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Post by Electric Eel on May 30, 2020 19:20:42 GMT 10
 Mick Cronin Born - 1951 Parramatta 1977 - 1986 Games - 216 Wikipedia |
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Post by Electric Eel on May 30, 2020 19:21:07 GMT 10
Michael William "Mick" Cronin OAM (born Gerringong, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a goal-kicking centre for the Australian national team and a stalwart for the Parramatta Eels club. He played in 22 Tests and 11 World Cup matches between 1973 and 1982. He retired as the NSWRL Premiership's and the Australian Kangaroos' all-time highest point-scorer and has since been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.
Cronin played for Christian Brothers (now Edmund Rice) in the Illawarra competition as an under 12. He was so good that when his team made the semi-finals the opposition appealed against Cronin's inclusion on residence grounds, claiming he was from Gerringong.
Cronin's first grade career began in 1969 for Gerringong. He was selected to play for Country in 1973 where he impressed enough to make the that year's Kangaroo tour. He played in two Tests and ten minor tour matches and finished as the tour's highest point scorer with seven tries and twenty eight goals. In 1974 he was named New South Wales' Country Rugby League Player of the Year. He played in all three Tests of the 1974 domestic Ashes series against Great Britain and the following year Cronin played in NSW Country's historic 1975 win over Sydney City. He was selected in Australia's 1975 World Cup and played in five matches in the tournament in the centres alongside Bob Fulton. In a match against Wales in sydney during the series, he kicked nine goals.
By this time Cronin was one of the most eminent rugby league centres in the world, yet he continually rejected big money offers to go to Sydney and played for his home town of Gerringong on the NSW south coast.
In 1977 he joined the Parramatta Eels but for many years continued to commute to training and matches from Gerringong where he owned and ran the local hotel. He was a member of Parramatta's star studded backlines of the early 1980s playing alongside Brett Kenny, Steve Ella, Peter Sterling and Eric Grothe. In combination with all of these greats he played in four winning Grand Finals for Parramatta (1981, 1982, 1983 and 1986). Alongside team-mate Ray Price, Cronin enjoyed a fairy tale last match end to his career in the 1986 Grand Final where he kicked both goals in the Eels' 4–2 victory over Canterbury.
Cronin played 216 games in ten years with Parramatta placing him equal fourth with Bob O'Reilly on the list of most first grade appearances. His club point scoring tally of 1971 points (75 tries, 865 goals and 2 field goals) is the standing Parramatta record and is over 600 points clear of the next contender Luke Burt. He kicked 11 goals in a round 14 match of 1982 against the Illawarra Steelers, and 10 goals in the round 22 clash of 1978 against the Newtown Jets. He twice scored 27 points in a match for Parramatta.
Cronin made his second Kangaroo Tour in 1978 and played in all five Tests plus 12 minor matches again returning home as the tour's highest point scorer with 142 points. He played in all Tests of the 1979 domestic Ashes series against Great Britain kicking 24 goals in the course of the three games. He played in seven Tests over three series against New Zealand in 1978, 1980 and 1982 before he retired from international representative football.
In 22 Tests for Australia between 1973 and 1982 he scored 5 tries and 93 goals for 201 points. Aside from Cronin's first 5 Tests in 1973 and 1974 when Graeme Langlands was captain and goal kicker, Mick Cronin was Australia's first choice kicker in his next seventeen Test appearances.
Cronin made 21 appearances for New South Wales Blues up till 1981 under the old place of residence rules. He played in the inaugural State of Origin match in 1980 and made five further appearances for the Blues under the origin criteria up till the game III in 1983, despite having retired from international representative availability in 1982.
Mick Cronin's name was etched into Origin folklore that first night in July 1980 when fifteen minutes from the end of the game his Parramatta club teammate Arthur Beetson tore in from the right side while Cronin was held up in a tackle by Queensland half Greg Oliphant and threw a loose left-arm around Cronin's chin. To this day that incident is cited in evidence that from the outset State of Origin football was "the real deal" where deeply rooted State passion would take priority over club friendships and loyalties. State of Origin rugby league has ever since been promoted as "state against state, mate against mate". This arch rivalry was typified by the Cronin/Beetson altercation notwithstanding that it was quickly forgotten and that they sat next to each other on the return plane trip to Sydney and didn't mention the incident.
Altogether Cronin represented New South Wales 27 times from 1973 to 1983, scoring 7 tries, 87 goals for 195 points.
When he retired in 1986 he was the greatest point-scorer in the history of the NSWRL premiership with 1,971 points and other point-scoring honours include:
• Country record of 316 pts in 20 Group 7 matches in 1971
• Most points in a club season (282 in 1978) – the standing Parramatta club record.
• Most points in a calendar year (547 from 542 games in 1978)
• Most points by a player from any country in World Cup clashes (108)
• Most points in the world in Tests (199)
• Most points in a Test series (54 against Great Britain 1979)
• Most successive successful kicks for goal in top-grade rugby league (26 in 1978).
• Leading point-scorer in 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982 & 1985
In 1990 he took on the coaching responsibility at Parramatta in a period when their playing roster was at its weakest for years. He coached the Eels until the end of the 1993 season. In 1992 he coached a Country origin side to victory over City origin.
Cronin was named "Country Player of the Year" in 1974. He won unprecedented back-to-back Rothmans Medals in 1977–78. In 1985 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "in recognition of service to the sport of Rugby League Football". Cronin received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and was honoured further in 2001 by being awarded the Centenary Medal "for service to Australian society through the sport of Rugby League".
At the Dally M Awards in 2007, Mick Cronin was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame.
In February 2008, Cronin was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL and ARL to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.
The eastern grandstand of Parramatta Stadium was named the Mick Cronin Stand in his honour.
Wikipedia
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Post by Electric Eel on May 30, 2020 19:21:29 GMT 10
A Centenary of Rugby League
By Ian Heads and David Middleton
For much of his career, Mick Cronin was regarded as 'the Arthur Beetson of the backs'. From 1977 to 1986, he was a rock-solid presence in a Parramatta backline that oozed talent. His ability to draw in defenders, plant his feet like an Easter Island statue, and then unload the ball to waiting support players was a rare and special talent. Backline partners such as Brett Kenny, Steve Ella and Eric Grothe profited immensely from his work, with scores of tries to their credit. No wonder Cronin was a much-loved figure at Parramatta throughout a decade of remarkable achievement.
Cronin came to premiership football late, finally persuaded to come to the city by Eels coach Terry Fearnley at the age of 25, after Sydney scouts had beaten a path to his Gerringong pub for the previous four years. He had always resisted the offers, no matter how lucrative, preferring the easier lifestyle of the NSW south coast to the rush and bluster of city life. He continued to live in Gerringong even after joining Parramatta, making the two-hour car journey to Sydney's west and back at least three times every week.
By 1977, he had achieved everything possible in bush football: premierships, point-scoring records and the game's highest representative honours. He was chosen from Gerringong in 1973 to tour with the Kangaroos, a controversial selection at the time, but he proved his detractors wrong with a succession of impressive displays. He emerged as the touring party's leading scorer and set off on a Test career of enduring quality. He played 22 Tests in all, scoring 201 points, a figure surpassed by only two players in the game's history: Mal Meninga and Andrew Johns. Cronin toured with the Kangaroos a second time in 1978 and would have gone again in 1982 if he had not announced his unavailability.
While some of his records have been surpassed in recent years, he continues to hold most of Parramatta's scoring landmarks. His achievement in amassing 547 points at all levels of the game in 1978 stands as a world record that may never be broken.
But he was much more than just a points machine. He was a key member in Parramatta's premiership triumphs of the early 80's and after recovering from a career-threatening eye injury early in the 1986 season, he farewelled the game on the highest possible note when his two goals lifted the Eels to a 4-2 victory over the Bulldogs in that year's grand final.
Cronin took up a career in coaching after his playing days were over, first at Gerringong, where he helped in the development of a young Rod Wishart, and then at Parramatta between 1990 and 1993, where the Eels endured a difficult period following the glory days of the 1980's.
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Post by Electric Eel on May 30, 2020 19:21:56 GMT 10
Big League Magazine
16th - 22nd May, 1975
Mick Cronin spends his time between playing football, pulling beer at his Gerringong hotel and frustrating Sydney Rugby League clubs.
Ask any club committee man and he'll tell you Cronin is playing for his club next year; except that Cronin keeps telling Sydney clubs "no" or "maybe".
No one has ever been able to get the affirmative out of him and it makes Cronin one of the enigmas of modern League.
You see, he plays for nothing in Gerringong. It's no rumour that $50,000 contracts have been waved tantalisingly in front of him. But he continues to say no.
He runs his father's hotel in Gerringong and flatly refuses to come to Sydney because he doesn't particularly like city life and is happy in sleepy Gerringong.
But the rumours will be about this week with Cronin in Sydney with the Country team. He'll have talks and maybe just someone will get him to say yes.
There is hardly a club in Sydney who hasn't spoken to him.
Where hopeful Sydney clubs have come to a halt in negotiations is when they start talking money. Cronin isn't interested in figures.
One secretary said: "He's different, I'll give him that. It won't be the amount of money that'll bring him to Sydney."
Two Sydney clubs made strong bids this year. Parramatta and Balmain both went for him in a big way.
Balmain secretary, Keith Gittoes came away from discussions empty handed, but confident that if Cronin ever comes north, he could play for the Tigers.
But the same is said at Cronulla.
Said Cronulla secretary Arthur Winn when they negotiated last year: "If Cronin comes to Sydney, he'll be a Shark."
And there are many on the South Coast who says Cronulla will be Cronin's choice. But they've even got him down as a likely lad with a Wollongong club.
Cronin rose from humble beginnings to get where he is today.
Sydney's first glimpse of him was in 1972 when he was picked in the centres for Country Seconds. He was replaced at halftime.
He went back to Gerringong where he was a local hero, what with his magnificent goalkicking.
The next year made Cronin. He was named in Country Firsts - scored a try and kicked four goals - and was named in the NSW squad for Queensland.
But even then many sceptics felt he was just being used to keep the Country people happy and he would soon fall back into obscurity, never to be heard of again.
But he was to be no flash in the pan. He played twice for the State that year and earned a place in the Kangaroo team to England and France.
And that's when Cronin earned his name. He was praised for the way he helped his wingers and played Tests in France. The wet, slow grounds of England suited his style. Last year he was Bobby Fulton's centre partner in the three Tests against Great Britain in Australia.
He became hot property - very hot - and the Sydney Cheque books came out thick and fast. But still his answer was the same.
Before he went on the Kangaroo tour he hinted he might come to Sydney. He said: "I've had offers and I'll think about them when the tour is over."
But still nothing and one could understand after his hint at just how Sydney clubs must feel at his "maybe" replies.
What clubs can't understand is why a young man of 23 wants to stay in Gerringong...a quiet little town, some 80 miles from Sydney.
Cronin explains he is happy working his father's hotel business - away from the bustle of Sydney life.
One club secretary who claims he hasn't spoken to Cronin is Manly's Ken Arthurson.
Said Arthurson: "Why would Manly want him? Is he any better than Bob Fulton and Ray Branighan?" Arthurson had a point.
But one has to admire Cronin for finding something better than the almighty dollar.
While he remains in the country, he will always have a head start when the representative teams are being selected.
He got his chance and took it. Maybe now is the time for him to become a permanent Sydney fixture.
But ask almost every club and they'll tell you: "If Cronin comes to Sydney, we'll have last bid."
Like we said, we've heard it all before...but then just maybe.
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1981 1982 1983 1986 