NOT DONE JUST YET
SMITH WANTS MORE
CAMERON Smith has declared he is playing on for Queensland and Australia as the rake called for an overhaul of the NRL calendar to promote Test football.
In a boost for the Maroons and Kangaroos, Smith is adamant he won’t be following the lead of Cooper Cronk and Johnathan Thurston by walking away from rep footy next year.
Cronk dropped a bombshell after Australia’s epic 6-0 defeat of England on Saturday night, revealing the World Cup final was his final game in the green-and-gold jumper.
The Queensland State of Origin team’s hopes of winning a 12th series in 13 years in 2018 have been rocked by the loss of their star halves Cronk and Thurston.
Maroons coach Kevin Walters can at least breathe a sigh of relief that his captain, Smith, will soldier on as part of his mission to improve the health of representative footy.
The Kangaroos will play once next year – an October clash against New Zealand after the NRL grand final – and Maroons ace Smith is determined to skipper Australia in what would be his 57th Test.
“In all honesty, if there was (more) Test matches on next year that the Kangaroos play, I will put my hand up to play them,” Smith said. “It’s tough. Does it mean it would result in fatigue and burnout?
‘‘Yes it would, because we play a lot of football already.”
Smith accepts the NRL has contractual commitments to networks via a $1.8 billion broadcast deal, but believes cutting back the 26-round club season is the only way to create room for more Tests.
“For me, that (shortening the NRL season) is the simplest way to do it,” he said.
“At the moment, the revenue coming into our game comes from the broadcast deal, which means we have to play a certain number of games and we’ll fulfil those commitments.
‘‘But we need to sit down and be creative about our schedule, let’s be smart about it so everyone benefits from the calendar.”
Australia coach Mal Meninga turned up the heat on administrators to beef-up the international program.
“That’s for the big decisionmakers,” Meninga said.
“There needs to be more events and there is an appetite for it (Test football).
“We have to sit down with the decision makers and come up with a schedule, not only for us (the tier-one nations), but also the tier-two nations.
“We need to make Test football a priority, because it is a point of difference for us having an international program.’’