SMITH STORMS HOME
Captain Cam dominates Dally M count to cement his position as the best player in rugby league
CAMERON Smith is the best player in the rugby league. Last night it became official, and final.
Smith was named the Dally M Player of the Year at an awards night with all the trimmings at Sydney’s Star Casino, a purple haze descending on the event as the Melbourne Storm dominated honours. Smith also won Captain of the Year and Craig Bellamy was named Coach of the Year.
It is the second time Smith was crowned the Dally M winner. He also won in 2006. In between there has been nothing but excellence. Smith went into the night the shortest-priced favourite in years, paying not much more than bank interest with bookmakers.
He polled 33 points to claim the award with three rounds to spare ahead of grand final rival, North Queensland’s Michael Morgan, who polled 25.
Morgan is another who has had a stunning season, taking over the chief playmaker role for the Cowboys from the injured Johnathan Thurston.
Third was St George Illawarra’s Gareth Widdop (24) with the Sydney Roosters Luke Keary (22) and Cronulla veteran Paul Gallen (22) rounding out the top five.
But the night belonged to Smith who, as usual, owned the moment. Smith is that rare kind of genius. His gifts are so extraordinary his style is almost impossible to identify, let alone imitate.
Rivals often spend all week devising ways to attempt to shut him down only to see it amount to nothing. Smith’s football intelligence is such he not only quickly identifies how rivals are playing him, he adjusts on the run and finds other ways to counter their strategy and remain effective.
It is why he polled Dally M points in 15 of the 20 NRL games he played this season, including seven three-point games. Teammate Billy Slater finished seventh in polling, on 19. Smith is not only the best player in the NRL, he is arguably the best footballer of any code in Australia.
Nobody can claim to dominate their game like Smith, who is also the Australian and Queensland captain.
Rivals admit there is no way to stop his influence on a game. They just hope to contain it.
Against Brisbane last week Smith skipped out of dummyhalf and kicked too long, the ball going dead in-goal.
He muttered a few profanities to himself, showing he is not perfect, and then did what he usually does and adjusted his game to flawless.