How Melbourne worked around the loss of club legend Cooper Cronk
IN truth, there was no one player Melbourne could turn to in order to cover the loss of Cooper Cronk. But, as ever, the Storm have found a way to keep going.
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WHEN people talk about the Melbourne Storm they so often talk about “the system”.
Once players enter the Melbourne system they become weapons. Once they leave, more often than not they become duds.
It’s an error to say the system makes the players — the players, and the coach, make the system.
Craig Bellamy’s system is based around never asking a player to do a job of which he isn’t capable and having every player know what their job is at all times.
It sounds regimented and robotic, but it’s not. Instead, it’s a triumph of discipline.
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It’s the reason the Storm have been so successful since Bellamy took over despite player turnover and why they’ve been able to adapt to the loss of Cooper Cronk.
Cooper Cronk’s move to the Roosters was interesting in a thousand different ways, not the least of which was the ability of Melbourne to adapt without one of their Big Three.
Since 2006, the year Cronk became the club’s halfback, there has only been one extended period where one of the three was missing and that was in 2015-16 when Slater’s career was threatened by a variety of injuries.
The rise of Cameron Munster as a like for like replacement for Slater at the back minimised the loss, as heavy as it still was.
But the removal of Cronk required a far more fundamental shift in the way Melbourne operate, especially given the relative inexperience of Brodie Croft.
Due to his strong performances last season and man of the match display in the World Club Challenge, expectations surrounding Croft were outrageously high.
The “next Cooper Cronk” tag was premature to say the least — for all of Croft’s potential, he’s still just 20 years old with 10 NRL games under his belt.
Very few halfbacks are the finished product at such a young age, and Croft is no exception. He has a future in the NRL and with the Storm, and some time in reserve grade will likely do him a world of good.
The truth is, and always has been, that there is no single player one could put into the Melbourne side to replace Cooper Cronk.
It was always going to be a communal effort from the rest of the team’s playmakers, and no amount of declarations that “Brodie Croft is the next Cooper Cronk” was going to change that.
Croft’s absence has coincided with some key changes to the way Melbourne attack, and their recent results (144 points in three matches) is as much due to these shifts as to Croft’s removal.
The two keys to the new river of points are Munster and Slater, with Slater’s role of particular importance.
What makes Slater one of the great fullbacks in rugby league history is his ability to evolve, even when he’s at the top of his game. In the early stages of his career, Slater’s best qualities as an attacking force was his speed, agility and support play.
Those qualities have never left him, but he’s constantly added to his arsenal in a way that allows Melbourne to build their attack around his full skillet in a way they couldn’t have 10, five or even three years ago.
Slater’s transformation into a fine ballplayer coincided with Melbourne’s first grand final victory of the Bellamy era in 2007, but that was in what has become the regular context for a ball-playing fullback — mainly on sweeping second man plays as a second or third receiver.
Now, Slater jumps into first receiver all the time in a fashion reminiscent of the early stages of Darren Lockyer’s career. He is still most comfortable as a second receiver, but taking the ball one off the ruck is not foreign to him any longer.
Since Croft was dropped, Slater has been playing both sides of the field more frequently and moves into various playmaking roles with total ease. In leaning more heavily upon him, Melbourne have found their form once again.
Slater currently has seven try assists this season after 20 last season — since his return from injury Melbourne have exploited his cunning as a ballplayer more and more often.
When Slater does operate in his traditional role as a runner, such as accepting offloads from the likes of Ryan Hoffman, he still has the gas to go all the way in classic Billy Slater style. But his ball-playing nous is now just as important to the way Melbourne operates.
The incredible try the Storm scored to open their Anzac Day belting of the Warriors is an indicator of this newer development and another facet of Slater’s game which has come so far — his kicking.
Over the past 12 months, Slater has proven himself to have an effective and judicious attacking kicking game.
Kicking is the one thing Cronk has that Melbourne cannot truly replicate — the Roosters halfback is perhaps the best general play kicker in the competition.
Slater will never match those heights, but in the attacking half his kicking has become a real weapon for the Storm.
With the leaping ability of Suliasi Vunivalu and the speed of Josh Addo-Carr, the kicks don’t need to be perfect, but Slater puts them in the right place often enough for it to be a reliable attacking option for the Storm.
Slater’s hot run of form has coincided with Cameron Munster working his way out of his early season funk. For all his talents, Munster remains a manufactured five-eighth. He was one of the best fullbacks in the competition when he last played there in 2016 and will be again once Billy Slater retires.
Cronk provided the backline with much of their structure, and Munster has taken a few games to learn how to play outside of his former teammates regimentation. Over the last three weeks, Munster has begun to thrive by embracing simplicity.
Nominally, Munster operates as the playmaker on the left side and Ryley Jacks on the right, with Slater playing both sides as a first or second receiver. These are not cast iron roles, but more like loose guidelines — Munster may pop up on the right and Jacks on the left, but for the most part they stick to their own corridors.
Munster has recorded four try assists in the last three weeks after having 13 in all of last season. He’s also put together six line break assists compared to eight in all of 2018. He is much more comfortable working as a second receiver, the classical five-eighth role, and thrives with the extra space.
Losing Cronk has changed the way Melbourne play. They’re not as clinical, they can’t create pressure through their kicking as well as they once did.
But their attack remains as potent as ever, they can score from anywhere on the field and their defence remains on point — last week’s win over Brisbane was the first time they’d conceded 20 points or more all season.
If Slater retires at season’s end and Smith follows at the end of 2019, the Storm will face an even more difficult task in rebuilding their roster.
But in another highlight on Craig Bellamy’s already legendary coaching resume, he has found a way to work around the loss of one of the best halfbacks of modern times.