Storm have endured their worst run of injuries in recent years but the fact they currently sit in second spot on the NRL ladder has their captain full of pride.
A season that begun with a flood injuries to the squads outside backs has now shifted to the forward pack, with several key big men sidelined.
However through it all the playing group has remained resilient on their way to 16-3 record that currently has them three and a half games inside the top two.
Be at AAMI Park when we take on the Rabbitohs, Saturday 6 August, 7:30pm.
There is still plenty of football left to play this season but the skipper praised the side’s ability to handle the adversity thrown at them thus far.
“Extremely proud, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many injuries to our squad as what we’ve had this year,” Cameron Smith said.
“We lost pretty much our entire backline in the first five or six weeks of this season. The biggest name of those was Billy who played one match for us and was gone for the rest of the year.
“Now we’ve lost a few of our big blokes and we’ve had to play the last five or six weeks without those guys who would be in our starting 17 every week.
“I’ve been really pleased with our depth and the consistency that the boys have played at this year, something we haven’t been so good at over the last two seasons.
“Craig really challenged the entire squad last year to bring back that consistency, more so for the younger guys in our squad to play well every week now…. and those guys have done that really well.”
Storm are currently in their best position after 21 rounds since 2011.
With a tough run home that sees them play three of the current top six teams, the players are focusing in on continuing their good run of form.
“We’ve given ourselves a good opportunity to do something special this year,” Smith said.
“There is still a lot of football to be played between now and the grand final but our focus is just on finishing this season as strong as we can and once the 26 rounds are done it all starts again.
“We will have to play as well as we can for the next five and start a new focus from there.”
Storm host the Rabbitohs at 7.30pm this Saturday night at AAMI Park.
