https://www.smh.com.au/sport/who-sa...ur-dog-like-cooper-cronk-20181005-p50806.html
See if you can work out the kind of person who would write this, criticising the Roosters for throwing Cooper Cronk into the NRL grand final while carrying a crippling injury.
“Imagine, for a moment, that your pet Labrador was in a similar position. Choc the dog broke his shoulder, but he has a huge dog show in a few days that you have been working towards all year. Do you inject little Choc with some anaesthetic and tell him to push on? Do you cheer as he howls in pain after leaping the hurdle? I don’t think so.
"The very idea of behaving in such a way is unimaginably cruel. As Choc’s owner, it’s your responsibility to look after him. Shouldn’t there be someone to look after the welfare of Cooper Cronk?
“The decision should not have been his to make. Of course he
wanted to play. Rugby league players have shown time and time again that they cannot be responsible for their own safety . . .
“This is not something to be celebrated. It’s something to be admonished. It’s not acceptable. Rugby league is already tough enough without these ridiculous acts of hyper-masculinity.”
The writer goes on to decry the effect it must have had on the young’uns, encouraging them to ignore pain, too.
“What will 15-year-old Johnny Superstar do when he tears a ligament in his shoulder the week before his schoolboy grand final? More importantly, what will his coach and teammates
expecthim to do? The expectation and fanfare surrounding playing through injury will continue as long as professional players behave in this way . . . Cronk’s ability to play through pain was brave and admirable, but perhaps, the braver thing to do would have been to sit it out. If not for his own safety, for the future safety of the boys and girls watching at home.”
“I was the captain of the Manly Sea Eagles National Youth Competition side. I had an NRL contract. I [had] an ankle injury that I didn’t fix. I played 24 rounds with strapping so thick on my ankle that I couldn’t tie my bootlaces up. I had to cut the bottom of my sock off to fit my foot in the boot at all. When I got surgery to make walking less painful, the surgeon told me that the now incurable injury would have been prevented if treated immediately.”
He never played again. He was 20 years old, and will live with the pain for the rest of his days.
I think he makes a fair point – and writes well.
