'Tall poppy syndrome': Storm boss lashes Cameron Smith accusations

Melbourne Storm chairman Matt Tripp has come to the defence of Cameron Smith after the hooker came under fire from critics accusing him of having too much influence over referees.

Throughout his illustrious career Smith has been the target of critics claiming the No.9 has too much of an influence on referees during a game.

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But with the NRL reverting back to the one-referee system Smith became the target on the weekend for an incident involving the captain pressuring referee Ben Cummins to blow penalties against Newcastle.

Smith can be seen standing in front of the advantage line while Melbourne have the ball, barking at the referee.

He doesn’t even attempt to get back in position at dummy-half and instead focuses on calling out perceived infringements to Cummins.

In one such instance Cummins does end up blowing a penalty against the Knights.

The footage, played on NRL 360 on Tuesday night, Paul Crawley played footage and took a dig at Smith.

“Look at Cameron in this … I thought we got rid of the pocket referee and then they get the penalty at the end of it,” Crawley said.

But now, Storm chairman Tripp has labelled the vendetta against Smith as a sign of tall poppy syndrome from north of the Victorian border.

“It’s been happening for a number of years and I would rather certain people come out and say, ‘I have a distinct hatred for the Melbourne Storm’,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“At least it would confirm all we’ve assumed over the last few years.”

“Usually you can set your watch to it - about a month out from finals, they come for us. It’s happened early this season and it’s something we’re just going to have to put up with. We’ve always put up with it when tall poppy syndrome kicks in north of the border.”

Ikin defends Smith

However host Ben Ikin dismissed Smith’s actions and said the referee should have been stronger.

“That’s on the referee. That could be viewed as gamesmanship,” Ikin replied.

“If it’s Alfie Langer or Tommy Raudonikis we laugh and tell stories at the pub but as soon as it’s Cameron Smith it becomes evil and rat cunning.”