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Three things I learned reading 'The Storm Within', the Cameron Smith autobiography

Roar Rookie
31st January, 2021
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Roar Rookie
31st January, 2021
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3099 Reads

As a Queenslander and rugby league fan, I’ll happily admit to a genuine admiration for Cameron Smith.

As the winningest player in the history of the game, he seems incredibly maligned, not just as a player but also as a person. Is he the best player ever? Who knows?

Has he had the best career of all time? With his stack of records (neatly listed in the book) he has to be in the conversation. Despite that, the release of his long-awaited autobiography was of little interest to me.

Sporting biographies tend to land in one of two categories: a tedious, formulaic prose that reveals little more than a moderately interested follower of the respective person would already know.

Steve Waugh’s nearly 800 pages falls squarely in this category and the John Eales effort from several years back was a great cure for insomnia.

The second category represents a cliche where the subject alternates between reflection, time spent linking childhood experiences with future success and self-help guru. I’m looking at you Justin Langer.

In fairness, there is a small third category, where the book actually opens a window to the person and transcends the sport, by revealing a level of insight that is not only unexpected, but genuinely interesting.

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Andre Agassi’s Open is one example and to this day I’d recommend it to anyone.

But back to Cameron and The Storm Within. It duly found its way under my Christmas tree so I had nothing but time to invest.

As a rugby league fan, the sustained success of the Melbourne Storm is remarkable. One aspect of their success that I find fascinating lies not from the players they develop into superstars, but of the players who descend to average first graders when they leave the Storm system.

And that was what kept me interested in this book. I have no interest in whether Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk exchange Christmas cards and I don’t really care why the NRL saw fit to gift Cameron’s wife a diamond ring when he broke the games played record.

The book gives the latter issue much more attention in case you were wondering.

Yet, as the Storm captain for the better part of 15 years, I thought Smith would offer up some interesting insights as to what kept his team on top for so long? And admittedly, I was also interested for clues as to whether he is likely to play on this year and beyond.

To the first question, Smith defers much of the credit to Craig Bellamy (or ‘Bellyache’ or ‘Dogface’ as he’s known in the book).

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Craig Bellamy

Craig Bellamy (Photo by Robert Prezioso/Getty Images)

While it’s frequently referred to, the clear message is that the club’s sustained success comes back to the standards Bellamy has instilled in the club.

“People talk about the Melbourne Storm culture. Really it was just about the standards and behaviours we were willing to accept.”

And while there are a few practical examples, including one where early in his career Bellamy pulled Smith aside and told him he was training within himself and of the need to give his all at every session on the training track, that’s really as much of an insight as the reader gets.

The second point is a bit harder and when Smith and his shadow writer Andrew Webster started collating the book, there would have surely been a suspicion that Smith’s future into 2021 would have been determined one way or the other.

But that is where a deeper picture of Cameron Smith steps forward. Smith clearly has a strong sense of self and is deeply loyal firstly to his family and secondly to his club.

He wants to spend more time with his family but the thrill he gets from training and from competing certainly hasn’t waned. I’ve no doubt he was genuine when he said he didn’t want to remain at the Storm if it meant the club would lose Harry Grant or Brandon Smith.

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It’s also clear that the standards that are ingrained at Melbourne have been a major driver in making Smith the player he has been for so long. And importantly, his understanding of this is clear in the book.

One gets the sense that Smith is torn between a genuine enjoyment of the game and a willingness to keep going; but with the knowledge that if he’s not playing at the Storm, those standards that have driven him for many years will no longer be present.

Deep down he wants to play on and based on his 2020 form, he could do so; but that loyalty to Melbourne, his need for that Storm ‘culture’, coupled with a desire to spend more time at home will see him hanging up the boots for good.

It’s a shame that the issue of playing on remains unresolved in the book because the context of the final chapters is certainly overshadowed by that unanswered question.

One issue that was explored in the book and which certainly leaves me at odds with Smith was the Storm’s salary cap scandal and the stripping of the 2007 and ’09 premierships.

Smith emphasises the fact that the punishments were announced before a thorough investigation had been undertaken and perhaps rightly, he feels the players weren’t sufficiently supported through the resultant fallout and the season that involved playing for no points.

Cameron Smith of the Storm poses with the Premiership trophy

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

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Yet the fact remains the Storm were over the salary cap to the tune of $3.78 million over a five-year period. Smith’s defence of the players and coaching staff was ultimately vindicated by the NRL, but his defence on the basis that he never received any unexpected payments in his bank account is naïve at best.

What’s perhaps most remarkable is that Smith still states that he’s on good terms with both Brian Waldron and Matt Hansen, then CEO and CFO respectively.

The person he does hold animosity towards however is David Gallop, the NRL CEO who handed out the punishments.

What’s also disappointing is the lack of acknowledgement of the damage to the game delivered by the episode.

The Storm ran a sophisticated system involving massive overpayments that was designed to cheat the salary cap. They won two premierships with teams that had been assembled outside the rules.

While Smith may claim they won these premierships because they trained and worked harder than anyone else, those teams were assembled and retained in violation of the rules. It’s perhaps disappointing and surprising that Smith does not in any way acknowledge the damage done to the game through that shameful episode.

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So, is The Storm Within worth the read? Smith has always been a polarising figure, attracting praise and criticism in equal measure and this book is unlikely to change anyone’s mind about him.

There is the odd interesting morsel; about why he chose the Storm over the Broncos for example, while the chapter covering the Alex McKinnon incident and aftermath certainly gets an extended revision.

If you’re a keen league follower and a Maroons or Storm fan, you’ll find a few nuggets to enjoy. If you’re not, it’s probably best left on the shelf.

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