|
Cooper Cronk Profile |
|
-
Birth Date: December 5, 1983
-
Birth Place: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
-
Birth Name: Cooper Patrick Cronk
-
Height: 5'10"
|
|
|
Biography |
Cooper Cronk is a premiership winning Australian
professional rugby league player for the Melbourne Storm in
the National Rugby League competition. His position of
choice is halfback.
As a child he played baseball for the Runcorn Indians. Cronk
attended St. Laurence's College, South Brisbane, where much
of his time was spent playing for the 1st XV Rugby Union
side. It was here that he began developing into a quality
first receiver. In 2001, he was selected to play in the
Australian School Boys side. Cooper was identified as a
player with natural talent, maturity beyond his years and
enormous potential by Storm Recruitment Officer, Gavin
Darwin, and it wasn't long before Cronk was playing in the
Norths Devils team. He quickly established himself in the
Queensland Cup and trained with the Storm Squad in 2003.
Cronk made his debut for the Storm in 2004, starting as a
utility back coming off the bench and playing at
five-eighth, hooker and lock.
In 2006, Cronk won the Dally M Halfback of the Year award
and achieved premiership success in 2007 with the Melbourne
Storm in their defeat of Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. He
finished a successful year by achieving selection at
halfback for the Kangaroos in the Centenary Test against New
Zealand in October, 2007.
In 2008, Cronk was called into the Australian Test Team to
replace Jonathan Thurston who had twisted his ankle in
training. Thurston later was cleared of injury and played in
the test team over Cronk.
In August, 2008, Cronk was named in the preliminary 46-man
Kangaroos squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.
When Cameron Smith was sidelined by judiciary suspension
during Melbourne's finals campaign of 2008, Cronk stood in
as captain and captained the Storm in the 2008 NRL Grand
Final defeat to Manly in the absence of skipper, Cameron
Smith.
In April 2009, he was named in the preliminary 25 man squad
to represent Queensland in the opening State of Origin match
for 2009. |
|
|
|
since July 3, 2009