Cameron Smith says enjoying football is the key to his NRL longevity ahead of his 300th game

Heading into his 300th game, Melbourne captain Cameron Smith has said he is enjoying playing rugby league as much now as he ever has.

Smith will join the NRL's '300 Club' when the Storm host Penrith on Friday night and told a press conference on Tuesday that enjoying football in the same way he did when he was young has been key to his success in the NRL.
"I don't see it as a job, I don't see it as a chore, I see it as a sport that I fell in love with as a young boy and that's the way I try to approach all my footy [and] all my training," he said.
"There's times where it's been tough, but at the end of the day, you're out there with your mates doing what you love doing and I think that's probably another secret to why I've been able to play so long."
The 32-year-old said he does not know how his body has held up to the rigours of 299 NRL games, 36 State of Origin clashes for Queensland and 43 Tests with the Kangaroos.
"I'm not the biggest bloke getting around, or the fastest - I always get told I look like an accountant - but I think the thing for me is that I've always tried to train as hard as I can every time I'm on the training paddock," he said.
"I've always tried to make myself a better footballer when I'm on the training paddock [or] when I'm out on the field playing games."
He also credited coach Craig Bellamy with prolonging his career, calling him one of rugby league's greatest coaches.
Bellamy became the Storm's head coach one year after Smith made his first-grade debut in 2002 and the coach said his captain was probably the best player he had seen.
"He's not only the best dummy half - most guys would say that, a lot of guys older than me would say they haven't seen a better dummy half than Cameron Smith, but I don't think there's been too many better players than Cameron Smith," Bellamy said.
"I haven't seen everyone in history, but I'm 56 years old so I've seen a few good players over the years and I don't think I've seen as good a player as Cameron, but also as consistently good as well."

Status as one-club player 'the proudest part' for Smith

Together the pair led the club to unprecedented success, endured the salary-cap revelations that ultimately wiped that success from the record books, before taking the team back to the summit with a premiership in 2012.
And, while Smith will soon become the 24th player to turn out for 300 NRL/ARL games, Smith said he considers the fact that he has done so with the Storm is "the proudest part of achieving 300 games".
"I think everyone knows I had an opportunity to go elsewhere at the end of last year but the decision that was right for me and right for my family was to stay in Melbourne," said Smith, who will become the 10th one-club, 300-game player.
"This was obviously a big part of that - to stay at the one club and achieve a milestone like this. Not too many guys have been able to do it."
Smith won the Dally M Medal in 2006, captained Queensland to nine Origin series wins in the past 10 years and skippered the Kangaroos to World Cup glory in 2014.
A wry smile crept across his face when he suggested the Storm, who sit sixth after losing four straight games, could win another premiership this year, but he said his main goal is adding more NRL titles to the club's 2012 crown.
"You never get sick and tired of winning premierships, I think that's why we play the game," he said.
"We love playing the game but our goal is always to do the very best we can and that's to win a premiership.
"I've been lucky enough to be in a few grand finals throughout my career but if we can always try and improve what we do on the field and keep building the success of this club and keep making it a bigger sporting club in the country, that's what I want to achieve."
The conversation briefly turned to Smith's views on the criticism levelled at him by Alex McKinnon, but Smith said he had moved on and would deal with the matter privately.