His death at 52 on the weekend is a tragedy for his family, the soccer community and everyone who knew him.

Crook, who had been coach of Australia's under 17 Joeys for the past two years, was an authentic good guy. Gracious and humble, he often gave the impression during his playing career of someone who didn't know how good he was.

Crook was recruited from South Australian First Division club Para Hills and became the first West Adelaide player to play 100 NSL games and went on to make 192 appearances between 1977 and 1986.

It was his outstanding goalkeeping in the 1978 season that played as big a role as any that brought West Adelaide the NSL Championship after a heart-stopping 1-1 draw with fierce rivals Adelaide City in front of 16,251 fans in the final match of that season.

West Adelaide were looking anything but championship contenders half way through the 1978 season when they started an improbable run that brought eight consecutive victories. Crook was imperious during this period, but he also had a magnificent defence in front of him, led by former Greek international Con Kambas and David Jones, with Neil McGachey and Peter Boyle supreme in midfield.

Going into the final game of the 1978 season, West Adelaide needed only to draw against City to grab the championship and deny Sydney City who had been stalking them for weeks.

West had one hand on the championship but that was wrenched away early in the second half when John Perin fired an unstoppable free kick past Crook to give City a 1-0 lead.

In Sydney, Sydney City were beating Sydney Olympic 2-0. They were just a few minutes from claiming the title until Vic Bozanic lobbed the ball past Adelaide City goalkeeper Peter Marshall to dramatically clinch the premiership.

After the match West Adelaide players were swamped by delirious fans and Crook, 22, at the time, was in a daze. It was only when he reached the relative calm of the change rooms where Premier Don Dunstan had joined the celebrations that winning the championship had sunk in.

Crook was the 287^th player to be "capped" for Australia and played 13 games for the Socceroos from 1979 to 1983. His finest moment came in 1983 when Australia won the prestigious Merlion Cup after a tense 3-2 win over South Korea in the Final in Singapore.

Crook made a crucial save in the final moments to secure a memorable win against the Koreans who went on to play in the 1986 World Cup Finals.

Crook trialled with Middlesbrough in the old English First Division after a recommendation from West Adelaide team mate, Scottish legend Graeme Souness, who was a guest player with the club in the 1977 season. But Crook returned after a brief stay, not coming to terms with the freezing English winter.

Crook made the greatest save I have ever seen, against Adelaide City in an NSL Cup semi final at Hindmarsh in 1981. On a bitterly cold Wednesday night, Crook reacted with incredible agility to flick over the bar a vicious header from Justin Fashanu, who was incredulous. West Adelaide won 1-0.

After the game, Crook laughed off the save. "I got lucky with that one, I think", Crook told me as the happy West Adelaide supporters were slapping him on his back.

Crook was the latest in a generation of outstanding South Australian-bred goalkeepers who included Todd Clarke and Roger Romanowicz, both former Socceroos, and Wally Fedczyszyn. His predecessors at West Adelaide were the magnificent Peter Tsitsos, a legend in the 1960s, and Irishman Sam Service, another crowd favourite.

Crook was great enough for long enough to rank with the very best of them.