Club captains Cameron Smith and Ben Hornby have been ruled out of the NRL All Stars team with injury.
Melbourne’s Smith (shoulder) and St George Illawarra’s Hornby (thigh strain) suffered injuries in training this week and will miss the clash with the Indigenous All Stars on February 4 at Gold Coast’s Skilled Park.
Smith is now not expected to feature in the Storm’s pre-season trials while Hornby will undergo further scans in the coming days to assess the extent of the injury.
“Cameron suffered deep bruising to his shoulder during a contact session earlier this week,” said Storm football manager Frank Ponissi.
“He aggravated that same injury during training today, therefore unfortunately ruling him out of the upcoming All Stars match.
“The injury is likely to prevent Cameron from playing in the trials, however we don’t anticipate any long-term issues that will prevent him from starting the season.”
Kiwi international utility Nathan Fien will replace his Dragons team-mate on the interchange bench after Hornby was named as a surprise coach’s pick last Thursday, while Smith was an automatic selection as an Australian team representative.
A replacement has yet to be named for Smith.
© AAP 2012Recommend this story.
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The Crowd Says (17) | Page 1 of Comments
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- Ben Hornby, Cameron Smith, NRL, NRL All Stars, Rugby League
January 26th 2012 @ 11:46am
Bearfax said | January 26th 2012 @ 11:46am | Report comment
Curious point here. Of the 34 participants in the two all stars teams there are only two Manly players and one of those is a reserve. Interesting given they are Premiers and have won two premierships in the past 5 years. There are now some players dropping out but its unlikely the replacements will come from the Manly team so its getting closer to 2 out of 40. Either the Manly club and players are on the nose or Hasler has to be far and away the best coach in the League.
January 27th 2012 @ 10:35am
Ken said | January 27th 2012 @ 10:35am | Report comment
Well, every club only gets 1 player in the All Stars team + 2 auto selections (captains) + 2 coaches picks. Most clubs only have 1 player in that team so there’s no reason to single Manly out. In the Indig team, well, how many players do they have in contention? That team is chosen on popularity anyway, not form, which is not exactly Manly’s strong suit.
Anyway, despite the premiership Manly were not the dominant team of the comp last year. That would be Saints (first half) and Melbourne (second half). Manly stuck in there playing OK and then got the breeziest run through the finals of any premier I can remember (a faded Nth Qld, a bashed-up, Lockyer-less Broncos then the Warriors – a classic over-achieving team that had already played their GF).
January 27th 2012 @ 10:49am
Bearfax said | January 27th 2012 @ 10:49am | Report comment
You’re a great revisionist my friend. John Howard would be proud of you.
January 27th 2012 @ 12:38pm
Ken said | January 27th 2012 @ 12:38pm | Report comment
Which bit? Admittedly, the ‘Manly fluked it’ paragraph was a little inflammatory but the basic premise is sound. Manly did not lead the comp and were not considered favourites for the title at any point during the year until they were paired with the Warriors in the GF. They didn’t dominate the comp in a way that would demand half the team becoming rep players, even if these teams were picked on form – which of course they’re not.
They beat the teams that got placed in front of them and won the comp, no argument. The draw in the finals was far from unfriendly though.
January 27th 2012 @ 9:03am
B.A Sports said | January 27th 2012 @ 9:03am | Report comment
Its not a talent contest its a popular opinion vote and the coach picks a couple of utility players. So apart from the clubs with a few Indigenous players everyone only has1-2 players in the match.
Maybe if Manly looked at some Indigenous players when poaching from other clubs thye would have more players in the game
Or maybe they have approached some but the ones they have approached have had some sense orf moral values and thus wouldn’t fit in at Manly… again
January 27th 2012 @ 10:47am
Bearfax said | January 27th 2012 @ 10:47am | Report comment
B.A. Sports thank you for your response. Manly doesnt have many indigenous players at present but have had in the past, Cliff Lyons being the most noted. But I’ll accept that point.
The poaching issue is of course an old judgement based on Manly’s behaviour in the 70s and 80s and justified for that period. But check you records because there have been few instances of ‘poaching’ of players to the Manly club since the turn of the century and in recent years almost none of any consequence at all. Some say Lyon but he went overseas before coming to Manly (by the way he is indigenous isnt he). Kimmorley stayed a year a long way back. Some say ‘The Ox’ was stolen from Melbourne but in fact he was returning home having started with Northern Eagles. The Williams boys were fringe players from Parramatta. Kyte and Kennedy were among the last players ‘grabbed’ and they came to Manly over a decade ago.
Of course no one will talk about two potential great stars in Will and Jamal Hopoate being grabbed by Parramatta or Jared-Hargreaves by Sydney City (now an international). Parra also last year pinched a standout Manly half back junior, and Sydney City another standout junior forward. Of course everyone forgets about O’Meley having started out a Northern Eagle. And few remember Fulton and Vautin being pinched in their last few good yearsy by Easts and Phil and Michael Blake by Souths. Something about glass houses nd and logs in peoples eyes comes to mind I think.
The ‘poaching’ teams of today are Parramatta, Souths, Sydney City and bringing up the rear Canterbury for the very reasons Manly did it in the 70′s and 80′s and St George, Easts, Canterbury and Wests did it in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s……because they’ve got the most money. You want the true long term poacher….no surprise but few talk about it…Sydney City by a long shot…..been doing it consistently for over half a century and I’m old enough to remember. While Manly was castigated for stealing O’Neill and Brannigan from Souths to help win the ’72 grand final, Easts poached Cleary, Coote, Beetson and Fulton et al to help win their ’74-’75 titles…and no one grumbled.
As for moral values B. A. Sports, having regard to some of the goings on at other clubs esp Canterbury only a few years ago, I’ll treat you with respect and assume you never made that comment
Have a nice day
January 27th 2012 @ 11:03am
MyGeneration said | January 27th 2012 @ 11:03am | Report comment
Some good points, but Bozo Fulton didn’t go to the Roosters till after the ’76 Grand Final.
January 27th 2012 @ 11:08am
toddbee said | January 27th 2012 @ 11:08am | Report comment
Didn’t fulton return the favour after coaching east’s and returning to manly with neol cleal,boustead,macabe ,ronny gibbs and every other half decent player they had.
Omelly started at norths as did the ox so dont claim them as manly players.
Vaultin was punted by manly not poached by easts and ended where he deserved to be,in reserve grade.
Have a look at the roosters team over the last decade and they have recruited less players than most teams,1 or 2 high profile recruits seem to equal a team full of imports.
To say the dogs are bringing up the rear is an absolute joke,have a look at their team and there is only about 2 players in ther starting side that hasnt been poached.
January 27th 2012 @ 9:50pm
Bearfax said | January 27th 2012 @ 9:50pm | Report comment
Hate to admit it Sydney City supporter but you have me there (one of the rare instances when the tables were turned courtesy of a temporary change of support of support from Mr Packer who took a shining to Fulton,,,but he returned to SC later). And it did reveal your loyalty eh. Sydeny City has had to poach a great deal because they have almost no junior teams but lots of money (so much that I understand that they have manipulated the state govt to allow them to build a club and take a large number of pokies out to Narellan (West Tigets territory). Dont tell me they dont know how to poach players and for that matter territory (a few rules mind you had to be broken and overlooked by the government and the League coutesy of one of Sydney City’s biggest supporters, Mr Gallop)
January 27th 2012 @ 11:29am
B.A Sports said | January 27th 2012 @ 11:29am | Report comment
Bearfax – I said it all tongue in cheek. Sorry i don’t know the emoticon for that.
And is George Rose still at your club? I think you will find he has some indigenous lineage.
I don’t want to hijack the thread (like so many others have been – particularly in the League section), but in regard to Parramatta being the no.1 poacher. I just jotted down a starting 17, and best i can tell there are at least 12 players who played junior reps at Parra in their first choice 17. Alot more than most clubs – and if they didn’t have players poached from them, they probably wouldn’t have to go picking other clubs pocket . – but again, let not hijack this thread and save it for another day….
January 27th 2012 @ 9:41pm
Bearfax said | January 27th 2012 @ 9:41pm | Report comment
Hey dont think I’m upset B.A. Half of what I say is probably wrong and just to stir the pot. But I love a bit of fun on these forums so I stir. George Rose signed a new contract with Manly recenty (but can you believe me…in this case yes)
As for Parra, I can now see where your loyalties lie and can do a bit of stiring hmmmmm. Criticising a bunch of clubs always brings out who’s loyal to whom.
January 27th 2012 @ 12:44pm
Paul said | January 27th 2012 @ 12:44pm | Report comment
Does anybody else think that Clubs,Players and coaches are now starting to try and avoid the Allstars Match, Its a great concept but it is putting players at risk of injury for a nothing game pretty much like city vs country.
January 27th 2012 @ 1:10pm
Ian Whitchurch said | January 27th 2012 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
It has exactly the same issues with that as State of Origin.
If the code insists on Origin and other rep games, then you should use the same solution – broken time for clubs. If a player gets selected, the club gets a small cap rebate to help fund their replacement. If a player is broken playing rep football, the club gets a bigger cap rebate, depending how much time they have off.
January 27th 2012 @ 1:20pm
Paul said | January 27th 2012 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
thats prob all that could be done but if its a star player and a serious injury then theres no compensation for the fans of the players club, or the coach whos job is on the line.
January 27th 2012 @ 1:22pm
Ian Whitchurch said | January 27th 2012 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
Paul,
Thats one of the major reasons why Australian Rules abandoned the whole concept of senior rep football.
January 27th 2012 @ 1:34pm
Paul said | January 27th 2012 @ 1:34pm | Report comment
hard to argue against that sort of thinking, However personaly i like the Rugby Union Schedule whereby the play thier super 15 games and then go thier representative fixtures. I think International competition should be the highlite of a sports code. In rugby league’s case i would like to see SOG 4 weeks after the GF followed by
a series against both the Poms and Kiwis, Not necessarily a Trinations but a 3 game series against each.
January 27th 2012 @ 1:22pm
The Barry said | January 27th 2012 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
I enjoy the game but I think once a season will end up being too much. Over time it will be dilluted and clubs will ask players not to take part. I think it’d mean more being once every 2-3 years.