Sydney Roosters star Cooper Cronk’s wife Tara Rushton posts on Instagram after NRL Grand Final win

Footy star Cooper Cronk’s wife has posted an emotional tribute to the Grand Final winner, who bravely played in the season decider despite suffering a broken shoulder blade.

Fox Sports presenter Tara Rushton shared a photo of herself embracing Cronk, after the Sydney Roosters defeated his former team the Melbourne Storm 21-6 on Sunday.

The star halfback was forced into a limited role during the game due to a severe shoulder injury he suffered the week before.

Fox Sports presenter Tara Rushton shared a photo of herself embracing Cronk, after his Sydney Roosters side defeated his former team the Melbourne Storm

He wasn’t confirmed to play in the final until just hours before kickoff, having been named on an extended bench with no guarantees he would take the field.

Rushton posted a photo of her and her husband on Instagram, sharing an embrace in the changing room after the final whistle.

‘There goes my hero. Watch him as he goes,’ Rushton posted, referencing lyrics from the song ‘My Hero’ by the Foo Fighters.

In the image, Cronk’s left arm is being supported with a makeshift sling crafted out of his jersey.

It was revealed after the game that Cronk had suffered a broken scapula during the Roosters’ preliminary final game against the South Sydney Rabbitohs last week.

Roosters co-captain Boyd Cordner was full of admiration for Cronk’s bravery.   

‘He actually broke his scapula. That will go down in history. That is a big performance from him,’ Cordner said.

‘He was touch and go right up until game time. We had to come up with a game plan to protect him as much as possible, and we executed that.’

Wests Tigers player Josh Reynolds suffered a similar injury earlier in the season which forced him to miss five weeks, putting Cronk’s heroic performance in perspective.

The star halfback was forced into a limited role during the game due to a severe shoulder injury he suffered the week before

The star halfback was forced into a limited role during the game due to a severe shoulder injury he suffered the week before

Channel Nine commentator Phil Gould also praised Cronk’s performance.

‘It’s one of the best non-performances I’ve ever seen,’ the two-time premiership-winning coach said.

‘He’s repaid every dollar they spent on him and every heartache that they went through to get him, with Mitchell Pearce being let go.’ 

The former Storm halfback defied what was later revealed to be a broken shoulder blade to justify the Roosters’ decision to lure Cronk to their club.

The victory also denied Billy Slater a fairytale premiership to end his career.

Instead, the night beloved to Cronk, who was limited to the role of traffic controller, while also leaving the 82,668 crowd in wonderment over his defensive nous.

He somehow failed to miss none of his attempted tackles in a courageous effort that had Roosters coach Trent Robinson hailing his veteran post-game.

Rushton posted a photo of her and her husband on Instagram, sharing an embrace in the changing room after the final whistle

Rushton posted a photo of her and her husband on Instagram, sharing an embrace in the changing room after the final whistle

Asked if he had seen a braver performance, Robinson declared: ‘Never.

‘I’ve seen guys get injured in games, but I haven’t seen a guy fracture his scapula, complete break through the scapula, play 60 minutes with it, and then have to deal with it all week, have four different lots of injections during the week.’

Robinson said he’d never seen a player mentally stronger than Cronk.

‘It’s legend status in our game, that. And it’s not an understatement,’ he said.

‘And we got to witness it. Honestly, I was observing every day and to watch a man go through that was awesome.’

Robinson revealed the club intentionally chose not to disclose the exact nature of his fractured scapula, instead opting to say he had a severe rotator cuff injury.

The entire playing group knew of the issue the Sunday after their preliminary final.

‘We were really honest: not with you guys (the media), but the players,’ he said.

‘We knew that the rotator cuff was good for us to have.

Cooper Cronk appears to grab his former teammate Cameron Smith by the neck during the Sydney Roosters' 21-6 grand final win

Cooper Cronk appears to grab his former teammate Cameron Smith by the neck during the Sydney Roosters’ 21-6 grand final win

‘If we said it was a fractured scapula, it was pretty obvious that he either wasn’t going to play and it wasn’t gradings, whereas the rotator cuff was a certain range.

‘So we said, ‘We’re going to say it’s a rotator cuff so people don’t know, but this is exactly what’s happened to Cooper and this is what it’s going to take.’

Robinson had prepared for Cronk not to play, however the 34-year-old didn’t declare he was ready until Friday night.

While he failed to participate in the captain’s run on Saturday, the Roosters knew their key playmaker was going to run out the following day.

And the news appeared to have spurred the Roosters into a three-try first-half blitz on Sunday that stunned an uncharacteristically error-riddled Storm side.

Cooper Cronk shared this touching moment with former teammate Billy Slater after the match

Cooper Cronk shared this touching moment with former teammate Billy Slater after the match

Cronk acted as a backstage puppet, pointing players to different attacking spots while expertly hiding himself in defence on both sides of the field all night.

Not long after Keary sealed the premiership with a 69th-minute field goal, an exhausted Cronk expired to the bench to a raucous applause.

He later credited his pain tolerance to the club’s decision to go all-in on bringing him over, even at the controversial expense of favourite son Mitchell Pearce.

‘This club and everyone involved form the top to the bottom sacrificed a hell of a lot for me to come here and play football,’ Cronk said.

‘They made that decision and my personality is, I took a lot of responsibility on that… My duty was to repay that little bit of faith.’

A dejected Billy Slater reflects on his 319 NRL game career after it ended with a crushing grand final loss

A dejected Billy Slater reflects on his 319 NRL game career after it ended with a crushing grand final loss

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