Cameron Smith (rugby league, born 1983)

Cameron Wayne Smith (born 18 June 1983) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a, spending his entire career with the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL).

He has also been an assistant coach of the Queensland rugby league team under former Melbourne teammate Billy Slater since 2022.

An n international and Queensland State of Origin representative, Smith is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.

Smith was born on 18 June 1983 in Logan, Queensland, Australia.

He attended Marsden State High School.

Smith played at for the Logan Brothers in Logan City.

After scoring 188 points for the Norths Devils in the Queensland Cup he moved up to the NRL with the Melbourne Storm club.

Smith's first two games for Melbourne were during the 2002 NRL season, both played at half-back (No.7).

Returning to the Queensland Cup, he won the Norths Devils player of the year award in 2002.

The following year he played as the Storm's hooker.

In 2003, the Queensland rugby league team were without a specialist hooker.

After experimenting with different players in the position for the first two matches of the 2003 State of Origin series and losing both, Smith was named at hooker (No.9) for the third match.

For the next six years, no other player wore the number 9 for the Maroons until this run of 19 consecutive Origins was cut due to injury.

He was named the Melbourne Storm's rookie of the year in 2003.

In 2005, Smith was named the Melbourne Storm's player of the year.

The following year he first represented Australia and won the Dally M Medal.

During his nineteen-year career, Smith won the Dally M Medal as the NRL's player of the year in 2006 and 2017, the Golden Boot Award as the international player of the year in 2007 and 2017, and the NRL's Dally M Hooker of the Year on nine occasions.

Also in Round 3 of 2006 Smith captained the club for the first time and in what became a very successful year for him as later that year he led the Storm to the 2006 NRL Grand Final.

During the Grand Final, while the game was still in the balance, he was forced from the field with injury, which the Storm's loss has been largely attributed to.

At the Melbourne Storm awards night Smith was named the Storm's 2006 player of the year.

Smith was selected to play for the Australian national team at hooker the 2007 ANZAC Test match victory against New Zealand.

For the 2007 State of Origin series, Smith took out both the Wally Lewis Medal for player of the series and Ron McAuliffe Medal for Queensland player of the series.

He was also named the Melbourne Storm player of the year.

Smith captained the Melbourne Storm in their 34–8 victory over the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the 2007 NRL Grand Final.

Smith became regular captain of the Melbourne Storm in 2008.

Smith captained the Maroons for the entire 2008 State of Origin series due to the absence of regular captain Darren Lockyer.

The Maroons won the series, despite losing the first match 18–10.

In August 2008, Smith was named in the preliminary 46-man Kangaroos squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, and in October 2008 he was selected in the final 24-man Australia squad.

Cameron was suspended for two weeks in the 2008 finals series after a grapple tackle on Brisbane's Sam Thaiday.

The suspension would have only been one week had he not have carried over points from a previous grapple tackle in round 1 of the year's competition.

This meant he was suspended for Melbourne's 2008 grand final.

Melbourne Storm CEO Brian Waldron and coach Craig Bellamy claimed the judiciary had made their minds up before Cameron's case was heard.

The judiciary panel members then threatened to sue the club if the comments were not retracted.

Cameron signed a four-year extension to his contract in December 2008, resulting in him being a contracted player through to the end of at least the 2012 season.

He was the captain of the Storm for fifteen years, during which time they won the 2012, 2017, and 2020 NRL Premierships, and also Australia and Queensland from 2012 until his retirement from representative matches in 2018.

Considered a future Immortal, Smith is currently the NRL's games record holder, with 430 matches played; he is the only player to have played over 400 matches.

He is also the highest all-time points scorer in NRL history, having surpassed Hazem El Masri's 2,418 points on 12 April 2019.

Smith also holds the NRL records for most goals kicked (1295), most tackles made (16917), most grand final points scored (44) and most wins (310).

Smith was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for his service to rugby league.

He retired from professional rugby league in 2021.