Official thread and signing news
I will also say that I think the talk today is BS and seriously doubt any conversation has even started on Smithy’s future. The media will speculate all year, Cam will lead them on without a firm answer one way or the other.
https://www.melbournestorm.com.au/news/ ... etirement/
This is the clip of Cam being asked the question and giving his generic response. Cameron didn't "start it", he simply answered the question as best he could without being definitive one way or the other.
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Forgetting what fans of other clubs say - as quite frankly most are so heavily biased that their opinions means nothing - it is quite amazing to me that so may Storm fans are so blunt with wanting Cam to retire... People on social media wanting Cam to retire so we can keep Brandon. So we can keep Grant. So we can use his contract $ to secure other fringe first graders. Anyone thinking that we will retain both Brandon and Harry past 2021 is delusional, regardless of what Smithy does.
This is a bloke that will go down as the greatest RL player of all time. Someone that is STILL playing at the very elite level. STILL the best hooker in the game. Finished second in the Dally M's just last year. Won it two years before that in the most dominant individual seasons the game has ever seen.
I don't get the logic (if there is any) being applied here. Yes, we will lose Smith in the not too distant future no matter what... but I don't see any positives in pulling the pin early. Storm fans (purely IMO) should be celebrating the remaining games we have with this legend in our team.
If he maintains the same level of output, I hope he plays until he is 40.
This is the clip of Cam being asked the question and giving his generic response. Cameron didn't "start it", he simply answered the question as best he could without being definitive one way or the other.
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Forgetting what fans of other clubs say - as quite frankly most are so heavily biased that their opinions means nothing - it is quite amazing to me that so may Storm fans are so blunt with wanting Cam to retire... People on social media wanting Cam to retire so we can keep Brandon. So we can keep Grant. So we can use his contract $ to secure other fringe first graders. Anyone thinking that we will retain both Brandon and Harry past 2021 is delusional, regardless of what Smithy does.
This is a bloke that will go down as the greatest RL player of all time. Someone that is STILL playing at the very elite level. STILL the best hooker in the game. Finished second in the Dally M's just last year. Won it two years before that in the most dominant individual seasons the game has ever seen.
I don't get the logic (if there is any) being applied here. Yes, we will lose Smith in the not too distant future no matter what... but I don't see any positives in pulling the pin early. Storm fans (purely IMO) should be celebrating the remaining games we have with this legend in our team.
If he maintains the same level of output, I hope he plays until he is 40.
Yea, I dunno. Having Smith retire seems like an easy fix to the problems we've had the last two seasons of having cap trouble and losing young players.
Brandon is the NZ hooker and would walk onto a good majority of teams and Grant wouldn't be too far behind that either. I wouldn't kick Cameron out but what are we doing there? Just lose two good players because he wants to stay?
Brandon is the NZ hooker and would walk onto a good majority of teams and Grant wouldn't be too far behind that either. I wouldn't kick Cameron out but what are we doing there? Just lose two good players because he wants to stay?
But is that actually the case? Who have we lost that we otherwise would have kept if we had Smith's cap money laying around?
Vunivalu - Huge Rugby offer that we never would have matched, even if we had the coin.
Tino - Same deal as Vunivalu. As if the club were ever going to match/get close to the Warriors offer.
Drinkwater - Didn't leave due to $, left because we had at least 2 guys in front of him in his preferred position.
JAC - We probably would have tried to upgrade him but, he says he is leaving for family reasons.
So we kick out an elite player and club legend because we have two good young players coming through? Brandon has to play 9 (in some form) from next year no matter what. I still think Smith has a place.
Doesn't matter how you feel about them but letting Croft, Drinkwater, Scott, and to a lesser extent Tino go in the last 12 months isn't a good look. I don't blame Smith's contract on that btw but he is the highest paid player at the club so he's an easy target.
Just on Drinkwater. Him now playing in the halves for the Cowboys doesn't exactly look good with letting a player go because he wanted to play fullback does it? But that's an entirely different discussion.
The club needs to sort out what's better for the clubs future. A tough decision will need to be made otherwise we're going to lose both young guys.
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I tend to agree with that. Good hookers are at a premium at the moment and there's no chance we would be able to have 2 NRL quality 9s on the books moving forward with other clubs willing and able to throw huge contracts at them and offer them increased minutes.
Smith is reportedly on $800K. For context, the below NRL players are earning more than Smith.blazza18 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:40 pmDoesn't matter how you feel about them but letting Croft, Drinkwater, Scott, and to a lesser extent Tino go in the last 12 months isn't a good look. I don't blame Smith's contract on that btw but he is the highest paid player at the club so he's an easy target.
DCE - $1.3M
Foran - $1.2M
Hunt - $1.2M
T Trbojevic - $1.1M
RTS - $1.1M
Tedesco - $1M
Taomololo - $1M
Bird - $1M
Cleary - $1M
Crighton - $1M
Holmes - $1M
Johnson - $1M
Milford - $1M
Morgan - $1M
Pearce - $1M
Ash Taylor - $1M
Mbye - $950K
J Trbojevic - $950K
Cook - $900K
Moylan - $900K
Klemmer - $850K
Boyd, Dugan and Moses are on $800K, the same as Smith.
By any metric, we have an absolute bargain with Smith's contract rate. I don't agree that letting those players go is a "bad look". Context is always needed and the club should never be making retention decisions based on how things will be perceived externally and instead should be focussed on what will achieve results.
Again, I don't see it as a bad reflection on the Storm. We played Drinkwater at 5/8 in the Q Cup but he had a strong preference (and probably skillset) for FB. Both FB and 5/8 were occupied atthe Storm so Drinky went where he had the best shot at playing first grade. Your comment doesn't mention that after that move, the Cowboys went on to sign a high profile FB. Drinkwater didn't really have much of an option at that point. Either have a crack at 5/8, or go back to Q Cup.
Of course the club needs to look after the future. But pro sports and particularly RL is a fickle game. I personally don't think the club would jeopardise losing Brandon.
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Apparently the Grant trade is back on the table:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/03/16/tig ... ry-return/
https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/03/16/tig ... ry-return/
But do the Tigers need a nine now. They did not have Reynolds because he was facing charges. The charges have now been dropped, so they have Marshall (6), Brooks (7), Reynolds (9) and Walters (spare). Brooks did not play on the weekend because of a hamstring strain but that is not season ending. If Grant goes to the Tigers, won't he be the spare spare, like he is a Melbourne.