Cronk leaves lasting legacy
He doesn’t boast the flashy skills of rivals but the records show Cooper Cronk must to be added to the debate for rugby league Immortality.
Be it for sheer weight of success or for his less obvious but extraordinary ability to make his teams and team-mates better, Cronk comes out on top.
Consider that a win tomorrow against Canberra will make Cronk the most successful halfback in the game’s history.
Attempting to farewell the NRL with a third straight premiership, Cronk can equal St George’s Bob Bugden from the 1950s with the most grand final wins at halfback with six.
If success is determined by wins and lifting the trophy, you can’t beat that.
His Roosters team-mates are adamant Cronk deserves a place in the Immortals debate.
‘‘You’ve got to look at his career and what he as done. I don’t think there has been a better team player in the last 15 or 16 years,’’ says Brett Morris.
‘‘Probably the first few years he was just feeling it out but since then he has been such a good team player and his record stands for itself.
‘‘To make that many grand finals in the modern day is pretty insane. He deserves to be in the conversation.’’
Cronk may not have the range of skills of Andrew Johns or set up as many tries as Johnathan Thurston.
And by his own admission, he’d concede he had nowhere near the natural talent of either as a youngster. But few halfbacks have understood and controlled the game better.
All this from a man who was unsure of his best position when he came off the bench in his first two years at Melbourne in 2004 and 2005.
‘‘I wasn’t sure what he was to be honest,’’ Storm coach Craig Bellamy says.
‘‘He played a bit and at fullback.
‘‘And he used to go on and be in the halves and he used to go and be a hooker because Cameron [Smith] wasn’t playing 80 minutes in those days.
‘‘It was a couple of years before he was a regular first grader. So to learn to play halfback as well as he off the bench did for so long, it’s quite amazing.’’
Bellamy admits that based on Cronk’s talent when he first saw him there’s no way anyone could have predicted the career ahead.
But on work ethic, few have been better.
‘‘It just goes to show the amount of work he has put in,’’ Bellamy says. ‘‘Not just physical work. While he’s done a lot of work on his passing and kicking, but also learning the game.
‘‘I don’t think anyone has ever seen a non-halfback turn into Cooper and be as good as he has been for as long.’’
Bellamy is reluctant to debate whether Cronk should join the 13 Immortals, understandable given he’s coached three players who have serious claims to the title.
But others such as Phil Gould have already pushed that case this week.
And when Cronk becomes eligible next decade, it will be hard for judges to ignore the success that every team he has guided has enjoyed.
He holds the record for the most finals wins with 26, having played in
15 finals series. Tomorrow’s grand final will be his ninth, the most for any player since Ron Coote in the 1960s and
1970s.
The 35-year-old also won both World Cups he played in for Australia, undefeated in both 2013 and
2017.
Put simply, Cronk just makes teams better, with almost every Rooster attributing an improvement in their career to him.