Storm skipper Cameron Smith personally phoned Anthony Milford to get him to leave Brisbane
TEST skipper Cameron Smith has revealed he personally phoned Anthony Milford as part of Melbourne’s secret plan to poach the Broncos sensation.
The extent of Melbourne’s pursuit of Milford can be revealed with Smith emerging as a key figure in the Storm’s big-money poaching attempt on Brisbane’s best young talent.
Milford will come to terms with the Broncos on a $4 million extension with Brisbane hierarchy planning to formally announce his retention on Monday.
But the Broncos were forced to up the ante at the eleventh hour after Melbourne produced an impressive sales pitch, flying Milford south for talks with coach Craig Bellamy.
The Storm had hoped their trump card would be Maroons captain Smith, who contacted Milford to spruik the attraction of playing alongside him at Melbourne.
“I spoke to Milf personally,” Smith told
The Sunday Mail.
“I gave him a call and from a players point of view, I figured he might be curious about what he would be walking into at the Storm.
“I just said ‘mate we’d be delighted if you chose to the come to the Storm. We know what sort of player you are and we’d love to have your services at the Storm’.
“That was really the extent of our chat. I’m not part of the recruitment team. I don’t sign players for the club but I wanted to let him know how our players felt about him and that we felt he’d be a great addition to our team.”
If Milford can relate to anyone at the Storm, it is Smith. The 344-game Melbourne legend grew up in the Brisbane suburb of Logan, just 18km from nearby Inala, where Milford launched his junior league career.
Smith said the Storm identified Milford as the perfect replacement for Cooper Cronk and believes he would have been the greatest recruit in the club’s 19-year history.
“Anthony is one of the best young talents coming through in the halves,” he said.
“We all know what he’s capable of doing on the field and the quality that he does bring to his footy side.
“The club is not hiding from the fact we’re looking for a half given that Cooper has announced he won’t be here next year.
“Over our short existence, we haven’t really gone out and signed any big names, it’s been more around junior development.
“Guys like Billy, Cooper and myself came through the feeder-club system with Norths Devils.
“We’ve mainly tried to retain players we’ve identified as kids.
“History shows that not too many players at the Broncos want to leave the club. It’s hard to get guys out of the Broncos because they are a wonderful footy club, they are always successful and they have a great coach in Wayne Bennett.”
Bellamy has a knack of turning bargain buys into dominant NRL players.
Smith has no doubt Milford would have relished life at the Storm under Bellamy.
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