Smith to suit up in 2020

19th season for Storm star

RUGBY LEAGUE: Cameron Smith will report for Melbourne Storm preseason training on January 3, suiting up for a 19th year in the NRL.

The record holder for most NRL games, 411, future Immortal Smith was contracted for next season but pondered retirement after Storm crashed out of the finals in straight sets this year.

“I’m feeling really fresh now and looking forward to next year,” he said yesterday.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back into training … start getting itchy feet after a few weeks (off), looking to get back into it.”

Smith will use the remainder of his time off to fully recharge mentally to get through another “gruelling season”.

After falling short of the mark last year, the 36-year-old competitive beast has bold ambitions for the Storm in 2020.

“I’m excited to see the squad improve on last year, although some people may scoff at that after our record (20-4) in the regular season,” he told Storm TV.

“But I know the entire squad and coaching staff, the whole organisation were disappointed with the way we finished the year and bowed out of the finals. I’m looking forward to seeing the younger guys go to another level in 2020.

“They’re at a stage in their career now where they need to be looking to improve year on year, and given what they were able to give us in 2019 I’d like to think we’re going to be very competitive again in 2020.”

Smith first declared his attention to play on next year in a post on Twitter yesterday.

He also took the opportunity to dismiss a report about a mooted switch to halfback.

Speculation around Smith’s future has raged for several weeks.

While confident the veteran would play on, coach Craig Bellamy and club officials were prepared to give the skipper the time and space he needed to make up his mind.

“Whatever the right call was going to be for him was the right call for us,” Bellamy told News Corp.

Bellamy, though, had added to the frenzy on Dally M night, revealing Smith had spoken about retiring at the club’s Mad Monday function.

“Straight after the season I got the feeling that perhaps he wasn’t going to go on,” Bellamy said.

“The longer it went the chance of retiring diminished … I think if he was going to retire he would’ve made that decision reasonably quickly.”