Storm are still a force despite having only 1 of them left and a 35 year old one at that. They still don’t look anywhere near anything other than a Top 4 team as they’ve continued to pump out the young talent.
Cronk and Tedesco are worth 1M. That’s market value, not overs. If anything I’d consider it unders for Tedesco.
Mitchell isn’t as valuable as Tedesco or Cronk
That’s all well and good to fluff over.
The reality is smith isn’t just an ageing player.
He’s arguably the greatest player to ever play the game.
He had a run with a very good coach and two future immortals for the decade.
Let’s also not dismiss the fact that they are a team that has been maintained throughout cheating and keeping illegally assembled squads still built around that by releasing the older blokes when the time is right (e.g Hoffman) and recruiting finucane etc.
They are also far better recruiting then we are. Both with an eye for talent for kids but as I said finucane,addo carr.
It’s not realistic to compare to the storm. We don’t have the luxury of playing them with one of the all time Greats. He makes others look better then they are but in many other aspects we just aren’t comparable from the ground up.