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Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy says his NRL club have a plan for whatever playing decision Cameron Smith makes and urged people to just enjoy him while they can.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy say Cameron Smith can do what he wants when he wants, but he'd like to see to his captain take on a representative coaching role after retirement.
Ahead of their clash with in-form South Sydney on Friday night at ANZ Stadium, Bellamy was again quizzed about Smith's future.
Again, he said he didn't know if his captain would play on next year and urged fans and commentators to just enjoy Smith in the final rounds of 2020, in case they were his last.
"If it's another two years or another one year we will take it as a club or a team but this could be his last year and we're going to enjoy that," Bellamy said on Thursday.
"I can't control what other people say but us as a club and a group we're going to try to enjoy what's left in the rest of the year ... in the back of our minds we're thinking Cameron might retire so we want to celebrate what he's done."
Bellamy said the 37-year-old could make a successful NRL coach but thought he would be likely to lead a Queensland Origin campaign or the coach the Kangaroos.
The future Immortal had made it clear to Bellamy he didn't want to transition into full-time coaching.
I think he would be outstanding as any sort of coach but he's made the point that he doesn't have that passion to put that much time into a full-time role, Bellamy said.
"I think he will do some kind of specialist coaching, maybe one day a week, helping teams out.
"I think he would be an ideal representative coach, like the Origin coaches who do three games a year or the Australian side, who don't play that many games.
"That could be more the coaching role that he would want."
Souths coach Wayne Bennett was asked on Thursday about Smith, and also about Wests Tigers veteran Benji Marshall, whose playing future is also in doubt.
He said Smith was the only one who would know when his time was up.
"One thing I know about champions - they won't embarrass themselves. They never stay too long," Bennett said.
"That's the one denominator with the real champions of the game, if you follow it closely enough.
"They know their time is up and they take that opportunity because they're not used to not playing well, not doing well and they can't handle it when that happens."