Manchester: Brandon Smith and Harry Grant first fought to become Melbourne’s No. 1 hooker - and now they’ll fight for a spot in the World Cup final.
They’re best of mates but Grant has declared their friendship will be thrown “out the window’’ when Australia face New Zealand in the semi-final on Saturday morning AEDT.
“Obviously we’re great mates… but that goes out the window when you’re playing for your country - you’ve got bigger things to worry about,” Grant said.
“Everyone’s mates and you talk during the tournament but when you pull on the green and gold jersey, you’re playing for Australia and the blokes alongside you.
“We’ve formed such a good bond over this whole tournament so we don’t want to let this opportunity slip.
“Everyone just wants to make sure we have a narrow focus and that way we don’t get to the game or finish the game leaving any stone unturned.”
Grant and Smith battled it out for the Storm No. 9 jersey following the retirement of Cameron Smith in 2020.
The contest essentially ended when the Kiwi star penned a deal at the end of the 2021 to join the Roosters for the 2023 season.
Grant emphasised he wished Smith was still at the Storm but said players had to chase opportunities when they presented.
“Me and Brandon are pretty easy going and we were happy to wait our time (behind Cam Smith) and when we got an opportunity, we worked together,” Grant said.
“I think it worked well over the last couple years and now he’s got a good opportunity going forward.
“That’s the thing with everyone in the NRL, you’ve got to chase opportunities that get and he’s got a great opportunity for himself and his family.
“No one can hold anything against him, what he’s done for me as a player and for the Melbourne Storm as a club, you know, he’s done a lot for the group.
“When you get those opportunities you’ve got to take them.”
Grant played 80 minutes in Australia’s quarterfinal win against Lebanon with Ben Hunt rested, and the Queensland star admitted he was frustrated with his performance.
“It’s been a little while since I’ve (played 80 minutes), it was in the (NRL) finals game we lost to Canberra,” Grant said.
“I was a little bit disappointed with the performance, it was a bit of a weird game, we won but everyone sort of came off feeling like they wanted to run back out there and have another 80-minute performance to just sort of finetune a few things.
“But that’s the great thing about this week, we’ve got the training week to sort of finetune those things and hopefully put in a good performance.”
Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga is set to unleash Maroons dynamic duo Grant and Hunt in tandem against New Zealand.
“We’ll see what Mal does but I think we sort of interchange, I’m not sure who’s going to play where - start or on the bench,” Grant said.
“Benny and I have a good relationship and either way it works out I think we’ll both take the challenge on.”
