Article number 57 of the 2019 smear campaign...
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Paul Gallen: Gallen: How ‘messy’ Cameron Smith gets away with ‘more than most’
"Staff Writers" - Fox Sports
19th August 2019
Cronulla skipper Paul Gallen has lifted the lid on what makes Cameron Smith so good at controlling tackles.
Melbourne’s wrestling tactics have come under the microscope again with Smith the latest player to come under fire over an apparent ear pull on Canberra’s Bailey Simonsson.
Smith is widely regarded as one of the best players at controlling the ruck, with Gallen explaining in a Wide World of Sports column why he’s able to “get away with more than most”.
“Cameron just makes every tackle so messy,” Gallen wrote. “He manages to flop around and act like he’s falling, when he’s the best player I’ve ever seen — he wouldn’t fall over anything. He gets himself twisted and caught up in the tackle, slowing the ruck down. He’s just too good at it.
“How can you bag him, when it’s within the rules? If you can get away with it, get away with it. That’s what the game’s all about.
“We are all trained to push the limits of the rules. None of us are trained to make a tackle, count one, two, three, then get up and let the bloke have a comfortable play the ball. We are all trained to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the opposition and to push the rules to the nth degree without giving a penalty.
“That’s the reality of what we do. Melbourne just do it better than anyone else, because they train so hard at it.”
Smith reportedly received a warning from the NRL over the act on Simonsson, while teammate Nelson Asofa-Solomona was cleared despite a crusher tackle on South Sydney’s Dean Britt which sparked a war of words between the clubs.
Gallen believed it was the Asofa-Solomona controversy that put the spotlight back on the Storm.
“All these little things have come from Melbourne. The grapple, the chicken wing, the rolling pin — they’ve all come into the NRL from the Storm,” Gallen wrote.
“But at the time they start them, they’re not breaking the rules. It’s not until someone gets hurt or the league decides that it’s not within the spirit of the game that the rules are changed.
“Then, Melbourne come up with something else. They’ve got a world class jiu-jitsu coach down there, who has ingrained these different techniques in them.
“And I’m not going to sit here and bag the Storm. They work so hard at it and if they’re not breaking the rules at the time, there’s not too much to whinge about.”