Mick Cronin (rugby league)
Encyclopedia
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'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 he 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.
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 Final
s 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.
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.
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.
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
s 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.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born Gerringong, New South Wales
Gerringong, New South Wales
Gerringong is a town located about 10 minutes south of Kiama in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia in the Municipality of Kiama. At the 2006 census, Gerringong had a population of 3,588 people.One theory says that the name derives from an Aboriginal word meaning "fearful...
) is an Australian former rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
footballer and coach. He was a goal-kicking centre for the Australian national team and a stalwart for the Parramatta Eels
Parramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...
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.
Country and early representative career
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
Kangaroo Tour
Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France. The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours took place every four years and involved a three-Test Ashes series against Great Britain and a number of tour matches...
. 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
Rugby League Ashes
The Ashes is the name given to the trophy awarded to the winner of a best-of-three series of rugby league football test series between Great Britain and Australia...
series against Great Britain and the following he Cronin played in NSW Country's historic 1975 win over Sydney City. He was selected in Australia's 1975 World Cup
Rugby League World Cup
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...
and played in five matches in the tournament in the centres alongside Bob Fulton
Bob Fulton
Robert "Bob" Fulton AM is an Australian rugby league football identity. Fulton played, coached, selected for and has commentated on the game with great success at the highest levels and has been named amongst Australia's greatest rugby league players of the 20th century.As a player Fulton won...
. 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.
Parramatta career
In 1977 he joined the Parramatta EelsParramatta Eels
The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...
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
Brett Kenny
Brett Kenny is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 90s. He was a five-eighth for the Australian national team, the New South Wales Blues representative side and the Parramatta Eels. He played in 17 Tests, made 17 State of Origin appearances and won 4...
, Steve Ella
Steve Ella
Steve Ella is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1980s. He was a utility back for the Australian national team, playing in 4 Tests between 1983 and 1985...
, Peter Sterling
Peter Sterling
Peter Maxwell John "Sterlo" Sterling OAM is an Australian rugby league commentator and former player. He was one of the all-time great halfbacks and a major contributor to Parramatta Eels' dominance of the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in the 1980s. Sterling played nineteen Tests for...
and Eric Grothe
Eric Grothe, Sr.
Eric "Guru" Grothe is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 1980s. A New South Wales and Australian representative winger, he played club football for the Parramatta Eels with whom he won four NSWRL premierships...
. In combination with all of these greats he played in four winning Grand Final
Grand Final
Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sport term used to describe a match that decides a league champion.It originated in Victoria and South Australia and has become specifically significant Australian culture...
s 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
Canterbury Bulldogs
The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, as well as New South Wales Rugby League junior competitions...
.
Cronin played 216 games in ten years with Parramatta placing him equal fourth with Bob O'Reilly
Bob O'Reilly
Bob O'Reilly is an Australian former rugby league footballer. A prop forward, he played in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership from the 1960s to the 1980s, mainly for the Parramatta Eels, but also for the Eastern Suburbs Roosters and Penrith Panthers...
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
Luke Burt
Luke Kevin Burt is an Australian professional rugby league player for the Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League competition...
. He kicked 11 goals in a round 14 match of 1982 against the Illawarra Steelers
Illawarra Steelers
The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level Rugby League competition from 1982, when they, along with the Canberra Raiders, were admitted into the then New South Wales Rugby Football...
, and 10 goals in the round 22 clash of 1978 against the Newtown Jets
Newtown Jets
The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...
. He twice scored 27 points in a match for Parramatta.
Later representative career
Cronin made his second Kangaroo TourKangaroo Tour
Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France. The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours took place every four years and involved a three-Test Ashes series against Great Britain and a number of tour matches...
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
Rugby League Ashes
The Ashes is the name given to the trophy awarded to the winner of a best-of-three series of rugby league football test series between Great Britain and Australia...
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
New Zealand national rugby league team
The New Zealand national rugby league team has represented New Zealand in rugby league football since intercontinental competition began for the sport in 1907. Administered by the New Zealand Rugby League, they are commonly known as the Kiwis, after the native bird of that name...
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
Graeme Langlands
Graeme 'Changa' Langlands, MBE, is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach of the 1960s and 70s. He retired as the most-capped player for the Australian national team with 45 from 1963 to 1975, and captained his country in 15 Test matches and World Cup games. Langlands was the...
was captain and goal kicker, Mick Cronin was Australia's first choice kicker in his next seventeen Test appearances.
State of origin folklore
Cronin made 21 appearances for New South Wales BluesNew South Wales Rugby League team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...
up till 1981 under the old place of residence rules. He played in the inaugural State of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
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
Arthur Beetson
Arthur Henry "Artie" Beetson, OAM , was an Australian rugby league footballer and coach. He represented Australia and Queensland from 1964 to 1981. His position was at prop. Beetson became the first Indigenous Australian to captain his country in any sport. and is frequently cited as the best...
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.
Point scoring feats
When he retired in 1986 he was the greatest point-scorer in the history of the NSWRLNew South Wales Rugby League
The New South Wales Rugby League is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and is a member of the Australian Rugby League. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was known as the New South Wales Rugby Football League until 1984 when forward thinking marketing managers decided...
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
Coaching
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.Accolades
Cronin was named "Country Player of the Year" in 1974. He won unprecedented back-to-back Rothmans MedalRothmans Medal
The Rothmans Medal was the premier individual award in both the New South Wales Rugby League and Brisbane Rugby League competitions, and later in the Australian Rugby League, which was given to the player voted by referees as the best and fairest in those competitions for that year.The award was...
s in 1977–78. In 1985 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
"in recognition of service to the sport of Rugby League Football". Cronin received the Australian Sports Medal
Australian Sports Medal
The Australian Sports Medal was an award given during 2000 to recognise achievements in Australian sport.Recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, office holders, and people who maintained sporting facilities and services. Over 18,000 Medals were...
in 2000 and was honoured further in 2001 by being awarded the Centenary Medal
Centenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...
"for service to Australian society through the sport of Rugby League".
At the Dally M Awards
Dally M Awards
The Dally M Awards are the official annual player awards for the National Rugby League competition. The most prestigious of these awards is the Dally M Medal which is only ever awarded to Australian born Players...
in 2007, Mick Cronin was inducted into the Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame
Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame
The Australian Rugby League Hall of Fame honors players who have shown exceptional skill at rugby league, all-time great coaches and referees, and other major contributors to the game who are Australian...
.
In February 2008, Cronin was named in the list of Australia's 100 Greatest Players (1908–2007) which was commissioned by the NRL
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
and ARL
Australian Rugby League
The Australian Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia. It is made up of state bodies, including the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League...
to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia.
The eastern grandstand of Parramatta Stadium
Parramatta Stadium
Parramatta Stadium is a sports stadium situated in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.The stadium is used primarily as the home ground of Australian National Rugby League club the Parramatta Eels...
was named the Mick Cronin Stand in his honour.
Sources
- Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney
- Big League, (2005) State of Origin 25 Years Collectors' Edition, News Magazines Sydney.