Cooper Cronk reveals wife's brutal message about playing GF

Cooper Cronk has revealed the brutal piece of advice his wife gave him about whether or not to play in the NRL grand final.

A one-armed Cronk showed there is no weight too heavy after inspiring the Sydney Roosters to a 21-6 grand final win over Melbourne on Sunday night.

INSANE ACT: How Blake Ferguson played on with broken leg

‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Cameron Smith’s furious swipe at Sydney fans

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

And in his post-match press conference, Cronk revealed how some tough love from wife Tara Rushton swung his decision to take his place in the decider.

“I have to give my wife a fair bit of credit,” Cronk said.

“She basically told me ‘what are you carrying on about, you’ve been given a chance to play in a grand final, suck it up’.”

“I basically took that advice and did it.”

Rushton posted a touching tribute to her ‘hero’ after the game, alongside a photo of the pair embracing in the sheds.

Cronk’s bravery ‘stuff of legend’

Perhaps Phil Gould summed it up best.

“It’s one of the best non-performances I’ve ever seen,” the two-time premiership-winning coach said of Cooper Cronk on the Nine Network.

“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 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 nine of his attempted tackles in a courageous effort that had Roosters coach Trent Robinson hailing his veteran post-game.

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.”

with AAP