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Fearless Cronk born to lead
By Stuart Honeysett
October 04, 2008 AFTER signing a five-year contract with Melbourne this season, Cooper Cronk admitted he could never envisage himself playing for any club besides the Storm.
However, there was a time when the Melbourne half-back thought he would be lucky to play for them at all. In the summer of 2003, he was having his first taste of pre-season training under coach Craig Bellamy.
Log on to foxsports.com.au on Sunday 5 October for LIVE and INTERACTIVE coverage of the NRL grand final between Melbourne and ManlyThe then 19-year-old was two hours into a four-hour session under the hot Melbourne sun when he collapsed in agony.
Given Bellamy was an old school, hard-nosed fitness fanatic; he assumed Cronk had simply pulled the pin.
"Get up. You're not tough enough to be a first-grade footballer," Bellamy snapped.
It wasn't long before the players joined in. Prop Robbie Kearns spearheaded a group that also screamed at Cronk to get up.
When he still failed to move, everyone realised something was seriously wrong. An ambulance was called and Cronk was rushed to hospital. He had a bleeding stomach ulcer and would spend two days in hospital.
"It was a hell of a session, probably one of the toughest I've done, and I obviously didn't finish it," Cronk said. "Bellyache (Bellamy) is very much a tough customer and if you pull out of a session or pull up and say it's too hard, there's the door basically.
"Luckily enough, I had a fair reason not to finish."
Cronk, 24, rarely gets mentioned in the same breath as some of Storm's superstars even though he has an Australia jumper in his cupboard. It's hard to stand out in a team featuring Greg Inglis, Israel Folau and Billy Slater.
In fact, Cronk isn't perceived to be as crucial to Storm as hooker Cameron Smith. Once Smith was rubbed out for two games by the judiciary, many thought the club's title hopes would go with him.
But Cronk displayed his worth in last Friday night's 28-0 preliminary final win over Cronulla.
It wasn't just the fact he set up the first try, after finding a gap in the defence before kicking ahead for winger Steve Turner to score. It wasn't just his precision kicking game, that kept the Sharks pinned in their own end.
It was his exchange with teammate Anthony Quinn after a dubious penalty was blown against Storm for a grapple tackle by Matt Geyer.
Unhappy with the decision, Quinn was venting his frustration at referee Tony Archer before Cronk took control.
"Zip it, zip it," he screamed at Quinn, before telling Archer, "Don't worry. I've got him."
Cronk downplayed the incident this week, claiming there were plenty of leaders at the club and he was just one of them.
"It's one of the strengths we have here through our leadership group," Cronk said.
"But I'm a fill-in, (Smith's) the captain of this club and always will be as long as he's here.
"He's a great leader, he's captain of his country and captain of his state and he's got my vote."
Kearns, himself a former Melbourne captain, said he can remember Cronk showing leadership qualities shortly after he arrived in 2003.
"We used to go on these training camps and they used to give us all this 'outside the square' sort of thinking activities," Kearns said.
"Sure enough, I'd be scratching my brain and he'd complete the whole lot of it.
"Without a doubt, he's a natural born leader and I said to him after the Sharks game, 'It was a good way you led the team around, not only as a playmaker but as a captain'.
"In my time playing rugby league I always used to prefer a captain that led by example rather than talk the talk. He did both, because he talked the talk and he also led by example."
Veteran Matt Geyer said Cronk had flourished in Storm's system.
"He's a natural leader and it might be unfortunate he plays under Cameron Smith his whole career because he might not get to experience being a captain all that much," Geyer said.
"He likes talking, he likes being verbal and he's not a quiet bloke by any stretch of the imagination - and he's a footballer. He likes studying the game and he likes doing things that involve football."
Cronk's leadership qualities were on display in Melbourne this week as the club began the build-up for its third consecutive grand final. While some of his team-mates were reluctant to front the cameras and microphones at an open media session, the Storm No.7 was in his element.
During interviews, he affectionately refers to teammates like Inglis - only three years his junior - as "a darn good kid".
At the club's fan day on Tuesday, Cronk bounded down the stairs and boomed out a loud "Good morning" to the throng of supporters on hand.
Cronk's state of mind could have something to do with the fact his long-term future is settled. In July, he signed a contract that would keep him at the club until the end of the 2013 season.
Usually such deals are protracted affairs, taking months to get sorted.
Cronk was different. He needed only two minutes.
"Contracts and negotiations are so individual that one is never similar to the other one," Cronk said. "The question I just asked myself and answered in two minutes was, 'Am I happy here and do I enjoy it?'
"I enjoy turning up to training and I love playing with these blokes, they're all my good mates.
"I enjoy the lifestyle, I enjoy the football club, it's an absolute pleasure to train and play."
When his deal expires, Cronk will be 29.
Depending on what happens in tomorrow night's grand final against Manly at ANZ Stadium, he could have another premiership ring by then. While he didn't want to speculate on the club's chances of success, he conceded he couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
"I'm probably not going to play against the Melbourne Storm," Cronk said.
"It's just the feeling that I have, the passion that I have would be pretty hard to do so.
"It's the old saying - why fix it when it ain't broken?"
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24445229-23214,00.html
Good story, in my opinion Cooper's the most under-rated player in the NRL.
