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‘Remarkable’ Cameron Smith played Grand Final with brutal secret injuries

Storm skipper Cameron Smith is the latest member of grand final folklore’s brave brigade after it was revealed he played the 2020 decider with serious rib and shoulder injuries. The Sydney Morning Herald reported Smith’s ribs were either broken or he was suffering from serious cartilage damage for the duration of the Storm’s 26-20 win.

The man tipped to retire before the start of next season suffered the injury in the first week of the finals against the Eels and played the two biggest games of the year hampered by it. The injury is one of the hardest for rugby league players to play through.

The 37-year-old barely trained in the lead-up to the 30-10 preliminary final win over the Raiders after the Storm got a fortnight off following the Eels win, which proved timely. However the injury still plagued Smith in the build-up to the grand final, with the Storm going to great lengths to conceal the injury, so that their skipper wasn’t targeted.

Scans after the Eels game cleared Smith to play on only because he couldn’t do more serious damage, including puncturing a lung. The future Immortal played the last two games of the year with special padding on his ribs to soften the blow of contact. However the courageous Smith still made the second most tackles for his team in the decider with 29 and had just one miss.

The rib injury was not his only issue with Smith carrying a chronic shoulder injury that required painkilling injections just to get through the final two months of the season.

Smith’s heroics sees him join the likes of John Sattler (jaw), Andrew Johns (punctured lung), Sam Burgess (cheekbone) and former teammate Cooper Cronk (shoulder) who produced inspiring displays to help lift their teams to grand final glory.

“He was inconvenienced with a number of injuries in the last few weeks of the season, which restricted his training,” Storm football general manager Frank Ponissi told the Herald. “He certainly wasn’t at 100 per cent physical best for the games, but typical Cameron Smith, he got through them. At 37, he is nothing short of remarkable.”

sliat_1981 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:26 pm I though each and every grand final we lost was due to our own poor performances.

TC wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:37 pm

sliat_1981 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:26 pm I though each and every grand final we lost was due to our own poor performances.

Fair point.

Except for 2006 - that was a dead set stitchup.

Mattpoet wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:08 pm https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... a3c3b8f5db

What a guy

sliat_1981 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:26 pm Of course when we lose it’s always refs fault. I though each and every grand final we lost was due to our own poor performances. Yet every time we win they always cry and make excuses. What a bunch of sore losers

moffla wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 9:48 am

sliat_1981 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:26 pm Of course when we lose it’s always refs fault. I though each and every grand final we lost was due to our own poor performances. Yet every time we win they always cry and make excuses. What a bunch of sore losers

Yep. There are fans out there who genuinely believe 2012 and 2017 have asterisks because we still had the Big 3 running around for us.
It's never a deserved premiership when Storm win. There's always something.

Storm Spirit wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 12:37 pm

moffla wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 9:48 am

sliat_1981 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 2:26 pm Of course when we lose it’s always refs fault. I though each and every grand final we lost was due to our own poor performances. Yet every time we win they always cry and make excuses. What a bunch of sore losers

Yep. There are fans out there who genuinely believe 2012 and 2017 have asterisks because we still had the Big 3 running around for us.
It's never a deserved premiership when Storm win. There's always something.

They can all suck a fat one....even 2007 and 2009 were legit given that numerous other Clubs would have been over the salary cap as well.

Mattpoet wrote: ↑Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:05 pm No, they were, the NRL position is that Cronulla were under the cap 'on the day'.