Leeds Rhinos’ Cameron Smith on taking on captaincy at his boyhood club | @Super_League

Cameron Smith is living the dream as he takes on captaincy at the Leeds Rhinos.

We sat down with their new skipper to get his view on new signings, new leadership and a new Betfred @Super_League season.

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C start off with a I guess what is a real honor for you and sitting here as a lead of Island Captain yeah it’s crazy mate um you know it’s probably only sunk in these last couple of weeks that um yeah I’ve been I’ve been announced the

Captain um you know it’s a really proud uh day for my family and um not trying to think into it too much and uh nothing really changes for me um you know from a personal level um I just want to encourage other people to to leading the

Team obviously you’ve been at the club for quite a long time was it something that you ever thought was a possibility uh I’ve always wanted to be a captain as a as a kid um uh I love people so like I’ve tried to build a good as a

Connection with everybody as possible so I think that’s my uh my best attribute in terms of being a leader so um you know I’ve always wanted to to to lead the team and to do it for such a big club and a club with so much history and

Presti and um you know I’m very grateful have you have you thought about how you might kind of adapt your leadership style or how are you going to kind of change little things as Captain or are you going to try and keep it as as

Simple and as the same as it was yeah just keep it simple and the same like you said um you know it’s I think it’s really easy to try and change and and try find something else that um would better the team with the SE next to your

Name but um for me mate it’s just just the same as what I’ve been doing when you look at the S of players around you especially some of the lads that have come in Andia Akers bro Croft plenty of experience and talent there that must

Help you as a as a captain to organize a team around you yeah definitely and um you know it gives me an opportunity to probably take a step back and not take as much ownership on on trying to do everything um you know I love to have a

Lot of involvements in the team but um now we’ve got tons of players you know in positions that are important with you know that that much flare um that I can I can take a step back and play off the back of them um and also encourage them

To to be voices in the team it must have been a real kind of energy boost enthusiasm boost you started to think about this season and you saw some of the names that been brought into this side yeah crazy um you know we probably didn’t not to speak about last year but

We didn’t finish on the terms that we wanted to and um you know the club’s done the uh the homework and and the plays that they brought in and you know it’s a really exciting time for the Rhinos um we’ve got a good group of young kids that are pushing for places

Too um and then just the the icing on the C to bring the the older Boys in and um create a real good mix and you know a diverse team to to express does it feel like a bit of a clean slate a bit of a fresh start um I won’t necessarily say

Clean slate because we’ve done a lot of work you know leading up to this point um like I’ve just spoke about the younger group of guys that are that are pushing for spots um I think you’ll see the impact that Rowan had um over the last 18 months come um you know come

Through this year and there’s obviously a lot of team team who recruited well it looks like it’s going to be a bit of a dog fight to get into that top six initially and then further up the table but you must be quietly confident with the team that you’ve got together and

Building on what you’ve done with Rowan in the last year and a half that you’re going to be right out there as well yeah definitely and you know I don’t like to look too far ahead personally um but I know there’s no easy games and you know

You’ve got we’ve got to be our best every week um you know we want to build headingly into a fortress and um you know we’ll go from there I don’t want to say what where we’re going to finish or what’s going to happen um I know it’s really cliche to say but I

Just want to take it you know a game at a time and of course every side wants to get to Wembley but is that challenge cup something that you’ve kind of particularly circled around this year obviously three games to get to that final it feels very attainable yeah it

Does and um you know as a as a young kid that’s been a student of the game for a long time I understand that um you know the history behind the challenge cup and how important it is and um I’d absolutely love to play it when and um

You know I’ll certainly be be looking out for them games obviously as we touched on your first year of Captain with that in mind have you set yourself any individual goals targets anything that you want to take off no not nothing nothing individually um you know it’s

All it’s all team based for me and um as long as I’m giving you know decent performances and doing my bit for the team then um I just want to be successful in in that regard well best a Lu the season man thank you very much