{"id":42954,"date":"2021-03-10T03:33:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T04:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=42954"},"modified":"2021-03-10T05:21:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T05:21:39","slug":"why-smith-retired-one-day-before-season-kick-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=42954","title":{"rendered":"Why Smith retired one day before season kick-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cameron Smith has revealed he knew a week ago that his NRL career was over<\/a>, but wanted to make the official announcement in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Smith, who now lives in Queensland, says he'd been wrestling with the decision since last year's grand final victory, believing he was both physically and mentally good enough to play on.<\/p>\n

But knowing that statues were due to be unveiled at Melbourne's home ground, AAMI Park, of both himself and long-time teammate Billy Slater<\/a>, the 430-game veteran kept his retirement news to himself until today's official unveiling.<\/p>\n

"In my head I made the decision maybe a week ago, but knowing that the unveiling of the statues was on today, and I was going to be in Melbourne, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to announce my decision," Smith said.<\/p>\n

"This is where I, and Billy, started our careers, right here at Olympic Park, in 2002.<\/p>\n

"This is where I wanted to officially end it as well."<\/p>\n

Smith's announcement brings the curtain down on a glittering career that includes 56 Test matches, 42 State of Origin appearances, three premierships and a competition-record 2,786 points.<\/p>\n

It follows a summer-long saga as those in and around the game tried to guess what Smith's future held<\/a>, and whether or not he'd play one more season.<\/p>\n

Even his long-time Melbourne coach, Craig Bellamy, claimed this morning to have no knowledge of Smith's plans, and had given up asking.<\/a><\/p>\n

"I tried that a couple of times last year and got a fairly icy response, so I haven't brought it up again," Bellamy told SEN radio.<\/p>\n

Smith explained that time off with his family over the summer helped him come to the conclusion that it was the right time to stop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I had to wrestle with that decision," Smith said.<\/p>\n

"That is the thing that made it more difficult. Winning the premiership last year I still felt good within myself and I still felt my form was good enough to play in the NRL but once I spent quality time with my family, I knew it was the right time to finish.<\/p>\n

"Now it gives me the opportunity to enjoy the next phase, next chapter of my life and hopefully it will involve rugby league in some capacity."<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old won two Dally M Medals, the first in 2006 and most recently in 2017, the 11-year gap between medals is also a record, and one that highlights how long he spent at the top of the game.<\/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>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cameron Smith has revealed he knew a week ago that his NRL career was over, but wanted to make the official announcement in Melbourne. Smith, […]<\/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\/42954"}],"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=42954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42956,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42954\/revisions\/42956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}