and then playing against him but it’s pretty special in its own regard.”
Grant arrived on a full-time deal with the Storm in 2017 as one the game’s brightest prospects but found himself down the pecking order behind Brandon Smith for No.9 jumper.
Despite getting only two games in two seasons at Melbourne, Grant was content to bide time while also receiving an invaluable education as Smith’s understudy.
The pair built a strong bond that continued after Grant joined the Tigers on a revolutionary one-year loan deal in March with Smith regularly checking in on the Yeppoon Seagulls junior.
“I had a phone chat with him a few weeks ago,” Grant said.
“He was pretty honest. He just said ‘keep doing what you’re doing. It’s good to see you playing some good minutes and regular first grade, it’s pretty invaluable experience that you’re getting’”
Grant also has former Tigers great and 303-game hooker Robbie Farah on speed dial.
“I’ve been pretty lucky with how the first few years of my career has panned out, being able to deal with Cam and then once I moved to the Tigers being able to deal with Robbie,” he said.
“Early days when I first came in he [Farah] sent me a message and broke the ice.
“I’ve had a couple of phone chats to him to sort of get his advice and pick his brain a little bit on how we can progress as a team.”
After nine straight seasons without finals football, long-suffering Tigers fans desperately want the rising rake to stay on beyond this season.
But Grant is contracted to the Storm until the end of season 2022 and it’s expected he’ll return to Melbourne regardless of what decision Smith makes about his future.
‘We’ll smash him no matter what’
Storm backrower Kenny Bromwich will not think twice about splitting Grant “in half” should he get a shot on the future Melbourne hooker.
But Bromwich expects the 22 year-old, who is “good with the banter”, to be up for the task on Saturday at Sunshine Coast Stadium.
“Nah, you split him in half,” Bromwich said with a laugh on Tuesday when asked about protecting the Storm prospect currently on loan to the Tigers.
“He gets on well with everyone here, he’s good at throwing some chat around too.
“I think he’ll be throwing some chat around on the field this week I reckon.”
Grant has squared off with Smith at training before but rarely, if ever, got the better of the master organiser.
“Off the top of my head not too many (times has he beaten him),” Bromwich said.
“Smithy does some freakish things at training, got the ball on a string.”
As much as Grant has bedazzled fans in Sydney with clean and crisp plays out of dummy half, the young gun‘s emergence is no surprise to Bromwich or anyone at Storm.
“When you watch him, the way he trains, his attitude towards what he does on the field, it comes as no surprise the way he plays,” Bromwich said.
“I think he’s going to be a big part of us and a big player in that role for the next few years coming ahead in the hooker position.”
Teammate lifts lid on Smith tricks
And Grant should be alert, not alarmed, going up against Smith on Saturday for the first time for premiership points.
As much as Smith wants to win for Storm to cement second spot, the “old dog” will have tricks in store for loaned Tigers wunderkind Grant.
It is a familiar scenario for Melbourne premiership player Slade Griffin, who was on the receiving end of a Smith-Storm masterclass in 2018, while playing for the Knights.
“He’s so crafty and calm, I remember in a scrum he actually undid my shoelace,” Griffin said.
“The old dog with the old tricks, I just cracked up, I was a bit filthy because I couldn’t get to dummy half for the next two plays and I was like ‘the old dog got me’.
“It was a bit of fun, it was really enjoyable coming up against him.”
Just as Griffin did then, Grant this week knows exactly what to expect from Smith and Storm.
So too, would Storm, the Tigers, and any other players lucky to share the field with the G.O.A.T previously.
What has separated Smith from past and present peers and rivals was not size, strength, speed or skill, but the now 37 year-old’s insatiable appetite to win.
If lacing the boots before a game was a competition Smith would be captain of that team, too.
“He does have an edge to him, whether it is golf or ping pong, but that’s what makes him so great,” Griffin, now the junior pathways coach at New Zealand Warriors, said.
“But I reckon he’ll have a bit of fun with it (Grant match-up) tell you the truth.
“He’ll have a laugh and give him a bit of banter.”
A lot will be made of the matchup this week, but Storm legend Matt Geyer said the head-to-head battle would be furthest from Smith’s mind on Saturday.
“His preparation for the last 18 seasons has always been about him and the team,” Geyer said.
“It’s never been about Cameron Smith and to make it about Cameron Smith and Harry Grant would be going against his ethos.
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“If the press want to write that Harry Grant’s playing better than him then so be it, over the years he’s (Smith) had so many players that have … challenged him for his throne.
“(Danny) Buderas then (Robbie) Farah, they had a really good healthy rivalry, and Michael Ennis, but he was unchallenged for that Queensland jersey for all those years and the Australian jersey.
“Harry’s come along, too, now.”