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Cameron Smith should not be the NRL's morals officer

Roar Rookie
30th June, 2013
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How will Melbourne Storm's deal with Manchester City affect the club? (Mark Kolbe/AAP)
Roar Rookie
30th June, 2013
170
3308 Reads

The more I see and hear of Cameron Smith the more he offends me.

This is unfortunate as I’m seeing and hearing from him with irritating frequency since his apparent appointment as moral compass, mouthpiece and all-round Godfather of rugby league.

I have many problems with this, but the main one pertains to the question of how can Cameron Smith possibly be the moral mouthpiece of the game?

You don’t have to be Silvio Berlusconi to grasp the implications for misuse of power here.

Anyone with an even rudimentary understanding of notions of vested interest and corruption can surely see that this role he has inexplicably assumed is hurting the game.

Even when I set aside the fact that he captains a team with a very recent and deeply insulting record of financial abuses and ethical breaches, I still can’t come to grips with the way that whatever he says is bestowed with such a weighty, magisterial gravity.

This is a privilege not enjoyed by any other captain in the competition.

It’s when he captains the Maroons that the stink really sets in.

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His campaign to influence and intimidate the referees prior to Origin II was a master class in manipulation that Jim ‘Jonestown’ Jones would have been envious of, particularly as it was the Maroons who were offside or interfering with the play-the-ball 28 times in the opening thirty minutes of Origin I alone.

New South Wales noted this privately but had decided, in the spirit of good grace and sportsmanship, not to speak about it publicly. But then Smith started up with his claims that NSW were afforded undue leniency in the series opener.

“We just want consistency,” he said. “If they are going to defend like that then so be it. We’ll defend like that too.”

As carefully timed tactics go, it was a good one, if you’re a fan of that kind of thing. I’m not.

Clearly formulated by the Maroons in order to pressure the already on-edge referees and make sure they won the penalty count at Suncorp, the strategy worked.

A lot of dubious calls went their way and my left eye has been twitching angrily on and off ever since.

In addition to this, there was the prior incident where he had the nerve to say that Paul Gallen punching Nate Miles was a “bad look.”

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Even aside from their pigs-at-the-trough salary cap rortings and subsequently ill-gotten premierships, the Storm have contributed more “bad looks” to the game than any small explosions of toe-to-toe violence ever have.

This is a team who have not subscribed to the notion that rules are supposed to apply to all players and teams equally for at least a decade.

Liberated from the shackles of ordinary behaviour, they have introduced us to a conga line of odious tactics. The chicken wing. The rolling pin. The grapple tackle. The crusher tackle. All “bad looks,” all originating in Melbourne.

I know I sound like any other malcontent burdened with jealousy, self-loathing, a possible chemical imbalance, and the considerable weight of being both a second-tier team fan and a Blues fan.

Be that as it may, I cannot repress the irritation, bordering on wild-eyed outrage, I experience when subjected to Smith’s messianic opinions, or witness to the sphinx-like concentration and laser-cut precision with which he plays.

It makes my eye seize and twitch in ugly little displays of short circuitry. I understand that this too is something Cameron Smith would no doubt classify a “bad look” and painful as this is to admit I’d have to agree with him.

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