‘How can you not love this?’: NRL melts over incredible Jarrod Croker scenes

The NRL has celebrated one of the sport’s good guys in incredible scenes as Jarrod Croker joined the elite 300-game club.

Emotion was pouring out of Jarrod Croker. Photo: Fox Sports

Ricky Stuart was right!

Jarrod Croker has become just the 48th player in first grade rugby league history to play his 300th game and it was special before the ball had even been kicked.

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In front of a reported 22,000+ crowd in Canberra, which the Fox League commentators would rival the final game for rugby league Immortal and Raiders legend Mal Meninga, there were incredible scenes as Croker prepared to run out against the New Zealand Warriors.

Croker has been the ultimate club man but has dealt with injury blows so much that coach Stuart asked him to retire so as not to see him go through any more punishment.

But Croker persevered.

Now he is just the second player to play his 300th game for the Raiders and the emotion was clear before he’d even made it out of the tunnel.

As the Raiders prepared to do the traditional Viking horn and clap, the emotion was clear on Croker’s face as he held his son.

This is how much it means. Photo: Fox Sports

“The emotion’s already there on this man,” Dan Ginnane said on Fox League.

“That’s his son Rory. He can’t hold it in and it hasn’t even begun.”

Running through an honour guard of his family, the emotion got to Croker again when he caught picked up his son and made it over to his wife.

“How could you not love this moment?” Ginnane said. “This man, he represents loyalty, he represents decency, he represents fortitude, he represents coming back when so many thought he was gone. He represents all those little kids that he’s had a lifelong impact on simply by taking a little bit of time for them.

“This man represents everything good about our game.”

Steve Roach added: “You might have to hand me a Kleenex. How good is this?”

Jarrod Croker was emotional. Photo: Fox Sports

In the third minute, the fans also did a minute of applause.

Third minute 💚#Croker300#WeAreRaiderspic.twitter.com/F65nvyQlaH

— Canberra Raiders (@RaidersCanberra) June 9, 2023

Congrats Jarrod! Congrats Raiders! This is how milestones and history should be celebrated in sport. #Croker300https://t.co/c7vxV4S0XQ

— Brad Walter (@BradWalterSport) June 9, 2023

What a night for the Croker clan, @RaidersCanberra & #RugbyLeague#NRL#NRLRaidersWarriorshttps://t.co/Q4zg0sgbNb

— Jason Costigan ❤️🏉🎥 (@CostoJason) June 9, 2023

The scenes were all made possible by Stuart’s decision to rest Croker for last week’s match against the Tigers and it’s hard not to believe that it was all justified to allow the club legend to play his milestone in front of the Canberra faithful.

But while the decision was questioned, it was truly an act of love from Croker’s long-term coach.

In explaining his decision a fortnight ago, Stuart said: “It’s not Jarrod’s call, he’s happy to do whatever’s best for the team but I believe Jarrod deserves it and I believe all our fans who are so loyal to us, they deserve to be at GIO and see him play live.

“We’re certainly not taking our foot off the pedal but I’m putting respect before our game next week in regards to this bloke here because he totally deserves it and so do our fans down in Canberra.”

Doesn’t get better than this. Photo: Fox Sports

Stuart also exploded after the Raiders win against the Tigers, blasting the critics as “muppets”.

Even then Croker was showing his emotion, saying: “I said to Stick I’ll play anywhere, wherever you need me, whenever, and I’ve said that since day one and that’s how I feel about this club.

“Even talking about it now, I don’t think you understand how much it means to me. I don’t want to keep talking about it because I keep getting more emotional about it. I love it.”

Judging from the scenes at GIO Stadium on Friday night, it couldn’t have happened any other way.

Originally published as ‘How can you not love this?’: NRL melts over incredible Jarrod Croker scenes