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 teammates better, Cronk comes out on top.

Consider that a win on Sunday 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.

And that’s even without considering his exceptional Test and Origin record.

While Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston and Billy Slater have dominated the debate for the best players of this era, Roosters teammates 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 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 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 off the bench 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 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 other 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.

His only year out was in 2010 when Melbourne were stripped of their points for salary cap cheating – arguably the only asterisks against his record.

Sunday’s grand final will be his ninth, the most for any player since Ron Coote in the 1960s and ’70s.

His representative career is just as glittering.

Of 11 State of Origin series he played, Queensland won 10. The one loss came when he broke him arm in Game I in 2014 and missed Game II.

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.

Be it in the way he has taught them the game, guided them around the paddock or how he has helped Luke Keary cement his spot as one of the game’s the best five-eighths.

“I don’t know the selection criteria (for Immortals), but in a game where we are judged on wins and losses, he is the best,” Keary said.

“He’s been to nine (grand finals). He’s got five rings. He’s done it for 15 years at the top level.

“In my opinion he should be talked about as one of the best who has played the game.”