Smith: Warriors can beat Manly

The New Zealand Warriors are capable of springing a surprise defeat on Manly in Sunday’s NRL Grand Final, according to Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith.

But the Australia and Queensland hooker says the Warriors will have to recreate the form that saw them dump the Storm out of the competition in last weekend’s semi-final if they are to succeed.

“They kept it simple and they ran hard,” said Smith.

“Usually the Warriors they play a fancy style of football but to their credit they came to Melbourne with a plan and came away with the win.”

“I think they can beat Manly, they just need to play the way they did against us.

“That’s going to be the hardest thing for them – to come out and back up that performance, that’s probably the best game I have seen them play all year against any team.

“The toughest thing will be trying to repeat that in Sydney.”

A veteran of ten NRL seasons, Smith says stopping Manu ‘The Beast’ Vatuvei will be one of Manly’s biggest challenges at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.

Said Smith: “They’re biggest player, plays on the wing, in Manu Vatuvei and I thought we did a good job on him, but it just takes a lot of effort trying to stop those big boys and in the end we just ran out of energy trying to get out of our own end and trying to create things.”