Storm clouds hovering over selfless Cronk
It’s the modern-day rugby league romance that could finish with a fairytale ending.
The tale of a champion halfback, one of the best of his generation, cutting ties with a decade worth of friendships. A NRL club he was synonymous with for 14 years.
A year ago, Cooper Cronk declared to the world he was skipping Melbourne for love.
‘‘I’ve been pretty selfish in my approach to my football career and I think it’s time to put someone else and something else first,’’ Cronk said last April. It didn’t come without some heartache.
Cooper’s long-time team-mate for club, state and country, the both of whom had formed two of the Storm’s big three, remembers when Cronk broke the news to him.
‘‘I was caught off-guard a little bit. I didn’t really expect that to happen, that he was going to leave our club,’’ says Cameron Smith.
But he understood the reasons why.
For over a decade, Cronk watched on as Smith, and the other member of the trio in Billy Slater, started and grew a family in a city where most rugby league players have little family support.
Engaged to Australian Fox Sports presenter Tara Rushton, Cronk yearned to come home to Sydney to family.
‘‘We’re all from interstate, or from overseas somewhere, all down there together just looking after ourselves. We knew the situation with Coops, and Tara being in Sydney,’’ Smith says.
‘‘That was really the extent of it for me. I was caught off-guard a little bit when Coops told me, but that was it. I don’t know where the other theories and suggestions come from.’’
Smith is referring to reports of a falling out between him and Cronk, a breakdown exacerbated when the Storm captain was met with a cold handshake in their only clash so far in May.
There were also claims he was upset about Cronk joining a modern-day rival, a team he knew was a chance of denying them a shot being the first time in over 20 years to defend their title.
‘‘The grand finals that both these clubs have been involved in since the early to mid-2000s is quite a bit. There was every likelihood of [them meeting the Roosters],’’ Smith says.
‘‘But I think it’s great for our game that two strong clubs are vying for the trophy on Sunday.’’
Cronk’s once unbreakable bond with Smith wasn’t the only heartbreak of his decision.
For months the former Kangaroos halfback was linked with the Sydney Roosters, who have been renowned for splashing the cash in chase of the game’s best superstars.
From Arthur Beetson to Ron Coote, Russell Fairfax, Bob Fulton, Brad Fittler and Sonny Bill Williams, the glamour club has long been the envy of rivals clubs for luring the missing piece.
And it was no different in their pursuit of Cronk.
Not only did he play the position of a club favourite, but he had also been the source of sustained State of Origin heartache for Mitchell Pearce that made him an Origin punching bag.
When confirmation came of Cronk’s prized signing – barely a month after the Roosters fell one game short of a grand final – there were instant rumours of unhappiness in the playing group.
It didn’t take long for Pearce to wave goodbye and leave town for Newcastle.
‘‘We had to deal with it because it was a bit abrupt, but that’s footy. Pearcey got his role up there in Newcastle and Coops came here and now it is what it is,’’ Jake Friend said.
‘‘Coops is here now. He’s one of us and he’s a big reason why we’re here in this grand final.’’
All year, Cronk refused to consider the possibility of meeting his old club in the decider.
But this week, sitting on the opposite end of the table of Smith and Storm coach Craig Bellamy at the traditional pre-grand-final press conference this week, he is anxious.
‘‘The team on the far left of the table [Melbourne] have contributed to me being the person and the player I am today,’’ Cronk says.
‘‘The team on this side has allowed me to have the two loves of football and my family, together. I think they can contribute to an immense amount.
‘‘If I had stayed in Melbourne, I wouldn’t have gotten married and have a beautiful family.’’
Ironically, it’s the physical pain of a shoulder injury that could lead to the heartbreak of him missing out of a grand-final appearance against his former club.
All year he’s shouldered the burden of leaving a club he loved, in pursuit of a woman he loved, while carrying the hopes of a club he’s grown to love.
And he is refusing to let a tear in his shoulder be the final page in his script.
‘‘[The Roosters] have sacrificed a hell of a lot for me to be here. And that’s part of the reason why I’m working around the clock to be right for Sunday,’’ he says.
‘‘While it’s great to play football for yourself and individual accolades, I think these guys have given up a lot for me to be here. And I think it’s only fair that I return that favour back.’’
It’s his chance at a fairytale finish that was almost taken away from him.
But now Billy Slater could bow out a premiership-winner when he runs out for Melbourne for the last time in tomorrow’s NRL grand final against the Sydney Roosters.
In his first interview of grand final week, Slater spoke about the emotional toll of having to defend a shoulder charge citing at the judiciary on Tuesday night.
After a mammoth three-hour hearing, Slater was found not guilty and cleared to play.
‘‘It was quite an emotional start to my preparation and quite draining to be honest,’’ Slater said on The NRL Footy Show.
‘‘It wasn’t a great first four days of grand final week for me. It was really important for me to voice my perspective of the situation and I’m glad the judiciary members understood that.
‘‘For me now it’s important to go out and prepare myself to be able to play the best I can on Sunday. I didn’t do any preparation before the hearing in terms of playing.
‘‘It was all about the hearing.’’ Now the 35-year-old will appear in his 319th and final NRL game spanning 16 seasons, including 31 State of Origin games for Queensland and 30 tests for Australia.
He has also scored 229 tries in a career that looked over when twin shoulder reconstructions limited