How the Storm mastered succession planning

Melbourne recruitment guru Paul Bunn recalls being struck by the similarities between Harry Grant and Cameron Smith

Harry Grant has been on-loan to the Wests Tigers this season Picture: Phil Hillyard

Melbourne recruitment guru Paul Bunn recalls watching Harry Grant as a teenager. He, like many others, was struck at the similarities to Storm captain Cameron Smith.

“He showed pretty good football nous, game nous all the way through,” Bunn said. “We used to always say, ‘This bloke is a replica of Cameron Smith, look at him, he is playing the game like Cameron Smith there’.

“Young Piggy (Grant) had a lot of offers from different clubs. But the thing was they said Melbourne is going to be the place for him, the discipline of the club, he can learn his trade off Cameron Smith.

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“Because of the culture of the club, he wanted to make a long-term deal at the Storm.”

Grant will go up against his parent club at Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Stadium on Saturday afternoon as Wests Tigers face Melbourne, pitching him into a battle against the man who has become his mentor.

The match-up between he and Cameron Smith has highlighted once again how the Storm have become the masters of succession planning.

Brandon Smith, a hooker every bit as good as Grant, will likely be on the field as well. At stages, all three are likely to be in the action.

Cameron Smith is yet to announce whether he will retire or play on next season, but the Storm have their No 9 jersey covered regardless.

Grant was discovered in Bunn’s backyard, the north of Queensland. Bunn and Grant’s father Paul were former teammates and long-time friends.

Brandon Smith was poached from the same area while playing for North Queensland’s under 20s, although he was on Bunn’s radar years before when he was still in New Zealand.

One of the two will take over the No 9 jersey when Cameron Smith gives it away. The other will either play another position or look for another home, although Melbourne have insisted that there is a place for both in their side.

Regardless, the club’s No 9 jersey is in the safest of hands despite the enormous size of the shoes they will step into. Succession planning is an inexact science. Parramatta spent the best part of 30 years trying to find a successor to Peter Sterling.

Only now have they given themselves hope with Mitchell Moses. The Melbourne Storm have mastered the art better than most. When Billy Slater departed, they had Ryan Papenhuyzen waiting in the wings.

Cooper Cronk has been a tougher fix, although Jarome Hughes is doing is best to own the No 7 jersey. As for Cameron Smith, the Storm appear to have it right.

Maybe too right. The best hooker in the game’s history is backed up at the moment by a bloke who would walk into most teams. The other back-up has walked into another team and done so well he is at short odds to play State of Origin this year.

“I think the key is not to put all your eggs in one basket,” Storm head of football Frank Ponissi said. “Things can change, people develop differently. Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule where there is just an outstanding talent you know who is going to be a superstar. There are not too many of those. Over the years you have seen clubs put all their eggs in one basket and they haven’t developed.

“You try to build up a pool of players for those key positions. Somewhere along the line you have to make some big decisions and big calls.

“If you have a pool it opens different options for you. Sometimes when you have a few it brings out the best in them because you have competition.

“Brandon has developed into this outstanding middle forward as well as a dummy half. With Harry, we knew he had talent but we didn’t know he was going to be the player he is today. It is a bit like an assembly line theory. That has been our philosophy.”

Grant is an out-and-out hooker, although he has spent time as a utility in recent weeks as Tigers coach Michael Maguire has tried to give Jacob Liddle more minutes.

Cameron Smith has watched and offered sage advice from afar. No doubt, he will have some select words for Grant this week.

Cameron Smith remains one of the most competitive players in the game. If he gets the chance to put one over his young protege, he will.

“They talk regularly, him and Harry,” Ponissi said. “There will be plenty of banter. It will be good fun.”

Grant will no doubt take it in his stride.

“White noise won’t bother him,” Bunn said. “He is pretty focused. He knows what he is going to do. He loves his surfing and he loves his footy. He has a certain amount of larrikin in him.

“He knows when to be serious, when to knuckle down and work hard. All the people at our place knew he would go extremely well.”