BILLY STILL OUR CHAMP
One-armed Cronk leads Roosters to NRL crown
A RAMPANT Sydney Roosters outplayed a sloppy Melbourne Storm side last night to apply a well-placed pinprick to Queenslanders’ hopes of sending Billy Slater off with a premiership.
A BATTERED Cooper Cronk last night produced the ultimate braveheart act to break retiring Billy Slater’s heart and inspire the Roosters’ 21-6 mauling of Melbourne in the NRL grand final.
Before 82,688 fans at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium, Cronk defied the greatest of odds, the halfback overcoming a fractured shoulder to torment his former club and deliver the Bondi club’s 14th premiership.
For most of the week, Cronk looked gone. His broken scapula was stuffed. Even Johnathan Thurston and Andrew Johns doubted he could play.
But Cronk pledged to back himself. Somehow, he trudged into battle. Never write off a champion.
Wearing jumper No.23, Cronk resembled a wounded, one-armed bandit as he imposed his will, if not skill, on a Roosters team that bolted to an 18-0 half-time lead and broke the Storm with power, pace and energy.
Josh Addo-Carr gave the Storm hope when he scored a 63rd-minute runaway try for 18-6, but when five-eighth Luke Keary landed a field-goal 11 minutes from time, Cronk had his Cinderella moment.
It was a masterful, energetic, clinical display by the Roosters. Cronk’s halves partner Keary, back-rower Boyd Cordner and centre Latrell Mitchell were outstanding, terrorising the error-riddled Storm to clinch the Roosters’ second premiership in five years.
Underlining Melbourne’s horror night, five-eighth Cameron Munster was sin-binned twice in a disastrous display.
The Cronk narrative was as magical as it was multi-faceted. Roosters supremo Nick Politis poached Cronk from the Storm this season to deliver another Bondi title. In just one season, the purchase of Cronk – who steered Melbourne to seven grand finals – has been emphatically vindicated.
In the process, the Sydney glamour club denied Melbourne’s historic quest for back-to-back titles and sent Storm champ Slater into retirement a shattered man.
When Cronk’s name was announced over the PA system, the pro-Roosters crowd shook the Homebush foundations.
Cronk was lapping up the theatre. Fittingly, he was the last of the 34 combatants to run out, wearing No.23, the very number worn by cricket icon Shane Warne and NBA legend Michael Jordan in their pomp.
But from the opening minutes, it was clear Cronk was not out there to produce Warne-like magic, with his battered shoulder hanging as limp as week-old lettuce. This was about survival.
The Roosters didn’t have 13 players on the park last night. They had 12 heroes and one quasicoach in Cronk, who cleverly stayed out of the crossfire, barking, pointing, plotting and cajoling.