{"id":36136,"date":"2021-02-18T02:58:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T03:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=36136"},"modified":"2021-02-18T04:56:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T04:56:28","slug":"meninga-responds-to-wild-cam-smith-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=36136","title":{"rendered":"Meninga responds to wild Cam Smith speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast Titans head of performance Mal Meninga claims he hasn't spoken to Cameron Smith<\/a> as speculation that the legendary hooker will be joining the club reaches fever pitch.<\/p>\n

Smith this week sent social media into a frenzy when he was pictured training at Firth Park<\/a> on the Gold Coast, where he and his family relocated during the off-season.<\/p>\n

Adding to that, the Titans are the one club out of the 16 in the NRL with enough money left under the salary cap for 2021 to accommodate a player of the calibre of Smith, with reports that the club still has up to $600,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However Meninga attempted to stop the links in his tracks today when he spoke to media at a Fox League launch.<\/p>\n

He claimed not to have been in contact with the superstar, saying: "He's the hardest bloke to get hold of in the world."<\/p>\n

Asked directly if Smith would be joining the Titans, Meninga described it as "the $550,000 question".<\/p>\n

"Everyone assumes he's coming to the Titans. I haven't talked to him, he's not on the radar," Meninga continued. <\/p>\n

"You should ask (Broncos coach) Kevvie (Walters) about Cameron so I don't have to answer these questions any more."<\/p>\n

\"Mal<\/p>\n

It's not the first time Meninga has been asked this summer about the prospect of Smith joining the Titans and he has consistently denied having been in contact with the 37-year-old.<\/p>\n

He told the Courier-Mail: "I don't have any idea what Cam is doing. I don't know if he's retiring. I'm in the dark like everyone else. But I know he won't be at the Titans."<\/p>\n

Titans CEO Steve Mitchell was also recently quizzed on the matter and was singing from the same hymn sheet as Meninga.<\/p>\n

"Retention and recruitment is something we don't comment on, but we haven't had any discussions (with Smith)," Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

"The start of the season's about three weeks away \u2026 It's never been looked at as an option.<\/p>\n

"Media speculation around Cam coming to the club has been a wonderful PR campaign for us.<\/p>\n

\"Sterlo\u2019s<\/p>\n

"We've got media exposure you couldn't buy so I have to be grateful for that. It's really good intent.<\/p>\n

"The population and the fanbase and the media are very excited about the future for us so that speculation is endearing. We're very grateful."<\/p>\n

Whether Smith is on their radar or not, the Titans are lapping up the attention and it's not likely to die down until Smith gives a public statement on his future.<\/p>\n

It is now widely accepted, though still uncomfirmed, that Smith will not be at the Storm this season, leaving the only two options for him in 2021 retirement or a move to the Titans.<\/p>\n

Smith could immediately take all the air out of the story by telling the world what he's doing. Until then all anyone can do is wait, watch and speculate.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast Titans head of performance Mal Meninga claims he hasn't spoken to Cameron Smith as speculation that the legendary hooker will be joining the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36138,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36136\/revisions\/36138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}