CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
PULLIN AN ALFIE: Rugby league legend Cameron Smith has today announced his retirement the only job he has ever had, playing football in the NRL, killing all the speculation about his future.
Smith has been honoured today alongside fellow Storm icon Billy Slater with a bronze statue outside of AAMI Park,
This comes as a suspiciously quick and sudden announcement, one that has shut down all rumours that suggested the 433-game veteran was going to go around for another year, possibly for one of the struggling NRL clubs in his home state.
This unsatisfying twist ending to a career that will remain in the record-books for centuries has left the NRL fanbase, particularly those of Maroon persuasion, with more questions than answers.
The Advocate hit the streets to gauge the feelings amongst rugby league fans.
“I don’t buy it for one fucken minute” says Brock, a 65-year-old powdercoating specialist from Nerang.
“I can guarantee you he’ll be on a flight up here and scoring backward overhead tries in no time. We’ve seen this before”
Susannah (45, Dayboro, logistics manager) agrees with Brock.
“There’s a lot of Alfie about this. A lot of Alfie indeed”
Down in NSW, fans seem to have the same feeling.
“This is suss as” says Katheleighn (24, gaming attendant, Blacktown).
“I reckon he’s pulling an Alfie.
In contemporary rugby league parlance, ‘Pulling an Alfie’ is to trick an entire nation into think you have retired, only to make a glorious WWE like return some time later.
It’s named comes from the 2001 Origin Decider when Wayne Bennett recalled 35-year-old Allan Langer from his self-imposed sabbatical in England to deliver a stunning victory for the Maroons.
Langer had ‘retired’ from his NRL career just eight games into the 1999 season and had left to finish his playing in career in England – before Bennett secreltly booked him a ticket back to Australia for game III.
It remains to be seen whether Cameron Smith will pull an Alfie and make a late-season appearance for the Gold Coast Titans in 2021, however in Melbourne today everyone is buying what he’s selling.
“Oh I think he’s telling the truth” says Storm fan, Dan Dedong (55, barista).
“What a lovely statue we gave him to celebrate his career. Which ended today”
