The Cooper Cronk experiment isn’t working for the Roosters — can he change?

[The Skeez]

Expecting a big game game from CC this Sunday.

If we are looking for answers, it’s Tupou who we are missing. Along with Fergus, starts our sets rolling and gave Cooper/Keary a kicking try scoring option on the left.His combination with Latrell was looking sharp.

[David Bill Williams]

Great article from Andrew Webster here. Blaming Friend is popular and there is hatred towards Robinson but our big name halfback simply has not aimed up at all this season. 3 try assists according to this article, that’s pathetic.

The Cooper Cronk experiment isn’t working for the Roosters — can he change?

Last Thursday, after being thumped in the Anzac Day match against the Dragons, the Roosters made the long, exhausting trip over the Harbour Bridge to teammate Cooper Cronk’s $3.5 million home at Mosman for a barbecue.

In between solving the problems of the world over the Jatz and dip, we can’t help but wonder if any of the players asked a delicate question …

“Um, Coops … Any danger of firing a shot this season, big fella?”

On the surface, it’s a valid question: according to Champion Data, Cronk has provided just three try assists and two line-break assists so far this season.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson can bang on as much as he wants about building houses and foundations but the very costly Cronk experiment — reportedly at $1 million per season and at the expense of the popular Mitchell Pearce — is yet to really bear fruit.

Let’s ponder the obvious hypothetical question: if the Roosters had also kept Pearce as they wanted, instead of granting him a release to the Knights, would they have dropped Cronk — one of the most dominant halfbacks in the past decade — or persisted with an attack that’s as smooth as sandpaper?

Cronk didn’t sign with the Roosters until late October but the Roosters can hardly complain about taking time to adjust with a new-look team. They’ve added one of the great halfbacks to their line-up, along with one of the game’s best fullbacks in James Tedesco.

Teams like the Dragons and Knights have had greater upheaval and player turnover, yet they are playing with far greater fluency than the eastern suburbs glamour club that always gets the biggest names, the best players.

Some judges could forecast this early season pain with Cronk coming into the Roosters side.

It’s become a cliché about how structured, almost robotic, his game is. That’s not a criticism. Playing under the People’s Republic of Craig Bellamy, he rarely made a mistake when he was in his pomp. He is what he is.

Better judges than this one will tell you the game has changed, though. The teams that play structured footy are beginning to struggle. Defences are too well-drilled, too disciplined, and especially so with the increase in penalties when players are given more time to recover before defending another set.

There has been talk for the last week or so about the Roosters completely changing their attack to a less structured style and it will be fascinating to see if Cronk can bend and become something that he is not — or less comfortable with — as the season unfolds.

The year is only young but the Roosters are four-and-four and anything less than a big win over a broken Manly side at Allianz Stadium on Sunday will be considered a setback.

The Dragons were great on Anzac Day but Roosters fans surely left Allianz frustrated.

Modern-day centres don’t seem to get the ball much at all these days but Latrell Mitchell — for mine, the most exciting young player in the game, and that includes Kalyn Ponga — may as well start wearing long sleeve jumpers, he’s that underused.

The man that matters the most — Roosters chairman Nick Politis — is not panicking. He sees players hurting over their start to the season and knows they are not taking it lightly.

But the Roosters are a club that counts success in premierships. They bought Cronk, just as they bought Sonny Bill Williams a few years back, to deliver one.

They’re a long away from it.




https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/the...03-p4zd82.html

How quick you are to forget, in the Knights game, Cronk was involved in every single one of the tries. Stop just looking at stats. I refuse to judge if Cronk was the right move or not before I see him play a full game with GOOD/DECENT service from a hooker. Not the slow, over the head balls that make Cronk slow down his run or have to jump to get to the ball. Shitty service gives Cronk no time to do anything but get smashed (i.e last weeks game with Tariq Sims) and the slow service gives the defense all the time in the world to get in his face.

If you cant see that he is getting the worst service out of dummy half you either:
1. Dont watch our games
2. Dont know f all about footy
3. You are Jake Friend himself on the Chookpen trying to defend himself...

[theGman]

So no you can't say if I am right or wrong just that you are sick of hearing hearing that some may see Friend as a major cause of the issues we have.... Too bad deal with it.

Couldn't agree more with you Artie.

One has to admire Coach Pay for dropping his rake Lichaa for sub par performances. That change made a telling difference, so much so they almost pulled off a marvellous victory against the Broncos.

Pity our coach's stubbornness is preventing an opportunity for Baptiste. Why the fark did we sign him for??? What, just in case Jake breaks a limb???

[Lydon]

Couldn't agree more with you Artie.

One has to admire Coach Pay for dropping his rake Lichaa for sub par performances. That change made a telling difference, so much so they almost pulled off a marvellous victory against the Broncos.

Pity our coach's stubbornness is preventing an opportunity for Baptiste. Why the fark did we sign him for??? What, just in case Jake breaks a limb???

Never knew this extreme stubborn side of Robbo,guess we have never been put in this position where our Captain is so out of form and under pressure from fans and media..
Much respect to Dean Pay,he saw the problem and fixed it..
Robbo just ignores it

[Guest]

Pearce was here over 10 years
Cronk 6 months
& you 6 weeks......

Seems you have loads of cred to back your opinion

I couldn’t give a toss about Pearce. Who cares how long I’ve been here what’s that got to do with an article written by Andrew Webster?

[Guest]

How quick you are to forget, in the Knights game, Cronk was involved in every single one of the tries. Stop just looking at stats. I refuse to judge if Cronk was the right move or not before I see him play a full game with GOOD/DECENT service from a hooker. Not the slow, over the head balls that make Cronk slow down his run or have to jump to get to the ball. Shitty service gives Cronk no time to do anything but get smashed (i.e last weeks game with Tariq Sims) and the slow service gives the defense all the time in the world to get in his face.

If you cant see that he is getting the worst service out of dummy half you either:
1. Dont watch our games
2. Dont know f all about footy
3. You are Jake Friend himself on the Chookpen trying to defend himself...

So that’s one good game he’s had and full credit to the boys. How’s he gone the last 3 weeks? We’ve scored 4 tries in 3 games, that’s stellar right there. It’s all Jake Friend’s fault isn’t it lol

[Maxy Walker]

So that’s one good game he’s had and full credit to the boys. How’s he gone the last 3 weeks? We’ve scored 4 tries in 3 games, that’s stellar right there. It’s all Jake Friend’s fault isn’t it lol

Not Cronk’s turn to be the scapegoat yet. He’ll probably get his turn sooner or later but at the moment the mob is obsessed with Friend.

[The Brain]

I was always sceptical about signing a 35 year old halfback who has ever played at one club...now????? .

[rented tracksuit]

If we count our success with premierships, we are pretty piss poor in that department, 2 in over 40 yrs, and we lol@souffs.

That’s one more than them in just over 40 years and we weren’t kicked out of the comp so yes... lol@souffs.

[David Bill Williams]

So that’s one good game he’s had and full credit to the boys. How’s he gone the last 3 weeks? We’ve scored 4 tries in 3 games, that’s stellar right there. It’s all Jake Friend’s fault isn’t it lol

Like I said, until Robbo has the balls to do something about our hooker problem and I see a game from Cronk where he gets good service, I will do my judging then

[roosterchook]

Yeah, fair enough. 4 from 8 isn't ideal
Although, for all the hand-wringing, we are still in the top eight and will probably get better with time. (Some other clubs would die to have our problems.)
Modern footy might be becoming less structured, but Cooper Cronk's skill set and game management smarts will always be an asset.

We are 9th now so we are struggling to stay in the top 8 and must beat Manly and keep winning just to stay there. I’d say from here on you can more or less write us off if we lose to Manly. the Cronk experiment I agree so far is backfiring badly. We did better last year with Pearce and Gordon. So far our purchases have been complete duds. Newcastle is doing far better with our rejects than us with out multi million$ buys.

[Johnny Tobin]

We are 9th now so we are struggling to stay in the top 8 and must beat Manly and keep winning just to stay there. I’d say from here on you can more or less write us off if we lose to Manly. the Cronk experiment I agree so far is backfiring badly. We did better last year with Pearce and Gordon. So far our purchases have been complete duds. Newcastle is doing far better with our rejects than us with out multi million$ buys.

Duds?

Teddy is second or third in the whole comp for tackle breaks and that's with our attack stinking?

[Vasco]

We are 9th now so we are struggling to stay in the top 8 and must beat Manly and keep winning just to stay there. I’d say from here on you can more or less write us off if we lose to Manly. the Cronk experiment I agree so far is backfiring badly. We did better last year with Pearce and Gordon. So far our purchases have been complete duds. Newcastle is doing far better with our rejects than us with out multi million$ buys.

It's not where you start. It's where you finish.

The Knights will finish 12th and we will be in the finals.

Only three teams have a better defensive record than us.

I'm sure our attack will click at some point.

[rented tracksuit]

Duds?

Teddy is second or third in the whole comp for tackle breaks and that's with our attack stinking?

And that’s got us what? Breaking a tackle is one thing. Finishing after breaking through is another.

It it would be interesting to see what the stats were for MG at the same point last year.

[Johnny Tobin]

And that’s got us what? Breaking a tackle is one thing. Finishing after breaking through is another.

It it would be interesting to see what the stats were for MG at the same point last year.

I don't think he can be classed as a dud.