Craig Smith

The Storms’ leading point-scorer in the club’s debut year (110pts – 2t, 51pts) had to sit on the sidelines for much of 1999 when Matt Geyer was in such great form. Smith bided his time, training in Melbourne but flying back to Brisbane on weekends to play with the Storms’ feeder club, Brisbane Norths, in the Queensland Cup competition. Then, just before the 1999 semi-final series, coach Chris Anderson dropped his son Ben, moved Geyer to five-eighth and reinstated Smith on the wing and made him goal-kicker. Smith’s boot proved the difference in three sudden-death victories which culminated in his three goals and penalty try (after being illegally tackled when scoring in the corner with three minutes remaining) in the grand final. There was no happy ending after Melbourne’s fairytale grand final – Smith rejected Melbourne’s offer for 2000 and retired from the NRL.