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2018 World Club Challenge preview

Roar Guru
13th February, 2018
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(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
13th February, 2018
34
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The 2018 rugby league season begins in earnest this weekend when the Melbourne Storm host the Leeds Rhinos in the annual World Club Challenge at AAMI Park.

Traditionally held in England in the early part of the Super League competition, this year’s edition will be played in Australia for just the fourth time ever, first since 2014 and first ever in Melbourne.

The format also reverts to just the one singular match after the past three editions featured three matches, two of which were exhibition matches between selected NRL and Super League clubs, and the other of which pitted the premiers of those respective competitions in the showpiece match.

It will be the fourth time the Storm and Rhinos have met in the World Club Challenge, with the Rhinos winning in 2008 and the Storm saluting in 2010 and 2013, though the Storm had the 2010 title stripped from them due to salary cap breaches.

For Craig Bellamy’s men, this will be their fifth World Club Challenge match, and will be looking to add to the legitimate titles they won in 2000 and 2013, each of which followed premiership wins in the preceding year.

They produced a consistent 2017 season, topping the ladder for the third time by winning 20 of their matches, as well as having the best attack, defence and points differential of any club.

The Storm went on to win their third legitimate premiership by thrashing the North Queensland Cowboys, which were missing both their co-captains in Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott, by 34-6 in the grand final, with Billy Slater winning his second Clive Churchill Medal for being best-on-ground.

Melbourne Storm NRL Rugby League Grand Final 2017

(AAP Image/David Moir)

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Veterans Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk (now at the Sydney Roosters) proved that age is only a number, while Cameron Munster continued to impress despite concerns over his off-field attitude which has come to light in recent weeks.

At the age of 34, Smith produced what can only be described as one of the greatest individual seasons in recent rugby league history, achieving the trifecta of leading his state, club and country to glory in the State of Origin, NRL and the World Cup respectively.

He also became the most-capped player in NRL history, playing his record-breaking 356th game in the qualifying final against the Parramatta Eels last September, and won the Dally M Medal and Golden Boot Award each for a second time.

The Queenslander now only needs to lead his side to victory in the World Club Challenge to complete the extremely rare quadfecta of winning Origin, the NRL premiership, World Cup and World Club Challenge, all as captain, simultaneously.

It would be rugby league’s equivalent of completing the Grand Slam, if he can achieve it.

Winning the World Club Challenge is something that eluded Smith’s former state and national teammate Darren Lockyer, whose Brisbane Broncos side he led to the 2006 NRL premiership (in which it defeated Smith’s Storm side by 15-8 in the grand final) fell to St Helens in the 2007 edition.

After missing most of the previous two seasons due to a serious shoulder injury which twice required surgery, Billy Slater returned to top form, reclaiming his place in the Maroons’ Origin side and claiming the Clive Churchill Medal in the grand final, his 299th NRL match.

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Billy Slater Melbourne Storm NRL Rugby League Grand Final 2017

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Despite fears that he would retire at the end of last season, the Nambour native has committed to playing on for a 16th season, and barring injury, is due to bring up his milestone 300th NRL match in Round 1 against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at the newly-built Perth Stadium.

The 2018 NRL season looms as, potentially, the last season of rugby league by either (or both) Slater or Smith, with both turning 35 on the same day in June.

It would also mark a slow changing of the guard, with Cooper Cronk having moved to Sydney to not only be closer to his partner, Tara Rushton, but also extend his NRL career at the Roosters.

His move to Bondi has drawn the ire of many NRL fans, with some questioning how the glamour club could possibly fit him under their salary cap, the Chooks having already signed other big-name stars such as James Tedesco and Angus Crichton.

The Roosters have even hired respected salary cap auditor Ian Schubert to make sure that they are indeed operating legally; it has been reported that they are under the cap by $750,000.

Ironically, Schubert was the man who blew the whistle on the Melbourne Storm’s salary cap scandal which saw them stripped of two premierships, three minor premierships, fined $500,000 and condemned to win the wooden spoon in 2010.

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Cooper Cronk

(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Back on topic now, and we now swing our focus to Leeds who won a record-breaking eighth Super League crown by thrashing Castleford by 24-6 in last October’s grand final.

Captain Danny McGuire, playing his last game for the Rhinos before crossing to Leeds for the ongoing Super League season, won the Harry Sunderland Trophy after scoring two tries and kicking two field goals in the win.

He is the only man to feature in each of the Rhinos’ eight Super League premiership wins, while he has featured in three World Club Challenge wins, one of which was achieved by defeating the Melbourne Storm in 2008.

The Leeds side that is travelling to Melbourne could field up to four former NRL players for Friday night’s match, with Joel Moon, Matt Parcell, Mitch Garbutt and Adam Cuthbertson having played in the NRL at various stages during their careers.

Of the quartet, Cuthbertson will be seeking his second World Club Challenge win after featuring in the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles side which saluted in 2009 (though he did not play in the club’s 2008 premiership win, in which they thrashed the Storm by 40-0 in the grand final).

With no Auckland Nines tournament taking place this year, Friday night’s World Club Challenge in Melbourne officially marks the start of the Australian rugby league season for 2018, though the NRL season is still only three weeks away from starting.

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On their home soil, the Melbourne Storm will be hoping to claim their third World Club Challenge title and get their premiership defence up and running in earnest before they travel to Perth for the aforementioned Round 1 clash with the Bulldogs.

The World Club Challenge will be televised on the Nine Network nationally.

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