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Cooper Cronk is rugby league’s most influential player. And this was never more evident in than Queensland’s Game 3 State of Origin victory last week.
After playing close to 10 minutes in Game 1, Cronk injured his arm, preventing him from taking part in the rest of the match and the entirety of Game 2 – both of which were tightly fought win by NSW.
Confirming Cronk’s widely-known tendency for being a quick healer, the Maroons’ halfback made a remarkable comeback for Game 3, playing a key role in the Maroons’ 24-point victory.
Overall, it made for interesting reading.
Queensland lost the series by losing the two games Cronk didn’t play, but then avoided a clean-sweep by winning the one game he did.
Queensland also score only one try in the 150 minutes that Cronk wasn’t there, but then scored six tries in the 90 minutes that he was. And, NSW scored 26 points for the entire series, whereas Queensland – with Cronk back in the side – scored 32 points in a single game.
For NSW fans especially, this is a spectacular coincidence at best. But, really, it isn’t, especially when we look at Cronk’s record since his 2004 debut.
I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating here. Cronk’s record in the biggest games and the biggest moments is almost unparalleled.
In the past four years, Cronk has outpointed Jonathan Thurston in Dally M voting. Unlike Thurston, though, Cronk also had the ever-present threat of current Australian captain Cameron Smith and current Australian fullback Billy Slater stealing Dally M points off him.
In 2006, his first year starting at halfback for the Melbourne Storm, Cronk was awarded Dally M Halfback of the Year – an award he won a further three times in 2011, 2012 and 2013. In fact, in 2006, Cronk actually outpointed Andrew Johns, rugby league’s eighth Immortal.
Cronk’s been to a grand final five times. In 2012, he not only won a premiership legitimately – after all the immense controversy over Melbourne allegedly fielding an illegal side in their previous two appearances – but also won the Clive Churchill medal for best on ground. Many good judges maintain he almost single-handedly defeated the Canterbury Bulldogs, on what was the biggest day of the year.
In one of the illegal grand finals in 2009, he, again, almost single-handedly defeated Parramatta, with most credible judges deeming him incredibly unlucky not to have won the Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground. Interestingly, the eventual Clive Churchill winner, Billy Slater, actually agreed, openly and publicly stating that the award should have gone to Cronk.
Prior to this year, Cronk has had two opportunities at starting halfback over the course of an entire State of Origin series. In Game 3 2012, with the series level at 1-1 and finding his team tied at 20 points in the 70th minute, Cronk successfully kicked a field-goal to put the Maroons in front by one point. Queensland ultimately won the game and therefore the series.
Then, in the 60th minute of Game 3 2013, again with the series level at 1-1, it was Cronk’s try-assist to Queensland right centre Justin Hodges that turned out to be the game-changer. The Blues had been building momentum, having been only down 8-4 and needing to score once to at worst remain level, but with Cronk’s pass, they now had to score twice. It again allowed Queensland to win the match and therefore the series.
In 2013, Cronk then went on to win the Dally M medal outright, narrowly edging Thurston, as well as Manly halfback Daly Cherry-Evans and Cronulla five-eighth Todd Carney.
This is what makes Cronk’s lack of recognition so bizarre.
Perhaps it’s because he wins games but doesn’t make highlight reels. His game is based on intelligence, strategy and accuracy, rather than raw-boned athleticism or instinctive feats of playmaking brilliance.
To the casual observer he isn’t all that spectacular to watch, he isn’t overly streamlined in his movements and his running style is more jerky than dynamic. As others have noted, he doesn’t flick pass, pull off big hits in defence, use banana kicks or possess a signature left-foot step.
He does, however, run decoy plays almost perfectly. He destabilises defences better than just about anyone and he has no peer when it comes to all-important 40/20 kicks. He also makes very few mistakes.
Most importantly, though, he makes teams win.
“While the 30-year-old rarely makes line breaks or throws dazzling cut-out passes”, journalist Chris Garry said in an article recently.
“Cronk’s ability to make those around him play better is unrivalled in rugby league.”
Absolutely.
At any rate, there are other aspects at play as well – much of which stem from Australian Rugby League’s widely-perceived insularity. In addition to being a rugby union convert, Cronk is a Queenslander playing for the Melbourne Storm in a game whose power base is heavily weighted towards all things Sydney and NSW.
There is also Cooper Cronk as a person. He is the ultimate individualist who defies many of the rugby league stereotypes. He prefers philosophy and poetry to partying and video games, he sports none of the latest hairstyles, he doesn’t seem to have any tattoos and certainly doesn’t have the customary broad Australian accent. To some, therefore, Cooper Cronk is eccentric – if not an outsider.
This is the only real explanation behind the somewhat strange campaign from some prominent sections of the rugby league media who were pushing for Daly Cherry-Evans to usurp Cronk as the new Queensland and Australian halfback.
Referring to the Anzac Test selection in April, Dean Ritchie of the Daily Telegraph said that, “you can’t help but think that if not for the fierce loyalty of national selectors, Cherry-Evans’ performance would have been enough to usurp Cronk as Australia’s starting halfback”.
The same week Paul Crawley, of the same publication, said that calls had apparently “grown louder that Cherry-Evans has now overtaken Cronk as the game’s number one halfback”.
Then, on the eve of Origin 2, with Cronk still recovering from his injured arm, there was this bemusing piece of analysis from Nick Walshaw, “Daly Cherry-Evans has been medically cleared to begin life as the Queensland No. 7 — meaning Cooper Cronk may never start an Origin or Test again”.
It was a curious sight: a Sydney-based tabloid newspaper lobbying for a Queenslander – who plays for one of the NRL’s most widely-disliked teams – to oust the most recent Dally M winner.
Noticeably, the alleged calls were replaced with resounding silence in light of State of Origin Game 3’s outcome. Perhaps it was a clumsy attempt at a wedge strategy. Who knows.
Whatever the case, these are all explanations, not justifications. And what makes Cronk’s case for rugby league’s most influential player even more convincing is this: his shortcomings are almost all of his control.
He wasn’t born with quite the same level of natural talent as players like Johnathan Thurston, Jarryd Hayne or Greg Inglis. He has had to do more with less just to match the same standards. He has had to make more of the limited opportunities afforded to him, having waited a number of years behind Darren Lockyer.
And, perhaps most striking, the gap between what he’s capable of, and what he consistently produces, is clearly the narrowest of all the elite players – and this is what really sets him apart.
So, what are we missing here? People talk about Cameron Smith being most the NRL’s most influential player. People talk about Johnathan Thurston being the most influential player. People even talk about Billy Slater being the most influential player. To varying degrees, these are all respectable arguments.
But, strangely, no-one talks about Cronk being the NRL’s most influential player, and his record is arguably better than the lot of them.
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