‘They’re about to come back to the field’: Andrew Johns’ Storm warning for 2019

[Hogg]

ANDREW Johns says the Storm’s remarkable era of dominance is over.

Since Cameron Smith, Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk came on the scene 15 years ago, Melbourne have been perennial contenders, and big-game specialists.

But with Slater hanging up the boots, Smith close to retirement, and Cronk now winning premierships with the Roosters, the eighth Immortal reckons the sun is setting on those halcyon days.

“Cameron Smith hasn’t really said if he’s going to play on or not,” Johns told Wide World of Sports for Immortal Behaviour.

“But it’s the end of an era and you can’t replace those players, so they have to blow the club up and start again, especially they’re attack, how they attack differently.

“For me I think they’re about to come back to the field.”

The stinging assessment follows the Storm’s limp 21-6 grand final loss to the Roosters last Sunday night, which Johns described as the “worst I’ve seen Melbourne Storm play for probably 10 years”.

And they blitzed the Cronulla Sharks in the grand final qualifier on the back of a masterclass from the now-retired Slater, who many regard as the greatest fullback to have ever played the game.

So, it is of course difficult to see the Storm maintaining that same aura of strength that they’ve built over a sustained period of success.

It will be even more so, if Smith calls time on his illustrious career too. The Immortal-in-waiting set tongues wagging prior to the grand final, saying he hadn’t made up his mind on the subject.

But after their heavy loss in the decider, and the fact he’s in reach of becoming the first ever 400-game NRL player, it is highly unlikely he won’t play on for one more season.

The Storm also still have champion coach Craig Bellamy at the helm.

He took them from 10th place in 2002 to fifth in 2003, and developed at least one certain future Immortals inductee.

If he can hold on to Kangaroos five-eighth Cameron Munster, they will also have a number of quality young players capable of ensuring the club remains a competitive force.