Antonio Kaufusi prepares to celebrate a momentous round of football that will see Cameron Smith, someone who is not only a former teammate but a friend, mark his 400 game milestone.
We head into round 17, and what a momentous week it is for rugby league.
We see the first ever player in Cameron Smith reach the 400 game milestone from the one club.
I for one consider myself lucky that I got to play with Cam not only in club land but in rep footy aswell.
I get asked all the time who is the best player I've played with and that’s Cameron Smith hands down!
I heard Cooper Cronk earlier give his opinion on why Cam is so influential in games and he summed it up very well.
Smithy can adapt his style of footy on the run. Teams do so much homework on players that if Smithy felt like in the game he was getting pressured from marker, for example, to limit his time he would put guys in behind the ruck and burn you that way.
So teams work all week at training in trying to nullify Smithy that he would simply change the way he played and the other team couldn't adapt quickly enough.
Not only is he the greatest player I've played with, but above all he's a great bloke and a guy I call my mate.
Storm v Sharks match of round to mark Cameron Smith's 400th game
I can't go past the Storm v Sharks on Saturday for my match of the round.
I know there is a game of footy but for me it's just celebrating what Cameron Smith has done in our game.
He deserves all the fuss this week, even though his first priority will be on the Sharks.
The Storm to flog the sharks to put the icing on the cake.
My upset of the round will be Manly to beat Souths.
If the Trbojevic brothers and DCE back up, that should get the Sea Eagles over the line.
Tom Trbojevic is proving to be so influential this year that you can't back against Manly if he's playing.
Throw in Jake and DCE – it's hard to look past them.
Souths will be desperate to end their losing streak and will welcome back their forward leader Sam Burgess.
Kaufusi's Call round 2017:
Panthers v Titans
Knights v Bulldogs
Rabbitohs v Sea Eagles
Broncos v Warriors
Storm v Sharks
Roosters v Cowboys
Tigers v Eels
Dragons v Raiders
Last week Kaufusi made the ‘insane’ decision to back Dragons against Storm.
