The 'rude' wedding text that tore Cooper Cronk and Cam Smith apart
The falling out between former Melbourne Storm teammates Cooper Cronk and Cam Smith is one of rugby league's sad mysteries.
The pair tasted grand final success together, as well as Origin series wins for Queensland and silverware with Australia, before Cronk's departure to the Roosters proved the catalyst for an ugly split.
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Reports this week claim Smith gave his former friend the cold shoulder after learning that Cronk would be leaving for the Roosters after the 2017 season.
It's also been speculated that their friendship was damaged beyond repair when Smith failed to show up at Cronk's wedding to Fox Sports reporter Tara Rushton at the end of 2017.
However, Channel Nine league reporter Danny Weidler says it was a "very rude" act from Smith before the wedding, that ultimately tore them apart for good.
On Tuesday morning, Weidler told Triple M’s Moonman in the Morning that Smith's “terse” reply to Cronk's wedding invite was the straw that broke the camel's back.
It's claimed Smith responded to the invite with a brutal one-word text that simply read: “No.”
“Where it all went wrong… was the very rude response that Cameron Smith and his family gave to Cooper Cronk and his family when he was invited to Cooper’s wedding.
“It was a terse reply to a wedding invitation.”
NRL 360 co-host Paul Kent says the two men no longer have a relationship and the one-word text was the "last contact they ever privately shared".
Smith has been back in the news following this week's launch of his new autobiography, After the Storm, which glosses over his acrimonious split with Cronk.
However, the book does touch on a salacious story from several years ago about a rumoured relationship between himself and Fox Sports presenter Yvonne Sampson - both of whom have refuted any such suggestion.
Weidler - who used to work with Sampson at Channel Nine - took aim at Smith for dredging up the false allegations from several years ago, claiming the footy star was merely using the story to sell more copies of his book.
Smith slammed for bring up old rumour
“I don’t know why he had to dip into the rugby league sewer and pull out a rumour that not many people had heard about,” Weidler told Sky Sports Radio.
“I found that very strange for him to bring that up when Vonny wanted to put this all to bed a couple years ago and was blocked from doing so. And then he brings it up in his book.
“But he won’t discuss the Cooper Cronk situation in his book which is actually a story – when there is a falling out between two blokes that have spilt plenty of blood together over many years.”
Having made all of his record 430 NRL appearances at the Storm, Smith will need to find a club to play at in 2021 if he does play on, with Gold Coast reportedly among those interested.
Bellamy said after nearly 20 years of service, Smith owed the Storm nothing and whatever decision the ex-Queensland and Australia captain makes, he'll support it.
"I just want to see Cameron be happy, whatever his decision is," Bellamy said.
"Barb and the family, as long as they're happy with what they do, we at the Storm, we've had him for his whole career so we're not going to be too selfish if he wants to play somewhere else.
"He's done one hell of a job for us and we just want him and his family to be happy with whatever they do."
with AAP
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