I wanted to pose a question - is Cooper Cronk a great footballer, or has he been blessed with stacked rosters his entire career?

The thought occurred to me in another thread about Luke Brooks, who I felt was busy without being decisive against the Bulldogs. Personally I thought if he was given more support, more would have come of his efforts, and later in the game he seemed to be running an awful lot, to good effect, simply because either the DH service was poor or because his backline was not running onto the ball.

And I wonderd what kind of career Luke Brooks might have if he was playing for the Storm and Roosters, not Tigers. If he was receiving passes from Cam Smith, throwing balls to Munster or Slater or Inglis or Folau or Keary or Latrell or Tedesco (well we had a reasonable look at the latter).

Cooper Cronk has never played in a bad side. He’s never had less than 3-4 future Hall Of Fame players in any team. He’s a very capable organiser, tough, good defender, good support, good in clutch players, but also - he can afford to focus on these because he doesn’t have to do everything himself. Because when he passes, his team-mates make things happen, run good lines, bust tackles, set up line breaks themselves.

So how good really is Cooper Cronk and what do you guess his career might have been like if he played for Titans or Tigers?

@jirskyr If he played for Tigers his career would be similar to Benji’s

He is naturally talented but most his life, if not, all his life, yes he has had a stacked roster.

No question it would definitely have some sort of impact. We need only look at Tedesco who is unshackled and seems to have gone to another level. A lot of opportunities that Brooks provides in this team are wasted on a backline who don’t have the skill to take them.

His footy IQ / brain is exceptional.

Would have made it in any era.

Makes everyone better.

Takes the right option 9/10 .

He’s a flog and watching his face on 360 annoys me…

thinks he’s Kobe Bryant the way he ‘analyses’ the game

Cronk would have been just another half. Brooks would have been the NSW half and possibly the current kangaroo 7 if he had the team and coaches that Cronk enjoyed.

@TCL said in The possible non-greatness of Cooper Cronk:

Cronk would have been just another half. Brooks would have been the NSW half and possibly the current kangaroo 7 if he had the team and coaches that Cronk enjoyed.

Obviously!
Can’t believe he isn’t the NSW half! He should’ve been born north of the border. If he was a QLD’er and played for Broncos or Storm, Cronk would not have got a look in the QLD team that dominated origin for nearly 10 years.
If Brooks played in the early 80’s he would have walked into the Invincibles. Mortimer and Sterling were blessed to have the greatest backlines ever around them! Seriously!
And as for Ricky Stuart or Allan Langer? What a bunch of absolute hacks! Had the best backlines and coaches of the day!

He is a great organiser. In an average team the instruction to get to here would not have been able to have been carried out.

His time would have been limited by slow play the balls and kicking game stifled by a lack of field position.

He would have been up there in the great halves stakes. Right next to Chad Townsend, Ben Hunt and Aiden Sezer

He is overrated. Brooks is the better player.

@Matto said in The possible non-greatness of Cooper Cronk:

He is naturally talented but most his life, if not, all his life, yes he has had a stacked roster.

I’m going the opposite. I dont think he is naturally talented at all. I think he works damn hard to be what he is, and has had the added advantage of being in great rosters.

I stopped reading after the opening thought that Cronk has been lucky and Brooks has been unlucky with his rosters.

Try going to some games and seeing the command Cronk has over a team.

I was at Canberra on the weekend and as always Cronk was in total control.

@The_Patriot said in The possible non-greatness of Cooper Cronk:

I stopped reading after the opening thought that Cronk has been lucky and Brooks has been unlucky with his rosters.

Try going to some games and seeing the command Cronk has over a team.

I was at Canberra on the weekend and as always Cronk was in total control.

How patronising. It was a question not an assertion - has Cronk been blessed with great rosters and how would a guy like Brooks play under the best coaches and with the best footballers?

I watch him all the time and sometimes he’s really good, sometimes he’s average. He was average against us last time around.

But that’s beside the point, because Cronk can afford to be “in total control” when he plays in teams like Roosters and Storm.

And so the question is - is Cronk in total control because he’s always in total control, and he’d be doing exactly the same playing for Newcastle or Titans or Dragons, or is he afforded the ability to appear to be in total control because his 16 team-mates play quality low-error football on a regular basis, with top-tier coaching and support staff?

@jirskyr said in The possible non-greatness of Cooper Cronk:

@The_Patriot said in The possible non-greatness of Cooper Cronk:

I stopped reading after the opening thought that Cronk has been lucky and Brooks has been unlucky with his rosters.

Try going to some games and seeing the command Cronk has over a team.

I was at Canberra on the weekend and as always Cronk was in total control.

How patronising. It was a question not an assertion - has Cronk been blessed with great rosters and how would a guy like Brooks play under the best coaches and with the best footballers?

I watch him all the time and sometimes he’s really good, sometimes he’s average. He was average against us last time around.

But that’s beside the point, because Cronk can afford to be “in total control” when he plays in teams like Roosters and Storm.

And so the question is - is Cronk in total control because he’s always in total control, and he’d be doing exactly the same playing for Newcastle or Titans or Dragons, or is he afforded the ability to appear to be in total control because his 16 team-mates play quality low-error football on a regular basis, with top-tier coaching and support staff?

What is patronising is people trying to throw guys like Cronk, a born winners under a bus to defend a guy who has not and never will be in that class.