Melbourne, Queensland, and Australian great Cameron Smith celebrated his 350th NRL appearance in the Storm’s 40-6 victory over Manly this past Sunday, and he did it in style setting up four tries in a man of the match performance. Fifteen years after his debut Smith is still leading the way as one of the best hookers in the game. Let’s take at look at his 2017 season.
Smith’s four try assists on the weekend took his tally to 11 which is the most of any hooker in the league, he has also converted the most goals (51), he has scored the most points (106), made the most kicks and metres from kicks (68 & 2087), his seven try contributions is the most in the league in his position, as is his four 40/20s.
The six-time Dally M Hooker of the Year has made the fifth most tackle busts (18), sixth most offloads (seven), and the 10th most tackles (527), the second most long kicks (29) and the most passes in general play (266).
In 2015 Smith became the first Melbourne player to surpass 300 matches, and this past weekend became only the third player to play 350. If the 34-year-old can play every match he will overtake Darren Lockyer to become the most capped NRL player (356) in the first week of the final series.
In March of this year Smith reached 2000 career points to become the first forward, first Queenslander, and just the fifth player toย achieve the milestone.
With Cooper Cronk moving to Sydney and question marks about Billy Slater’s future, Melbourne’s golden generation is seemingly drawing to a close so there’ll be no better way to go out than Smith becoming the game’s most capped player and Melbourne securing yet another premiership victory.
