Slater delivers, Smith says same again - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Slater delivers, Smith says same again

By Melissa Woods 11/09/2009 11:24:45 PM Comments (0)

Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith has already put in his orders for Billy Slater next week: more of the same, please.

Slater almost single-handedly destroyed Manly in their NRL qualifying final at Etihad Stadium, scoring four tries in the 40-12 victory.

He opened the scoring in the fourth minute, and then had the final say, crossing for the side's sixth and his fourth in the 78th minute.

The Test custodian, however, preferred to point the spotlight on his teammates, saying such a feat was only possible because of their hard work.

It continued his love affair with Etihad where he has now scored hat-tricks or better in his last four games at the indoor venue.

"It was just good to put in a good performance but there's no way I could get over the line the way I did if guys like Ryan Tandy and Jeff Lima and Dane Nielsen don't play the way they did tonight.

"I think you'd find it very difficult to point out a bloke who didn't play well in our side and that's what it's always been about with the Melbourne Storm with everyone playing their role and pulling their weight and when they do it's a pretty good game to be a part of.

"I've just been trying to build on my form over the last couple of weeks and although I've been satisfied there's been a few parts in my game I've wanted to improve.

"But it's a team effort not an individual sport." Smith said it made his job as a forward far easier with players the calibre of Slater and fellow game-breaker centre Greg Inglis outside him.

"It's certainly nice to have those two in the back pocket.

"If it's not Bill scoring tries it's Greg and it's a huge positive to have two of those guys in our side," Smith said.

"A couple of Bill's tries tonight were created from nothing ... he just got the ball and danced around a bit and all of a sudden he was over the tryline.

"They're guys you just can't put a value on, particularly this time of the year when it's so hard to get across the tryline.

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