Rebels deny chasing Storm halfback Cronk
By AAP, 28 Jan 2012 AAP is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Melbourne Rebels, Rugby Union
The Melbourne Rebels don’t want Storm halfback Cooper Cronk, they just want to play like him.
The Super Rugby side on Friday denied speculation they were interested in signing Cronk, the off-contract Melbourne NRL halfback.
They are, however, interested in the Storm’s intellectual property given the club’s enviable record of success.
“We view their training sessions every now and then and they view ours,” said coach Damien Hill as the Rebels prepared for their opening trial game next Friday night.
“They’ve got a fantastic coaching staff that we can learn from and they’ve been nice enough to share their coaching resources with us.
Hill said the Storm’s execution of their “catch and pass” and speed of played were two things they were trying to develop at the Rebels.
With the worst defensive statistics in the Super Rugby competition in their debut season, they were also happy for any tips in that department.
“Defensively they’re known as a very hard working team … something we’d love to have people speak about the Rebels about.”
Cronk has been linked with the Brisbane Broncos as well as the Rebels but the rugby side said they couldn’t afford the 28-year-old, and didn’t need him.
Hill said he admired Cronk but he wasn’t a target for their outfit.
“I watch a lot of league and Cooper’s a fantastic player,” Hill said.
“It’s unrealistic for us to talk about him at this place. We’ve got salary caps in place and he’s at the top echelon of rugby league.”
With their young halfback Nick Phipps already winning three Test caps and with star power like fellow Wallabies James O’Connor, Kurtley Beale and former England representative Danny Cipriani in the line-up, Hill said they had the halves well covered.
“Not talking anything away from Cooper because he’s a fantastic player but we’ve got Nick Phipps, who’s back from the Wallabies and Richard Kingi, our contesting halfback for that spot.
“In terms of 10s, Jimmy Hilgendorf, Danny Cipriani, Kurtley Beale, James O’Connor, Julian Huxley and Lloyd Johansson, who can all play 10 so we have got a lot of options.”
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January 28th 2012 @ 5:26am
kingplaymaker said | January 28th 2012 @ 5:26am | Report comment
Cronk at TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OLD, would be an idiotic acquisition.
Why does rugby always consider players at the end of their careers, who just want an ego-boost to end their careers and couldn’t care less about the game? Cronk doubtless has no real interest in rugby, as Gasnier didn’t, otherwise they would have given some of their best years to it rather than the end of their twenties.
Those who made it their priority by moving over in their early twenties, such as Tuqiri and SBW, are those who esteem it properly. The likes of Gasnier thought it was a second choice.
Cronk should have moved to union a few years ago, once it became obvious he was going to play second fiddle to Jonathan Thurston for his whole career. To do so now would be pointless.
January 30th 2012 @ 12:27am
Ben S said | January 30th 2012 @ 12:27am | Report comment
I love the way you know exactly how people you clearly don’t know feel and therefore you’re able to tell us how they feel. Love the insight.
January 30th 2012 @ 4:21pm
soapit said | January 30th 2012 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
try reading the article. rugby is not interested in cooper cronk.
January 28th 2012 @ 12:51pm
Peter of Europe said | January 28th 2012 @ 12:51pm | Report comment
Rugby does not need him although he does have a background in rugby. I would hate to see the Rebels and Storm start a long term battle for players as well. That will not help either team in the Melbourne market.
January 28th 2012 @ 1:23pm
Mark said | January 28th 2012 @ 1:23pm | Report comment
Waste of money when the talent is already there. This is rubbish. Not saying Cronk is bad, just no need. He would make more of an impact for Brumbies or the Force.
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January 29th 2012 @ 12:59pm
Matthew Skellett said | January 29th 2012 @ 12:59pm | Report comment
Hey KPM , while Mr Cronk is a talented player, you have a point about his age . Already in their short history; the Rebels have made a habit out of signing ‘name” players that have either major faults in their game(they are available to the Rebels for a reason) and/or are at the end of their careers-signing Mr Cronk might be perceived to not be planning in the long term-and to me for all their talk about ‘giving local talent a go’ – looks very doubtful when you see very few victorian/south australian/tasmanian players get any sort of mention in club/media events/releases
January 31st 2012 @ 4:17am
kingplaymaker said | January 31st 2012 @ 4:17am | Report comment
Matthew it would certainly be a bizarre stop gap at his age, and in any case any league converts should be signed before 25, and in an ideal world before 20 so that they are good long-term investments.
January 30th 2012 @ 2:49pm
TembaVJ said | January 30th 2012 @ 2:49pm | Report comment
No thanks… not another year of tackle practice, the Rebels need super tight defense this year… they already have to cover for Cipriani and Vuna another RL convert will only make bigger gaps.
Where would he play?
Even with injuries, the Rebels already have good cover.
January 31st 2012 @ 4:14am
kingplaymaker said | January 31st 2012 @ 4:14am | Report comment
Temba Saffy was a league convert and topped the Super rugby tackle count in the early part of last season in his very first games of Super rugby before getting injured, so not all league converts are bad at tackling.
January 31st 2012 @ 9:37am
Albo said | January 31st 2012 @ 9:37am | Report comment
For the 20th time, Saffy IS NOT a league convert… he went to League from Union a few years ago after playing union pretty much all is life from a kid in South Africa, then through School in Sydney, followed by Sydney Club Rugby and then finally switched for a few years to League to have a sniff at the other rugby pie.
He is the reverse convert… in pike.
January 31st 2012 @ 10:30am
kovana said | January 31st 2012 @ 10:30am | Report comment
Saffy was a Rugby boy thru and thru and converted to league. He did good there IMO… And has been good for the Rebels as well.
January 31st 2012 @ 10:52am
kingplaymaker said | January 31st 2012 @ 10:52am | Report comment
Albo many league players have strong rugby backgrounds like Saffy, probably whole teams of them: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Jamal Idriss, Jordan Rapana.
They’re obviously the best ones to get.
January 31st 2012 @ 11:52am
Hoy said | January 31st 2012 @ 11:52am | Report comment
Don’t know if others know this, but Cronk was 12 to Giteau’s 10 for Aus school boys rugby.
January 31st 2012 @ 12:03pm
kingplaymaker said | January 31st 2012 @ 12:03pm | Report comment
Hoy I wonder how rugby managed to lose him.
January 31st 2012 @ 12:15pm
Hoy said | January 31st 2012 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
Probably lack of avenues…
January 31st 2012 @ 12:31pm
kingplaymaker said | January 31st 2012 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
So true Hoy! If only there were another team in NSW and Queensland then there would be so many more contracts to offer the likes of Cronk, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Jamal Idriss, Jordan Rapana, Saffy and dozens of others.
January 31st 2012 @ 12:56pm
Hoy said | January 31st 2012 @ 12:56pm | Report comment
Waerea-Hargreaves was signed to league from the Tah’s Academy. He was to be the next big thing with the Tahs, but he had to work his way through behind established players. From memory, he was good in the ARC, and after that signed over with Manly. I was pretty upset, because he looked like a good agressive back rower. He disappeared for a year, in the lower grades of league no doubt learning the game, and then about halfway through the second year, popped up, physically, much bigger, for Manly. I have followed him, as I was a bit of a fan when I first saw him for the ARC. I am still a fan from his physical play in league.
I also took notice of what League/Manly did when they signed him. Instead of him starting straight away, he was in the lower grades for a year learning. This is in direct contrast to what Rugby does to their big signing “poached” players. Rugby sticks them front and centre playing, way before they are ready to actually play the game. Rugby has many nuances that take a long time to get used to. One pre-season doesn’t get you used to where you are supposed to be at certain situations.
January 31st 2012 @ 2:27pm
kingplaymaker said | January 31st 2012 @ 2:27pm | Report comment
Hoy that’s more like the way they bring in league players in England, although how far they accept it depends on how high a level of league they played: the younger ones such as Chris Ashton and Iain Thornley seem happy to learn the game lower down, while those who were first team Super league players don’t wait so patiently.
I remember reading an interview with Jarrod Saffy where he says he wasn’t getting anywhere at the Tahs academy and so left for league, and listen to Jordan Rapana: ‘we actually come from a big rugby family, but when we moved to Australia in 1999, we couldn’t find a rugby club on the Gold Coast. There was nothing around at a junior level. So we went down the road and joined Tugun Seagulls instead.’
It’s impossible for some players to get in to the Waratahs and Reds squads such is the logjam of established players.
I think the difference to Australian rugby with an extra team in each state would be vast and instantly new elite players would appear who are now lost to league.
It would be interesting to see a list of current Super league players with strong rugby backgrounds, and probably one or two starting XVs could be formed from it.