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I’ve been noticing it all year in Melbourne Storm’s NRL games. I guess fear of reprisal has held me from writing about it until now.
Here goes. The Australian, Queensland and Melbourne Storm captain has gone soft. Yep that’s right I said it.
Of all the magical attributes that Cameron Smith brings to a rugby league side, his darting, penetrating runs from dummy half are what really make the difference in any side he plays in.
Where have they gone?
The Melbourne Storm have struggled this year on the back of a number of factors. But it has to be said that Cameron Smith’s penetration from the base of the ruck has almost been non-existent this year. It’s like we’re watching a halfback come in at dummy half in almost every match he’s played in all year.
It seems like Smith is only capable of a dummy half run when the defence is on the back foot, or offside and the milking of a penalty is on offer.
All the hype over Queensland picking only one genuine prop caused a lot of talk this week. The explanation was that the speed of the game under the new rules afforded the selection of a more mobile forward pack.
This scenario should have been prime for the taking of a hooker of Cameron Smith’s class and reputation.
Yet what we saw tonight was a hooker that came to the ruck and thought his whole job was to deliver quality ball for the first receiver.
His injury aside, the Queensland captain has to set the example and we saw nothing from him in attack before he went down. Ageing backs like Justin Hodges were quite willing to come in and do the hard yards to relieve pressure from the forwards.
With the series on the line, Queenslanders will be expecting big things from him in three weeks in Sydney. If tonight is all Smith has to offer, then Big Mal really needs to think about Ben Hannant coming into the side to provide go forward.
It wasn’t all that long ago a hooker at the Broncos who had played more than 100 games was under pressure to retain his spot, with Brisbane attempting to lure Smith there.
Andrew McCullough has been in cracking form for the Broncos since then. Another performance like tonight and the Queensland captain may start to feel the pressure from the 24-year-old come Origin 2015.
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