Former Rooster Luke Phillips played a grand final with a broken shoulder and says Cooper Cronk can defy the odds
IN 2002, Luke Phillips played a grand final with a broken shoulder. It cost him his career but the former Rooster is backing Cooper Cronk to defy the odds against Melbourne this weekend.
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LUKE Phillips defied the odds to play with a broken shoulder in the Sydney Roosters’ 2002 grand final victory.
And while it ultimately forced the former fullback into immediate retirement, Phillips has now backed Cooper Cronk to risk the same fate in Sunday’s decider.
The star halfback has been named in the No 23 jumper and most are giving Cronk next to no chance of recovering in time from a severe rotator cuff injury.
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But having lived through a similar experience, Phillips told The Daily Telegraph: “As long as the needles work, I reckon he’ll play.
“They will definitely needle him during the week at training to find the right spot and make sure he can lift his arm.
“Just mentally, he will go, ‘Yep, that feels good. There is no pain’.
“He will probably do it for the captain’s run (on Saturday) to make sure mentally he can get through it.”
While Cronk’s injury is to the ligament, Phillips’s was a fracture that required 11 painkilling injections just on grand final day.
“I had five (needles) before the game, three at halftime and then I had three or four after the game just to get through the pain for the celebrations,” he recalled.
“It did more damage and probably finished my career.
“Like Cooper, I couldn’t move my arm and it was painful.
“I got halfway through the game and then the muscle pulled a big chunk of bone off and I couldn’t actually use my arm at all.”
While the Roosters covered up Phillips’ injury in the lead up to the big game in 2002, Cronk has been exposed.
And Phillips said the question only Cronk can answer was whether he feels confident enough to defend in the front line, knowing Melbourne will send plenty of traffic at him.
“I was lucky because I was playing fullback, I could hide,” he joked.
“In the second half I was just pulling backrowers out of scrums and saying, ‘Get out there and defend’.
“I wasn’t targeted like Cooper obviously was and will be.
“And the other thing is my injury was not a big deal at the time.
“The club kept it quiet so no one really knows I played the grand final with a broken shoulder.
“Every day (The Daily Telegraph) had a picture of (Luke Ricketson’s) hammy and a daily update.
“Meanwhile, I’m sitting on the sideline with a busted shoulder about to play the biggest game of my life and they were all worried about Ricko’s grade one hammy.
“When we won the trophy all the boys were lifting it up but I just had to put my arm underneath it and pass it onto the next bloke.
“I physically couldn’t even lift my arm up to shake someone’s hand. The muscle just wasn’t attached to the bone.”
Phillips went on to become a first grade referee and currently works as a consultant at St George Illawarra. He said he had no regrets about the injury forcing him to retire at age 27. “That doesn’t worry me at all.
“It did take a few years off my career but I was never a player who was going to play Origin or for Australia.
“To win a grand final was the top of the tree I was ever going to get to. The only thing I can’t do now is I can’t throw a ball without pain.
“I can do everything else. I can do bench press, chin ups, push ups, I can bowl a cricket ball but I can’t throw a cricket ball.
“But that is going to be the fallout here I guess.”
Cronk is 34 but still has a year to run on his contract at the Roosters.
“If he plays and does more damage, instead of being right for round one next year he might not be right until halfway through next year or the end of next year,” Phillips added.
“Still, you would risk that for a grand final.
“I think if you asked any player they would do that.”
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