The worst kept secret will finally be confirmed today as the Sydney Roosters officially land superstar halfback Cooper Cronk who will sign a two-year deal with the club.
While all will focus on the Mitchell Pearceโs uncertain future at the Roosters, coach Trent Robinson will be gleefully licking his lips and rubbing his hands together in excitement as the NRL powerhouse welcomes another talented stud for 2018.
Finishing one match short of the Grand Final this season, Roostersโ fans shrugged off their despair and bitter disappointment with the knowledge that the next big thing in the NRL โ James Tedesco โ would be arriving next season.
Cronkโs addition firmly stamps 2018 as premiership or bust for the Bondi side.
The veteran halfโs move to the Roosters means a lot more than added talent to the team. It addresses their Achilles heel that unravelled their failed 2017 season โ their inconsistency, not just from week to week, but within matches where they often unexplainably switched off or failed to show the focus needed to gain victory.
More than just 14 years and 390 games for the envy-of-the-NRL Melbourne Storm plus his experience at the state and international levels, Cronk is the ultimate professional and consummate when it comes to his meticulous preparation.
He is borderline OCD. Craig Bellamy has called Cronk โanalโ about his preparation. There are stories about his discipline to his craft whether it is meticulously watching game film at all hours of the night or staying awake for hours on end to nurse injuries before matches.
Billy Slater told Richard Hinds in his autobiography of a 2003 preseason at Melbourne where he and Cronk were first trying to make the Storm squad. After 90 minutes of another notoriously brutal training session on a steaming January day, Cronk was unable to get up off the ground and was rushed to hospital by ambulance. It was revealed that Cronk had hidden a bleeding stomach ulcer that caused a severe iron deficiency as he desperately sought to make the cut.
It will be Cronkโs character that has the biggest impact at the Roosters. His daily professionalism will rub off of the likes of young up-and-comers such as Luke Keary and Latrell Mitchell as well as Blake Ferguson, Jake Friend and Pearce โ if he stays.
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