The NRL 300 Club

STAFF WRITER | September 22, 2016 - 3:06pm

It's not often that an NRL player makes it to the elusive 300 game mark, in fact, it's only happened 24 other times in the league's 108-year history.

But Storm halfback Cooper Cronk is set to add to that list, as he becomes the 25th man to do so when he plays game number 300 in this weekend's preliminary final against the Canberra Raiders at AAMI Park.

Not only that, but Cronk becomes just the 11th player to do it all at just one club, and Cronk and Storm captain Cameron Smith will become the first 300-game teammates to play in the same game.

Brisbane great Darren Lockyer has played the most games in history, with a 355-game career spanning 17 seasons between 1995-2011.

The fullback turned five-eighth may not hold that place at the top of the list for long, as Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith is bearing down on him.

Despite Smith currently sitting sixth on the all-time list with 333 games, he's only 22 games behind Lockyer, and with Smith showing no signs of slowing down, he could eclipse Lockyer's record in 2017.

Along with the pairing from Melbourne, Corey Parker was the only other 300 game player in the NRL in 2016, as he retired at the end of Brisbane's season with a total of 347 NRL matches.

That number puts Parker fourth on the all-time list behind Steve Menzies (349 NRL games), Terry Lamb (350) and of course, Darren Lockyer.

The NRL 300 club

355 - Darren Lockyer

350 - Terry Lamb

349 - Steve Menzies

347 - Corey Parker

336 - Brad Fittler

333 - Cameron Smith

332 - Cliff Lyons

330 - Nathan Hindmarsh

328 - Andrew Ettingshausen

325 - Geoff Gerard