Many years ago, when sideburns were long and leisure suits cool, rugby league fans were no less passionate, aggressive and completely unreasonable than they are today.
They whinged and moaned. They wanted players sacked, moved on, retired.
The difference was they said it to their face.
“You wouldn’t have the hide to come back and play here next year,” a seething supporter told Mick Cronin as he walked into Parramatta Leagues Club just hours after his side lost the 1977 grand final to St George.
“I haven’t thought about it yet,” Cronin said, the grin from the corner of his mouth hiding his pain.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.19%2C$multiply_0.7082%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_99/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/8919a27c0915ff78f04537b362a45f62448cb0e4 2x" alt="League legend Mick Cronin at home during the week." />League legend Mick Cronin at home during the week.CREDIT:NICK MOIR
Cronin had set up a try but missed a conversion attempt minutes before full-time in the decider at the SCG that would’ve delivered the Eels their first premiership.
Instead, the match ended in a 9-all draw. Three days later, the Dragons won the replay 22-0.
“I’ll never forget that woman coming up to me at the Leagues Club,” Cronin, 69, recalls. “I was a bit tougher by then.”
Imagine if Cronin had played today. The anger! The contempt! The outrage! He’d have broken the internet.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.363%2C$multiply_0.7082%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_31/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/d26c85a69fba13705185e5468a8dd46cd6bd185f 2x" alt="Mick Cronin and Ray Price accept the Winfield Cup from Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1986." />Mick Cronin and Ray Price accept the Winfield Cup from Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1986.CREDIT:GETTY
“They’d never have got me on social media,” he chuckles. “I don’t even have a phone.”
We’re reminiscing with the Parramatta legend about the good old days as we sit in the courtyard of renowned rugby league journalist and author Ian Heads, who phoned a few weeks ago to point out that Cronin had quietly slipped into rugby league retirement.
After coaching Gerringong in Group 7 for the past 12 years, having also coached them from 1987 to 1989, he’s decided to give someone else a turn. He finishes with an impressive tally of 10 grand finals appearances and five premierships, including one last year.
Cronin’s departure came with no fanfare, no fuss, no will-he-or-won’t-he theatrics.
“I said I’d keep coaching as long as Wayne Bennett,” he says, “but I reckon he’ll coach longer than I live.”
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.237%2C$multiply_0.7082%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_206/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/1b3c1c98128cfe7e18872f680fe9c6668a05a530 2x" alt="Ray Price and Mick Cronin at the SCG in 2016, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1986 premiership." />Ray Price and Mick Cronin at the SCG in 2016, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1986 premiership.CREDIT:STEVE CHRISTO
In all his years as Gerringong coach, Cronin never took a cent for his trouble. He’s one of those people who wants to give back to the game, not see how much he can take from it.
Cronin was the Scanlens footy card every kid wanted even if you weren’t an Eels supporter, such was his popularity, and it was refreshing to sit with him and Heads in a week when rugby league burnt energy once again on the things that don’t really matter.
He shakes his head at the ruthlessness of former players, who now sit on TV panel shows and savage those still playing.
“They forgot they ever played a bad game,” Cronin said. “I can cop the journos writing what they have to write. They haven’t seen it from a players’ point of view. But these former players have an insight into what a player is really feeling. To say some aren’t trying is a big claim. If you want to be controversial, that’s fine. But are you doing that because that’s what you really believe or are you wanting to make a headline? I thought the treatment of Darius Boyd last year was very unfair. If you’re fair dinkum, you already know you had a bad game. Jack Gibson said, ‘I can cop you having a bad game. I can’t cop you not realising it’.”
That said, the rugby league media hasn’t always been kind to Cronin.
One morning, in late September 1973, he took a call from a reporter.
“How’s it feel to be the greatest Kangaroos selection shock in history?” he was asked.
Cronin had played all his senior football for Gerringong, resisting offers to play in Sydney, but was controversially picked for the tour of Great Britain.
“The papers give it to me,” he recalls. “One bloke wrote, ‘They say he can play the piano, which will come in handy on tour because he won’t be doing anything else’. Another wrote, ‘He would have to catch a cab to keep up with Bobby Fulton’.”
Heads, who was writing for the Telegraph in those days, was also critical, believing Manly’s Johnny Mayes deserved selection ahead of him.
At the team medical, he introduced himself to Cronin and apologised.
“It’s just a matter of opinion,” Heads told him. “I hope you prove me wrong. I wish you well for the trip.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Cronin replied.
In the weeks that followed, Cronin regularly rubbed shoulders with Heads and the rest of the reporters, often at a greyhound meeting in Leeds.
He played 10 tour matches and two Tests against France, finishing as the top point-scorer, but when he returned he resisted offers to play in the Sydney competition, preferring to play with his mates in Gerringong.
Parramatta coach Terry Fearnley tried as hard as anyone after his side lost the 1976 decider to Manly and finally landed him the following year.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.244%2C$multiply_0.8466%2C$ratio_0.666667%2C$width_378%2C$x_117%2C$y_102/t_crop_custom/q_62%2Cf_auto/532261537a2e8b06a8ae12e8ef935fd74b635fc3 2x" alt="Mick Cronin in his prime in 1986." />Mick Cronin in his prime in 1986.CREDIT:NRL PHOTOS
“If I kick a goal, Terry Fearnley wins a grand final in 1977,” laments Cronin, who went on to win premierships with the Eels in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1986.
As for the modern game, he loathes the dreaded wrestle like most former players you speak to.
“I refused to coach wrestling at Gerringong, although some would try to sneak it in now and then,” he says. “The NRL is trying to improve a situation they let happen in the first place with the wrestling.”
He’s undecided about the six-to-go rule, suggesting a different rule change.
“All sides hold,” Cronin says. “If the first two players can hold, the third bloke can’t come in around the legs.”
Cronin won’t be directly involved in rugby league any longer, but it will always be in his heart.
Random people still drop into the pub to talk footy. Some even have the cheek to talk about the missed goals of 1977.
“There must have been a million people sitting in the Sheridan Stand that day because they’ve all come into the pub since then to remind me,” he laughs. “And every one of them a St George supporter.”
Replies
That is really great.
They don't make them like that any more!
Absolute legend. I respect this bloke more each time I learn more about him
Been to Mick's pub and he was awesome. Signed my sons jersey, was happy to chat and it just felt special. It's Mick Cronin, Eels royalty. Another day talking to fans at the pub for Mick, but a day I will never forget.
I sat directly in front of Mick at the 09 grand final, absolute champion bloke.
My Daughter who is no fifty when she was nine wrote aletter to Mighty Mick telling him that she and her Dad were His biggest fans . She asked me to post it to him I thought bloody hell where will i post it to . So i just wrote ont the envelope Mick Cronin care of geringong Hotel geringong .thinking well thats the end of that at least ive tried for her . Well blow me down a couple of weeks later a bloody big pacel arrived full of parra gear poasters the lot and a letter from Mighty Mick my Daughter and i have never forgotten this .the bloke is a very genuine man and a champion man to boot
We lived at Werri Beach when I worked at Port Kembla, Werri Beach is the main beach for Gerringong, At the time I used to drink and would go to Mick's pub, his dad was there and was always welcoming and loving to talk to those around the bar.
There used to be a Roofing Tile factory not far from the pub, the only real industry in the town, and most of the truck drivers and those in the factory when knocking off would head to the pub before going home. One afternoon I walked in and got a beer, and one of the truck drivers looked at me as I walked away from the bar and said, Arhh another tourist, he knew full well that we had built a home there, but it took me back a bit, I was stopped in my tracks and about to say something back, when Mick called out to him and took him to task, whether tourist or resident they are welcome here, and pointing to me he said, he's a resident, if you don't like it leave.
Mick apologised to me and I said no worries Mick. A bit of a yack and all good, great family overall.