{"id":40139,"date":"2021-03-02T03:49:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T04:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=40139"},"modified":"2021-03-02T05:58:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T05:58:57","slug":"what-storm-will-miss-most-about-cam-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=40139","title":{"rendered":"What Storm will miss most about Cam Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Storm legend Billy Slater<\/a> says his former side will have to transform everything in a post-Cameron Smith<\/a> era, but that you should write them off at your peril.<\/p>\n

"Cameron Smith would certainly make this team better, he'd make any team better. But Craig Bellamy's still there and that system is still there," Slater told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It hasn't failed to date, and I don't think many people will be writing off the Storm."<\/p>\n

With Melbourne seemingly acknowledging that it was time to move on by naming Jesse Bromwich and Dale Finucane as co-captains, Slater said it was impossible to quantify the impact Smith had on the team as a whole.<\/p>\n

"It's a collective to replace Cameron. We've seen his leadership, that's one area of the game that both Jesse and Dale will need to fill a void, but also the likes of Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Ryan Papenhuyzen," Slater said.<\/p>\n

\"Rabbitohs<\/p>\n

"Some of those guys are quite young but it's time for them to step up and find a leadership role."<\/p>\n

But while players with pedigree at Origin and international level won't be in short supply, there's plenty of other aspects of Smith's departure that are virtually irreplaceable.<\/p>\n

MORE NRL NEWS:<\/strong> Seibold denies sabotaging Maguire at Souths<\/a><\/p>\n

"Obviously when you lose someone like Cameron Smith that's been so influential in that team for such a long time, there's not just any one thing that you lose," Slater said.<\/p>\n

"Given the fact that Harry and Brandon are probably more dynamic No.9s than Cameron was – Cameron had a great subtlety to his game. They're both quite explosive players and that's probably the one thing the team's had to adapt to."<\/p>\n

Slater said the players around the ruck would need to approach each play in a different way than when Smith was steering the side, and that they needed to be proactive, not reactive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"If you react to them (Smith\/Grant) running it's too late, you've got to react to the things that they're seeing that indicate a run. That's probably the biggest thing that I see.<\/p>\n

"The No.9 makes the first decision every time the ball's played. So in a sense, they've got the most important job on the field because they dictate everything."<\/p>\n

Because Smith didn't have the YouTube highlight compilations of a player like Slater or Johnathan Thurston, sometimes his brilliance went unnoticed. His former teammate said opponents were often defeated before they realised anything was wrong.<\/p>\n

"It's the most dangerous part of him. He can beat you without you even knowing it – that's the beauty of Cameron," he said.<\/p>\n

"You look at Ryan Papenhuyzen or Latrell Mitchell – you know when they're brilliant. But Cameron can be the most influential player in a game and not be in the top-five players.<\/p>\n

\"Gun<\/p>\n

"He can influence the game so much and you don't even recognise that he's doing it."<\/p>\n

Obviously it's big shoes to fill for either new hooker, but Slater says both come with a considerable pedigree and are up to the task.<\/p>\n

"You've got two guys that are playing in that position who've got huge futures. You've got the New Zealand No.9 and a guy who played for Queensland," he said.<\/p>\n

MORE NRL NEWS:<\/strong> Craig Bellamy's signature the driving force behind Storm-Broncos feud<\/a><\/p>\n

"The club's in a good position because of its work ethic and its culture – if there was ever an ideal time to move on it's probably now.<\/p>\n

"If you are going to lose him, you want it to be coming off a premiership. When you win, every player in that team and squad grows in confidence and it's an ideal time to transition from the most influential player in the game."<\/p>\n

Despite the pedigree of both would-be heirs, there are some things you can't replace – but possibly with time, they could learn.<\/p>\n

"It's so underestimated. When your team is getting a bit erratic or frustrated, I've seen Cameron Smith just calm the whole team down and dictate what happens," Slater said.<\/p>\n

"He dictates who it goes to, when it's kicked – you can really control the game from that position, and that only comes from experience."<\/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>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Storm legend Billy Slater says his former side will have to transform everything in a post-Cameron Smith era, but that you should write them off […]<\/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\/40139"}],"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=40139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40141,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40139\/revisions\/40141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}