Smith calls for Origin presentation rethink

Omnisports

June 22, 2016 11:18 PM

Queensland captain Cameron Smith would have preferred to lift the State of Origin trophy in Brisbane in front of the Maroons faithful.

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Queensland captain Cameron Smith would have preferred to lift the State of Origin trophy in Brisbane in front of the Maroons faithful after sealing the series at Origin II with a 26-16 win at Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday.

Smith was at his inspirational best as he helped Queensland to another Origin win, thanks to a hat-trick of tries from Dane Gagai and another to Corey Oates.

But Smith will have to wait until Origin III in Sydney next month before he can get his hands on the trophy, which he will lift in front of a subdued New South Wales crowd.

"It would be nice to - I'd be honest - but it's never happened in the past and we didn't expect it to happen," Smith said. "And I wasn't going to ask for it to happen.

"Only two years ago NSW wrapped it up in two games and Paul Gallen didn't get to lift it in Sydney. I'm happy to lift it anywhere as long as it's in our hands.

"Maybe it's something for the NRL to look at. If you're playing at home in game two and you've wrapped it up in the two games maybe we can look at doing that."

On the win itself, Smith said it was important to recognise the work of Kevin Walters, who was described as "third choice" for the job after Mal Meninga left to coach the national team.

"None of the players ever thought [Walters] had to live up to what Mal was about as a coach," Smith said.

"He's his own coach and he's got his own style. And he's quite smart with his footy and he hasn't come in and tried to reinvent the wheel.

"He's seen some small improvements in our team which we needed to make and he's made us win the first two games.

"The one thing we all enjoy about Kevvie is his passion for our state and for this team and the emotion he shows around that. I don't think you see too many coaches show a lot of emotion.

"In both camps he has given us quite moving chats. You can see it means a lot to him to be the coach of this side. Anytime a coach does that the guys have no second thoughts about who they're playing for when they run out onto the field. We're playing for this guy and we don't want to let him down."

Omnisports

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