Jarrod Croker fights back tears on his 300th Canberra Raiders NRL game
BREAKING NEWS: Jarrod Croker fights back tears as Canberra Raiders star receives hero welcome to his 300th NRL game
- Jarrod Croker fought back tears during his 300th NRL match
- The Canberra star received a hero’s welcome in Canberra
- Croker has braved numerous career-threatening injuries
Jarrod Croker swallowed back tears as the Canberra star was treated to a rapturous ovation in his 300th NRL match.
Croker, who has fought back from numerous career-threatening injuries, took to the turf again Friday night in front of a packed house at GIO Stadium who expressed their admiration for the stalwart Raiders.
Walking hand-in-hand with his son, Rory, Croker was visibly moved by his reception and had to control himself before kick-off.
He has become just the 48th NRL player to reach the milestone, the 18th player to achieve it with a single club and only the second Raiders player to reach 300 games.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart admitted this week that he advised Croker to retire after seeing firsthand how the player’s body took a beating from injury.
Canberra Raiders stalwart Jarrod Croker fought back tears during his 300th appearance
The veteran has overcome numerous career-threatening injuries to reach the milestone
Injury after injury is the real killer in the NRL. So he was not prepared for what I had to say. I told him I thought he should retire,” Stuart wrote in his column News Corp.
“He didn’t play at the level of the Jarrod I knew and I didn’t want him to go out badly because he would be remembered for performances at the end of his career that could overshadow all those other memories he should have been remembered for .’
“I told him I was trying to protect Jarrod from Jarrod.”
Needless to say, Croker didn’t take his coach’s advice.
“He didn’t want to hear about it, so I told him to go away and think about it. I told him I didn’t want to be the coach to pick him in second grade. I thought he deserved more than that for all he gave,” Stuart wrote.
‘I understood it. He wanted to continue playing. I also told him that I could not guarantee that he would be picked, that his selection from now on would be based purely on performance.
“He understood that even if he’s just helping the younger guys in the NSW Cup, he’d be happy to do that, but he wanted the chance. Again, he was all for the jersey.”
More to follow.