Smith hoping for mate’s retirement
IF it was up to Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk would not play again after the 2017 NRL season.
In his 14th finals series since his 2002 debut, Storm skipper Smith should be feeling right at home before yet another title tilt.
Instead, he concedes there is a looming sense of dread that half-back and good mate Cronk will leave Melbourne and join a Sydney club.
Cronk’s future is up in the air after he announced this year he would leave the Storm at season’s end to be with his fiancee in Sydney.
As much as Smith cherishes NRL PRELIMINARY FINAL aiming to claim its second premiership in three years.
Undersized forward Shaun Fensom has been named to start alongside Bolton, while Corey Jenson joins Asiata and Hess to complete their bigmen rotation off the bench.
“We’ll wait and see. But as I keep saying, I don’t expect the team to change,” Cooper said.
Hess also finished the run despite his right knee being heavily strapped.
“He’s good. He’s got little bandy legs, he’s only 21 years old, so he’ll be fine. Everyone saw the player he will be for a long time throughout this year,” Cooper said. departure really hit me as the finals got closer, that realisation that we only had a small handful of games left together.
“I can’t imagine what will go through my mind if he signs with a Sydney club next year and plays against us.
“It might happen, I guess. [But] it will be one of the strangest things I’ll ever have to face on a footy field.”
A veteran of a record 42 State of Origins, Smith said it felt weird playing against Storm teammates for Queensland, but described the thought of lining up against Cronk as “completely different”.
He said it would be hard to ignore the special bond he and veteran fullback Billy Slater had forged dominance.
“The relationship between Coops, Billy [Slater] and I goes back so far that I really don’t know what to think about next year,” he said.
“What we have achieved together has been special not only for us, but for the whole game in general. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way.
“But Coops and I have played more than 300 games for the one club, and Billy would have been there, too, if not for the bad injury run he had. We’ve also represented Queensland and Australia together. We lived it together.
“And now a big part of it is almost over.” during Storm’s