With Melbourne and Manly facing off this weekend, Storm great Cameron Smith recalled the infamous ‘Battle of Brookvale’ brawl from 2011.
Having played each other in the 2007 and 2008 Grand Finals, the rivalry between the Storm and Sea Eagles was at an all-time high, and tensions boiled over in dramatic fashion in Round 25 of 2011.
Speaking on SEN 1170 The Captain’s Run, Smith revealed he was genuinely worried that fans would potentially take action after the bench-clearing melee erupted.
“There’s been very few times in my career when I was on a footy field - and I wasn’t scared - but I was a little bit worried about the entire situation and what was going to happen,” Smith said.
“You even thought the crowd could get onto the field, and that night at Brookvale, I swear to god, I thought, ‘How are we going to get out of here alive? How are we going to get into the sheds? How are we going to get onto our bus?’.
“There was a huge rivalry between the Storm and Manly and it’d built up over a number of years
“What happened was that it started with Ryan Hinchcliffe and Darcy Lussick and I think there may have been a stray elbow which lead to a push and shove and a couple of little short punches.
“Everyone came in and then Adam Blair and Glenn Stewart got put in the bin.
“As they were coming off as well all know it erupted, and the benches came onto the field, and everyone came running in.
“At Brookvale, the crowd is on top of you already, and once that fight broke out and the two guys were sent off, I remember thinking, ‘We have got to play this match out, then what? Is there going to be people waiting outside?’.
“Security were going to have a job on their hands to get us into the sheds and to our bus.
“Thankfully, common sense prevailed and we were able to get away, but Brookie, that was certainly etched in the memory and it will be well past the time of all those great Storm teams.
“That was the rivalry between the two teams, I think it was at its peak at that time.
“Both teams – I won’t lie – they disliked each other a lot. Anytime Melbourne and Manly played against each other around those times there was always heated moments.
“Thankfully we got out of there alive.”