Finals Fever With Cameron Smith & Gary Ayres

It’s the best time of the year with both the AFL and NRL finals upon us.

Two champions of their respective codes and blokes who know a thing or two about September action, Cam Smith joins Gary Ayres to discuss the pressure and exhilaration of finals football.

Ayresy! Hey Cam. Fancy seeing you here mate. It’s finals time for both codes. You are Mr Finals. Superstar of the NRL mate. I should get your autograph later. At times it’s the furtherest thing from your mind isn’t it? You can hear the commotion outside. Especially some days it was pissing down rain. Ayrsey always good to catch up mate. Thanks Cam. Well what a great time of year it is. Spring. It’s starting to warm up a bit. You can smell the freshly cut grass. It’s finals time. For both codes. Yes. We were lucky enough to play in a lot of finals games and a fair few Grand Finals. Is there a particular teammate or a group of teammates that you played with that really rose to the occasion that really enjoyed that. high pressure game? Look I was really lucky Cam, I must admit. When you play in eight Grand Finals over a nine-year period. So for me Dermott Brereton comes to mind straight away. Like the way Dermott played the game, his physicality but the ’89 Grand Final when he’s been ironed out in the first 20 seconds of the game for him then to be able to contribute in a game that was just brutal. I’d go to war with Dermott Brereton. He’d be one of the first ones I would pick anyway if I was going to war. What about you mate? Who would you say? Yeah oh look I had a few and again I was lucky like you Ayresy. I played in eight Grand Finals and we won five. There was three that stood out and those three players were Billy Slater, Greg Inglis and Cooper Cronk. And for slightly different reasons too. Cooper was just the ultimate game manager. He got the team around the park and managed the game beautifully through the 80 minutes. Greg Inglis was very different. Just a natural athlete. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a footballer in our code quite like him. Yes. And then the last guy Billy Slater he just a lot of the things I talk about with Billy Slater with Grand Final performances it was a result of the work and the preparation during the week. So he would study our opposition for hours and hours and hours and come up with ways that you know he could try and break them down or look for opportunities where We could come up with some plays to find points. You are Mr Finals anyway because you’ve got the Gary Ayres Medal. Well I have Cam. But you know what though mate? Yes thank you very much. But you know what? When I got the phone call I was absolutely chuffed. Obviously humble. But I did say to the guy that rang “Normally these medals are given to you when you’re dead.” So at least I’m still alive mate to enjoy. Many more years mate. So Cam we’ve obviously got the pre- finals bye. Yeah. Now me personally I think I would rather see sides that have got momentum to really finish off the home and away season well, the fans are all geared up for what may be titled another season within a season which is finals. And then all of a sudden we have that one week off. Personally I think it would be better value if it was done after the preliminary final week. Yeah okay. So You almost have an extra week’s lead in. To Grand Final. To Grand Final. So players are clearly nurse – well not nurse – but they can nurse themselves through that week. Then ratchet it back up again for the Grand Final. Get over any sort of niggles. Maybe there is guys that might have had concussion. Well it’s a good point you make about the concussion one particularly because there are stand down policies now. If you suffer a concussion in the game. So if you were to pick up a concussion in a prelim potentially you could miss a Grand Final. But I do agree with you. I think it’s as a player I don’t think you’d want that week off. Particularly if you’re a side that’s taking you know sort of consecutive wins or a fair bit of momentum into the finals it can sort of halt you know that that feeling that you’ve built on the ground over the last say month leading into A final series. So yeah I don’t like it at all. I do like the idea of the two Grand Final sides possibly having a week off. Yes. Leading into Grand Final. What are your thoughts on the AFL moving to a night Grand Final? There’s really only been two in the AFL and clearly that was during Covid times so the one at the Gabba and clearly the one at Optus Stadium and from a visual effect it was outstanding being able to see it from a TV perspective not being there live. But I must admit I’m a traditionalist. Having played in so many Grand Finals being able to now sit on the sidelines and watch I still feel the 2:30pm time slot really fits in with what our Grand Final is synonymous with. It’s it’s so engaging with the fans and so many people can then do lots of things after the Grand Final because it finishes at a reasonable time. So I must admit I’m still feeling there’s a time slot at 2:30pm. You know majority of the Grand Finals that I’ve played in have been night time. I did play in one that was like a twilight game. I think we kicked off around 5:30pm and it was a bit of an experiment for the NRL. So from a playing point of view playing at that that night time schedule it’s it becomes a really long day. You know you probably understand this. Like so you wake up Grand Final day all you want to do is get out to the ground and just want to get all your gear on and get on the field and start playing. But the with the eight o’clock kickoff if you’re an early riser in particular you can spend a lot of energy actually during the day thinking about you know a game that’s you know 12 hours away. I completely understand why our code plays night time because I work now in the commentary team you know there’s so many eyeballs on a night time Grand Final. I think if you asked the guys you know playing in the competition right now would you prefer to kick off at say three or four o’clock compared to the eight o’clock? I reckon they’d take the afternoon kick off every day of the week. And what would Mr V’landys think if the AFL said we’re going to go to a night Grand Final? Oh he’d come up with some some way to try and top the AFL. I can guarantee you that. Ayresy always great to catch up Mate. Thanks for chatting finals. Let’s hope for a classic series for both the AFL and NRL. This is what coaches and players and commentators want to be part of so great to chat mate.