Cooper Cronk can lay claim to the 21st century’s John Sattler moment after guiding the Sydney Roosters to a premiership with a broken scapula in the Tri-colours’ 21-6 NRL grand final win over Melbourne.
Cleared to play after a week-long shoulder battle, Cronk fought on for 78 minutes with his left arm dangling by its side on Sunday night before he finally ended the match on the bench too exhausted to stand up at fulltime.
The 34-year-old may as well have worn the blue trainers’ shirt in the first half as he became the first player to win back-to-back premierships at different clubs in 45 years.
He had no runs, no tackle busts and no metres after only being cleared to play earlier on Saturday.
But that wasn’t what the former Storm player was there to do. Instead, he acted as an on-field coach in an effort reminiscent of Sattler for South Sydney in their 1970 grand final win.
“Any other player you would pull him off,” Roosters legend Brad Fittler said during the Nine Network’s commentary at halftime.
“But he is there for his voice and his brain and his larynx will be sorer than his shoulder after the game.”
Cronk’s 17 touches were his least of the year by 12 but when he was involved, he was golden.
The 34-year-old was whacked after his first two kicks, first by Joe Stimson and then by old friend Cameron Smith. But both bombs resulted in a repeat sets that led to the opening tries.
Even when the Storm attempted to aim up at Cronk, it all went wrong.
After they forced him to make just two tackles in the opening half hour, prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona shifted left to line him up but succeeded only in dropping the ball before the line.
Roosters hooker Jake Friend scooped the ball up and ran 40m before he was tackled and held down by Cameron Munster, who was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul.
Amazingly, Cronk didn’t miss a tackle in defence.
At one stage in the second half, he helped stop a hard-running Asofa-Solomona on the Roosters’ own line and was then cleaned up by the same man seconds later as the Storm were denied a try for an obstruction.
With Cronk injured, Luke Keary was the hero for the Roosters.
Playing on both sides of the field and virtually filling the roles of five-eighth and halfback, he had seven more touches than in any other games this year and controlled the Roosters’ attack with ease.
He threw the last pass for the Roosters’ first try – a wonderful lofted ball for winger Daniel Tupou – and kicked the ball 18 times, well above his average of four per match this season.
He gifted Melbourne their only try through a Josh Addo-Carr intercept but kicked a field goal with 11 minutes to play on Cronk’s command to ice the match.