Cameron Smith will be ready for another rumble with Blues beast Andrew Fifita in an NRL grand final rematch despite sitting out Melbourne's 40-12 win over Newcastle.
The Storm skipper spent the night in the AAMI Park coaching box following Queensland's brutal State of Origin loss, where a rampant Fifita was named man of the match.
Melbourne will travel to Sydney to take on premiers Cronulla on Thursday night and decided Smith would be better to rest his weary body than front up for the bottom-placed Knights.
"He was cooked," Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy said.
"Smithy always puts his hand up to play and when he was umming and ahhing I thought that was a sign that we'd leave him out."
Kiwi rookie Brandon Smith made his NRL debut, sharing the hooking duties with Slade Griffin.
The 22-year-old was penalised for a double movement as he tried to score early on but burrowed through three defenders to earn a try midway through the second half.
Storm fullback Billy Slater, who scored two tries in a reminder to Origin selectors of his champion qualities, said the younger Smith had a big future.
"I trained a fair bit with Brandon pre-Christmas and he showed a lot of qualities that showed me he had Melbourne Storm attributes," Slater said.
"He's a tough player, he never gives up on anything and it was disappointing to see him go down with an injury leading into Christmas that put him back about three months but he leaves nothing in the tank."
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