Terrible. That is what the future seems to be for the Melbourne Storm once the retirement of their greatest ever player Cameron Smith occurs.
After a dismal performance last night against the Manly Sea Eagles, it proved again that without Smith at the helm the Storm are a sinking ship.
A mistake-ridden and sloppy display of football last night resulted in the Sea Eagles once again getting the better of the Smith-depleted side.
The Sea Eagles put on a master class in the second half, scoring four unanswered tries to blow the score out to 24-4. The first send off of a player since 2015 did not help but without Smith on the field the Storm were completely lost and undisciplined. Billy Slater dropped more ball then a one-armed man and he had no direction for his troops on the field.
Slater is a great solider on the field, but he is not a leader, it was wise of him not to take the captaincy at Origin.
This is not the first time that the Storm have looked like a lost child without Smith. We all remember the 2008 grand final between the Storm and Sea Eagles. Smith was suspended at the time and the Storm would play their first and only grand final without their leader.
It was the worst grand final in the history of the NRL, well for the Storm supporters anyway.
Manly flogged the Storm 40-0 giving Melbourne the worst loss in their history and the biggest winning margin for a grand final in the history of the NRL.
Although Smith has not indicated his retirement from the NRL yet, at 35 next month it’s not that far off. The Storm have a season or two to train someone up to replace his leadership, not just on-field skill.
Smith is of course not the only one-man team to fall apart after the retirement of their main man. After the retirement of Andrew Johns, the Newcastle Knights had slumped to three wooden spoons in a row and don’t look like being real premiership contenders anytime soon, not even with Mitchell Pearce.
So the future could be very bleak for the Storm, if they don’t find a replacement for Smith within the next twelve months. Tick tock Storm, Tick tock. It would be a shame to watch the most successful club of the 21st century go down in flames.
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