New Zealand Test hooker Brandon Smith says he's been assured that he will be the heir to Cameron Smith's No.9 jersey at the Melbourne Storm.
Iconic 400-gamer Cameron Smith is tipped to retire after this season, while Brandon Smith is a wonderful replacement to have.
Yet the young Kiwi, contracted at Melbourne until the end of 2022, is such a ferocious ball-runner that there have been musings about whether hooker is actually his best position.
Smith Jr is adamant that he wants the purple No.9 jumper and says all conversations with Storm officials have been to that effect. Having previously denied that he was upset at being stuck behind the legendary hooker as his career extended to historic lengths, Brandon Smith insists he's happy to keep learning from the best.
"I've had a few chats with them about me being the replacement for Cam Smith and they've always gone in the direction that I expected them to go in," Smith told The Sunday Footy Show.
"I guess it's up to them whether they're telling me the truth or not; they're going to tell me what I want to hear.
"But I'm happy to take a back seat for the meanwhile and keep learning off the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). It's been awesome.
"I've been to some amazing games and been able to experience finals football, so at the moment I don't want to be too sour about being behind him. I'm just taking it how it is at the moment."
Retired NRL great Paul Gallen recently tipped Brandon Smith for greatness, but questioned whether he might be more effective as a back-rower.
"Hooker, back-row ... wherever you want to put him, he does the job. I reckon he'd make the starting back-row in 90 per cent of NRL teams and he'd be the starting hooker in a lot of teams as well," Gallen wrote in his Wide World of Sports column, branding the young gun his favourite current player.
"He only doesn't at Melbourne, of course, because he's stuck behind probably the greatest player the game's ever seen in Cameron Smith. He's just biding his time.
"I've actually never asked him what his favourite position is and I'd love to know. He's just so tough. You watch him run the ball and it's 100 miles an hour, head down, bum up. He just rips into everything he does.
"He plays in that tight back-row spot really well, so it will be interesting to see what happens when Cameron retires. Is he the full-time No.9, or does he rotate between there and the back-row?"
The Smith double act will be at the forefront of Melbourne's premiership hopes, especially after the late twist of dropping to one referee and playing to new ruck rules.
The Storm have also been forced to travel to Albury for a training camp, due to Victoria's earlier ban on training, before returning to Melbourne to finalise preparations for the season restart.
"We've just had to adapt to it and overcome it, really. All the rule changes and stuff has really shifted our focus and training," Brandon Smith said.
"It's been a really hard re-pre-season, I guess, and Bellamy's really put us through the works because he wants us to be ready for the season coming.
"It's been a bit tough, we had a hard season and then we had to go and do another one, so that was a bit annoying."
Melbourne will relaunch their season with a home game against Canberra on Saturday.
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/brandon-smith-replacing-cameron-smith-melbourne-storm-hooker/81ee0a0b-5d30-4329-8dc1-d862f918a945
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