The Sydney Roosters are totally cool with assistant coach Cooper Cronk also mentoring Melbourne’s halves, rejecting suggestions the NRL legend is working as an enemy within their own ranks.
Cronk caused a stir last week when images were posted on social media of the four-times premiership-winning halfback running a Storm training session despite reportedly receiving a six-figure salary from the Roosters.
“First and foremost, Cooper Cronk is a man of integrity. His ability to share his knowledge and insight whilst holding the strength of the two organisations is unquestionable,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.
“While this information has only now entered the public domain, it’s no secret to me that he mentors the Storm halves and works in their commercial department.
“Cooper has been clear and transparent with me about his role from the outset and as far as we are concerned, it’s business as usual.”
Meanwhile, Roosters pair James Tedesco and Brett Morris say the retired superstar’s integrity should never be questioned.
“He spent the majority of his career down in Melbourne, he came here to the Roosters and had great success and obviously both clubs would want to use his talents,” Morris said.
“Cooper’s retired now; he’s got to pay his bills.
“He gets paid by two clubs to pay his bills and I don’t have an issue with it.
“We’ve seen in the past Andrew Johns used to do four, five clubs at a time and no one ever questioned ‘Joey’, so the players here, I don’t think we’ve got an issue with it.
“We know ‘Coops’, we know what he’s like and we can probably put that to bed here.”
Tedesco agreed that any club would be mad not to use Cronk’s rugby league brain if they had the chance.
“It’s sweet. He worked with Melbourne last year as well,” Tedesco said.
“He comes here once or twice a week and I’m sure he goes down there a lot as well.
“He’s got a lot of knowledge to share with two big clubs.”
Tedesco does not believe Cronk would choose between the Roosters or Storm should the NRL’s two dominant forces of the 21st century clash in the 2021 grand final, dubbing the 37-year-old a “vault”.
“He’d probably think he’s done the work during the year and then trust both teams to back themselves in the GF if it comes down to that,” Tedesco said.
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. He keeps everything to himself.”