Broncos rookie Tom Dearden forced to learn his game in the full NRL glare

Unlike his mentor Cooper Cronk, who developed out of the spotlight, Broncos rookie Tom Dearden is being forced to learn his game in the full NRL glare, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Everyone is watching Tom Dearden‘s development. Image: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

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Cooper Cronk has offered to mentor Broncos youngster Tom Dearden but there’s one little secret ingredient he cannot pass on.

It’s a tiny stepping stone that was a key part of his story but has already whizzed past Dearden in the blink of an eye, one which is it buried so far down in Cronk’s portfolio you almost have to turn the page to find it.

It’s not his 38 Tests, 22 Origins or 356 club games, but the 61 games he played for Brisbane’s Norths Devils on the way to stardom, shining with 37 tries.

That’s around three seasons worth of footy and its why Cronk felt so at home when he returned to Norths for a training session with the Roosters last week.

Everyone is watching Tom Dearden‘s development. Image: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Cronk and Dearden will face each other at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night and the temptation is to say it is the master versus the apprentice.

But that does not quite nail it. NRL games are not horse races where apprentices can get a three kilogram claim.

Once you start, everyone is equal.

By virtue of the Broncos lack of halves, the gifted Dearden, 18, has had to skip the apprenticeship which was so vital to Cronk.

Where Cronk’s talents were allowed to gently bake in the oven, Dearden’s, by necessity, will be microwaved.

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This week on Fox League Cronk spoke about how young halves learned the game layer after layer, season after season, and progressed to a point where “the fancy stuff can come later’’.

He sounded a bit like a builder talking through the steps in his latest renovation because his career has been like that, the solidly cooked roast rather than the microwaved spaghetti bolognaise.

But Dearden, and many of his young Broncos forward teammates in the same boat, won’t have the luxury of making their mistakes in suburbs in front of a few hundred fans.

They must learn and lead at the same time.

It’s challenging. You just sense some will survive and thrive — Dearden is showing solid promise — and become hard-baked by the pressure. Others, of course, will be ground down by their abnormal learning curve.

Cooper Cronk had time to grow before he signed with Melbourne. Image: Bruce Long

When Cronk went back to Norths last week to train with the Roosters the memories just came flooding back.

“Even the walk from the juniors to the main field I knew so well because I had done it so many times,’’ Cronk said.

In those early days at Norths, Cronk spent two years as an apprentice plumber in a competition in which the butchers, bakers and candlestick makers mix football with jobs in the real world.

Now he is an old stager being wound up by the likes of Luke Keary who have started a try scoring celebration where they respectfully shake each others hand after a try rather than engulf each other in a group huddle.

It’s a throwback to an era when life was less chaotic and pressurised and players often learnt their craft slowly — but the good ones got there in the end.