Melbourne Storm captain Cameron Smith has revealed when he worked out he wanted to continue on into the 2019 season.
The Storm were defeated in last year’s NRL Grand Final and Smith said that, coupled with lessening his representative commitments, helped him decide he still had more fuel in the tank.
“I always had strong intentions of playing on after last year even though I was out of contract,” Smith told SEN Breakfast.
“I guess the biggest question would’ve been posed to me had we won the Grand Final whether I would’ve gone around again, but having lost that game, I think even going into the game I had a strong desire to play on because I was still enjoying the game.
“The hardest thing for a guy my age is to find that hunger and motivation to turn up to training every day.
“The biggest thing for myself was stepping down from representative duties, particularly State of Origin.
“Being able to have a rest during that Origin period did wonders for me for my body and freshening me up mentally.
“Once I got through that Origin period I was confident I wanted to go on.
“It took a little while to nut out a deal, but now that it’s done with a further two years, I’m really excited about getting into 2019 and going back to another Grand Final.
“I want to take this team back there again.”
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