Broken bone: Cronk's extraordinary act of courage in GF win

The full extent of Cooper Cronk’s shoulder injury has been revealed after an extraordinary performance in the NRL grand final.

Cronk produced what’s been labelled the greatest ‘non-performance’ of all time to lead the Roosters to premiership glory over the Storm on Sunday.

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The inspirational halfback was lauded for his performance in the decider, guiding his side to a 21-6 win despite barely lifting a finger.

In extraordinary scenes, Cronk didn’t run the ball once and made just a handful of tackles.

But the guidance and leadership he showed in directing his side around the park was priceless.

After the match, Roosters skipper Boyd Cordner revealed that Cronk had a broken scapula (shoulder blade), making his effort to play all the more remarkable.

“He actually broke his scapula. That will go down in history. That is a big performance from him,” Cordner said of Cronk.

“He was touch and go right up until game time.

“We had to come up with a gameplan to protect him as much as possible, and we executed that.”

Roosters coach Trent Robinson described it as the toughest display he’d ever seen, while Phil Gould was in awe in commentary.

“This has been the greatest on-field coaching performance I’ve ever seen,” Gould said.

“The Roosters have played with 12 men and one on-field coach.

“He’s just told his teammates exactly where the Storm are going and how to stop them.

“It’s one of the best non-performances I’ve ever seen.”

Fans flooded social media to praise the ‘extraordinary’ performance.

Cronk’s halves partner Luke Keary was sublime, stepping up in the absence of Cronk’s running game and snaring the Clive Churchill Medal.

Cronk was passed fit at the 11th hour just over a week after suffering a “severe” shoulder injury.

The inspirational former Kangaroos playmaker said he was a “long shot” to take on the defending champions at ANZ Stadium due to a rotator cuff injury sustained in the 12-4 Preliminary Final victory over the South Sydney Rabbitohs last Saturday.

Yet following a week of intense rehabilitation, Cronk took his place and the rest is history.

Roosters ruin Billy Slater’s fairytale finish

Keary and James Tedesco set up all three Roosters’ tries between them, ruining the farewell of Storm fullback Slater.

Up 18-6 with 11 minutes to go, Keary sealed the win with a 20-metre field goal, while Latrell Mitchell added the finishing touches with a late penalty.

The contest turned ugly when Storm star Cameron Munster was sin-binned for the second time in the match for kicking at Joey Manu’s head in the 78th minute.

With Cronk unable to pass longer than a metre, Keary and Tedesco shone.

An early Mitchell penalty goal gave the Roosters first points, but Keary set up the first try with a long ball for Daniel Tupou in the eighth minute.

Keary was also involved for the second, sending an early ball for Mitchell to swat aside Will Chambers and claim first points in their anticipated battle.

While the Roosters were pinpoint with their ball-use, the Storm were uncharacteristically wasteful with theirs.

Felise Kaufusi and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, the latter of whom eyed off Cronk before dropping the ball, came up with ill-timed turnovers in the first half.

And the Roosters made them pay, like when Jake Friend took off from Asofa-Solomona’s error and it resulted in Munster being binned for a professional foul.

It was the first grand final sin-binning since Terry Lamb was given a rest for Canterbury against Manly in 1995.

The killer blow came just minutes before the break, when Tedesco caught the Storm napping on a short side move for Joseph Manu to score in the corner.

Down three tries midway through the second half, the Storm got one back when Josh Addo-Carr intercepted a Keary pass and raced 85 metres to score.

But the Keary one-pointer finished off the game, before Munster was also marched a second time as Cronk was substituted from the field.

with AAP