There’s no shortage of applicants for Melbourne Storm’s premier hero Brandon Smith. Up to a half a dozen clubs have shown interest after Melbourne announced they would consider an early release.
The news sparked a surge of activity overnight as the clubs busily compiled lists of swap options as the Storm were just a year early to let Smith out of his current deal if they got a player of the same standard as the 24-year-old can get .
Gold Coast was the only club excluded from a group email offering Smith’s services starting in 2022, but Titans’ performance and culture director, Mal Meninga, dismissed the conspiracy theory that the club was already with Cameron Smith was talking.
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“We didn’t speak to Cameron, he’s the hardest man in the world to captivate,” Meninga said.
However, when it comes to Brandon, the 13th Immortal was more open.
“Obviously there would be a lot of interest there, we would be interested,” Meninga confirmed to foxsports.com.au.
“We will discuss it and take a position in the next few days.”
The titans roster is building up well, but looks thin in the dummy half-roll with Nathan Peats, which leaves Mitch Rein, Erin Clark or Tanah Boyd as an option in ninth place.
If Brandon Smith sits down to check out the clubs that are showing interest in him, the Titans and Brisbane Broncos could be high on his list.
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Smith’s parents are slated to move from New Zealand to Brisbane next year, where his two brothers already live.
Smith was almost 10 years away from his family after moving to Townsville as a teenager after playing for the Cowboys under 20 before joining Melbourne.
Should he want to be closer to his family, the Gold Coast or the Broncos could sit in the box to pick up the representative whore.
However, the clubs are careful that this will not be easy.
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The Storm have already shown this season that they will not be pushed into an early release if their own requirements are not met.
Josh Addo-Carr’s manager tried and failed to find a suitable replacement when the representative winger tried to get out of his business on compassionate grounds a year earlier.
“The storm wants an exchange process, so we’d have to look at our list. That will take a lot of clubs out of the equation, ”said Meninga.
“It would be a difficult position for us to look at this scenario. In our development phase we have good people here around whom we want to build the club. “
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