League: Warriors hope to limit Storm's Smith

The Warriors hope to limit Melbourne Storm hooker Cameron Smith's influence in Monday night's clash at AAMI Park.

In his 14th season with Melbourne, the 31-year-old Storm, Queensland and Kangaroos captain continues to lead from the front and has been one of his side's best performers over the opening month of football.

They have claimed impressive wins over the Dragons and Sharks while their defeats have been narrow, losing by two points against Manly in round two, and falling 18-17 in golden point against the Cowboys last Monday.

In each of the opening four games, Smith touched the ball more than any other Storm player and made close to 50 tackles. Quite remarkably, he is yet to commit an error.

"He's certainly someone we've got to be aware of this weekend," Warriors coach Andrew McFadden said. "He's still very classy. He knows how to get a team around the park and is very experienced. He's one of the many people that we're going to have to look out for this week."

Former Storm teammate of 11 years and new Warriors recruit, Ryan Hoffman, says the best they can aim to do is reduce Smith's impact upon the match.

"You are never going to take a guy like Cameron out of a game completely, you just need to limit what he can do," Hoffman said. "He's a fantastic player and we need to limit his effectiveness by how we defend."

At 1.85m and 90kg, Smith is as far from being the supposed prototype of the modern-day player. But what he lacks in size and power he more than makes up for in game nous.

He picks and chooses his moments to run or kick out of dummy-half and has an uncanny ability to keep his feet in the tackle. He can also slip an offload to support runners, making him a nightmare to contain.

"He's a footballer, not an athlete," says Hoffman, who will play his 250th NRL game against his former side. "Sure he's small but he's a footballer through and through and there's a big difference.

"Everyone seems to think the best rugby league players are the biggest, strongest or fastest guys but they're not. It comes down to who's the better footballer rather than who's the better athlete.

"He doesn't get flustered about anything. He's a very cool, calm and collected bloke and he knows that all he has to do is his job.

"Certainly, he gives direction but he's also got a very good deputy there in Cooper [Cronk]. They work with each other really well but it's all about making sure their job is done well."

The Warriors completed their training preparations yesterday and leave for Melbourne today, with prop Sam Rapira (hamstring) and centre Konrad Hurrell (knee) possibly in line to make their returns from injury.

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Storm v Warriors

AAMI Park, 7pm Monday

Billy Slater

Y Tonumaipea

William Chambers

Kurt Mann

Marika Koroibete

Blake Green

Cooper Cronk

Jesse Bromwich

C Smith (c)