Melbourne Storm captain Cameron Smith played his 350th NRL game on the weekend. It is a truly amazing effort from someone I believe will go down as the greatest player our game has ever seen. When he finally retires, he will probably have chalked up more than 400 NRL games and will have on his list of achievements the most Tests for Australia, the most games for Queensland and a trophy cabinet full of team victories and personal awards.

Cameron Smith poses with teammates after his 350th NRL game. Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

In playing 350 games, he has equalled the feat of Bulldogs legend Terry Lamb while closing on fellow Queenslander Darren Lockyer's 355 games. The stand-out feature of Smith's achievement is that he has played the majority of his career in the middle of the field, among the forwards, where rugby league is at its toughest. No disrespect to the achievements of the other two, but they both played in the backs where you'd expect a player's career to be less prone to injury and wear and tear.

During his career Smith has missed barely a handful of games due to injury. His professionalism, dedication to preparation and sheer hard work has been behind his incredibly long and successful career. Melbourne Storm remain one of the hardest-training and fittest teams in the competition, and anyone on the coaching staff will tell you Smith and fellow superstars Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater lead the way in every session.

The most impressive thing about Smith is that he never seems flustered or exhausted in the heat of battle. Off the field, he is such a knockabout bloke, just one of the guys, humble and always ready to give credit to his teammates. His speech after Queensland claimed this year's unlikely State of Origin victory, when he called Johnathan Thurston the greatest player to ever pull on the Maroons jersey, sums up that humble nature.

I remember when I was at the Storm we had a hooker by the name of Richard Swain. He was the leading tackler in the competition and the New Zealand Test hooker, but the club offered him only a one-year deal when it came time to re-sign him. Everyone was wondering what was going on, but the Storm staff had their eyes on a young bloke coming through their Queensland feeder club. It was that obvious, from that early on, that Smith was going to be something special.

Cameron Smith runs out through a Storm old boys guard of honour. Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

The Storm showed how much Smith means to them by turning on a second-half display that simply destroyed the Sea Eagles. After a shaky start, Smith took command and went on to set up four tries in another man-of-the-match effort. Melbourne always seem to lift for milestone games and Smith's 350th was obviously huge for the whole club. It was also old boys' day and many of the past Storm stars turned up to form a guard of honour as Smith took to the field. Emotion plays a big part in motivating rugby league players and if you consider how well the Storm are going, it will be very hard to beat them as they play to send Cooper Cronk out of the club on top.

The only two teams capable of matching them are the Roosters and Sharks. The Sharks are capable of grinding out a victory, and they have been winning ugly for most of the season, but I think they just lack the spark that Ben Barba and Michael Ennis provided last year. The Roosters on the other hand are really starting to come together nicely.

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Luke Keary is proving to be the buy of the season for the Roosters. The key to their success is that Mitchell Pearce now has someone to share the workload with, and he hasn't had that since James Maloney departed for the Sharks. They will be very dangerous with Pearce and Keary working behind a dominating pack, with Boyd Cordner returning from injury and some scintillating outside backs led by Latrell Mitchell. I was waiting to see how they went against the Cowboys before talking them up too much, but they certainly didn't disappoint. With a top-four spot well and truly in their grasp they are the one team I can see giving the Storm a challenge.

I'm still tipping a year that will see Smith hold aloft the State of Origin Shield, the NRL Premiership trophy and the Rugby League World Cup. His 350th NRL game just another milestone along the road of a rugby league career that will never be matched.