Ricky Stuart: I told Jarrod Croker to retire, now he’s playing his 300th NRL game

Jarrod Croker plays his 300th game this weekend against all odds after horrific injuries that should have forced him into retirement, writes RICKY STUART.

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart is full of praise for Jarrod Croker. Picture: Brett Costello

A few years ago, when the epidemic had us playing and living in a hub in Queensland, I called Jarrod Croker in his hotel room and asked him downstairs for a coffee.

He came down believing we were going to talk about the team’s performance, something that happens often between coach and captain.

He had undergone shoulder reconstructions, cartilage problems in his knee, some stem cell conversation about treatment for his knee, a problem with his Achilles, and I could see he was struggling under the weight of it all.

Injury on injury is the true killer in the NRL.

So he wasn’t prepared for what I had to say.

I told him I thought he should retire.

Jarrod Croker plays his 300th game this weekend against the odds after a serious shoulder injury. Picture: NRL Photos

He wasn’t playing to the standard of the Jarrod I knew and I didn’t want him going out badly, being remembered for performances at the end of his career that could overshadow all those other memories he should have been remembered for.

As good as Changa Langlands was, people still talk about his white boots.

That’s how the game sometimes thinks.

I told him I was trying to protect Jarrod from Jarrod.

Of all the players I’ve coached over the years nobody thinks about the team more than Toots.

Anyway, he got this faraway look in his eyes, like he was seeing through me. There was an immediate emptiness in him.

He couldn’t see I was trying to protect him.

He didn’t want to know 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 better than that for all that he had given.

When we next spoke he told me his last game at GIO Stadium in front of his family was a poor one. He popped his shoulder against Canterbury and didn’t finish the game.

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart (left) and captain Jarrod Croker. Picture: AAP

He said he wanted to play another game at GIO, playing well, where his kids could see him on the big screen. His young bloke Rory is a growing replica of his dad, getting out on the field after training sessions and copying everything his dad does. This is the part of coaching I truly love.

I understood. He wanted to play on. I also told him I couldn’t guarantee he’d be picked, that from now on his selection would be based purely on performance.

He understood that, saying even if all he gets to do is to help the younger blokes in the NSW Cup, he’d be happy to do that, but he wanted the chance. Again, he was all for the jersey.

And that’s what we did.

And then earlier this year he physically wasn’t ready and I couldn’t pick him. That was the deal we made.

Then we copped a walloping off Penrith and at the review I sat down with the leadership group who played and went through what happened. It wasn’t pretty.

“What are we looking at this week?” I asked.

Jarrod Croker is a big family man.

Elliott Whitehead said he wanted Toots on the left edge. Straight away Josh Papalii agreed with him.

I asked why.

“He’ll bring some calmness,” Elliott said.

They also felt he’d bring energy back in first grade.

I told them I trusted them and if I didn’t listen to what they thought then I shouldn’t be their coach.

I told the team the next day at training Toots was back on the left edge and it immediately lifted the group. The players had made the right choice.

The next day at training, though, we were doing an opposed session against the NSW Cup team and some of our younger blokes were absolutely skinning him.

They kept getting outside him. Jarrod was training to get through the session and get to the game. I needed more. I was watching and worrying whether for all the energy it brought, it was the wrong decision.

He was struggling to keep up with them. I knew he was a better defender than what he was showing but in the back of my mind I also had the worry of what had got us here, all those injuries and the gradual decline that happens to all footballers.

I worried it might be too much. On top of that, he was marking Kotoni Staggs that Friday in Brisbane. They were undefeated and Staggs is one of the competition’s most dangerous ball runners.

So I stopped the session and called the NRL squad to come together.

Jarrod Croker is a fan favourite in Canberra.

I told him I was going to name the team and I asked him if he wanted me to hide him in jumper number 22 or put him in his number three jersey.

“What do you think?” he said.

I said: “Well, if you play the way you’re training, you’re going to get a hiding.”

Then we went on to finish the session. For the next 15 minutes it was cruel. He started whacking blokes.

The mental shift was clear, there for everybody to see, and that Friday he went out and did a job on Staggs. All the time sport offers us examples of old champions rising to the occasion, finding something in their makeup that for a dozen good reasons they shouldn’t be able to do, but they find a way to get it done anyhow.

Toots showed us that day in training. He has kept showing us ever since.

And so when the day got closer to him playing his 300th game for the Raiders, which happens on Friday, making him only the second Raider to do so, I wanted that game to be in Canberra, on the field, in front of those family and friends where he wanted the chance to play one last game.

We don’t just talk about our culture, we live it. I don’t expect anyone outside our club to understand it but this is more than just any other game. For him, and for us.