Patrick Cronin’s parents honoured for anti-coward punch campaign

TWO-and-a-half years after the senseless death of their teenage son Pat, Matt and Robyn Cronin are rebuilding their lives with new purpose after launching a foundation in his honour.

TWO-and-a-half years after the senseless death of their teenage son Pat, Matt and Robyn Cronin are rebuilding their lives with new purpose.

In April they launched the Pat Cronin Foundation to honour of their 19-year-old son who was killed by a coward-punch attack.

“It was just so wrong what happened to Pat and we had to make a difference,” Mrs Cronin said.

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The Cronins, Lucas, Robyn, Matt and Emma. Picture: David Caird

“We had to do anything we could to not let it happen to anyone else.”

The first intention of the foundation was to honour Pat.

Mr Cronin said: “The second intention is to end the coward punch. We’ve got to aspire to just be better as a community, better as people.”

While their efforts have allowed the couple to do vital work connecting with communities, it has also been emotionally taxing.

“One of the talks that we did at the footy club, for some reason it was a really tough one and I just found myself crying,” Mrs Cronin said.

“It rehashes it so much. It is really tough and it takes a huge toll doing it.

“I just get myself up and do it because Pat’s life matters … and that’s how I find the strength to keep doing it.”

Patrick Cronin was killed by a coward punch in 2016.

The footballer and university student, 19, died after he was punched while trying to drag friends from a pub brawl at the Windy Mile hotel, Diamond Creek, in April 2016.

When similar incidents make their way into the media, the couple is saddened. But they felt public sentiment was shifting in the right direction.

“The public is starting to get fed up with these acts,” Mr Cronin said. “It’s probably the public denunciation of these cowards that is probably going to be a bigger punishment than what the courts hand out.

“Maybe the next coward who thinks about throwing a punch like this might think twice.”

Robyn and Matt Cronin have been nominated for a Pride of Australia Award. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mrs Cronin said she wasn’t sure what her son would have thought of what they have achieved since he died. “He didn’t like the limelight, Pat, he really didn’t,” she said.

“Sometimes we wonder what he’d actually say to us — ‘pull your head in, Mum and Dad’. But I think in the end, he’d be proud.”

Mr and Mrs Cronin hope to raise $100,000 for the foundation at the Walk to the Valley on November 8.

For their tireless work, they have been nominated for a Pride of Australia Award.

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