“Perseverance. Loyalty to the club and just pure heart. That sums up the bloke.”
Those were the words of Reuben Garrick on team-mate Lachlan Croker following the hooker’s 100th NRL match last Saturday night in Wollongong on a night that saw captain Daly Cherry-Evans bring up game 300.
Now, less than five days later, Croker’s toughness and resilience will again be on show against the Sydney Roosters at the SCG on Thursday night when he plays his 100th game for Manly, a club he has given his all for since 2018.
A former half who arrived at Manly with just one NRL game at Canberra to his name, Croker’s inspirational journey is one that Sea Eagles Coach Anthony Seibold says should be told to any aspiring young player.
For here is a 26-year-old man, who with two university degrees behind him, could have chucked the game of rugby league away following three knee reconstructions, hamstrings, and just rotten luck.
But that’s not who Croker is. The boy from Crookwell knows what fighting for what you believe in truly means.
His body is often battered and bruised, but singing the team victory song with his mates helps erase bad memories.
Seibold said one of the key assets he looks for in a player is ‘dependability’ and he gets that and more from Croker, Manly’s Best and Fairest winner last season.
“If you know what you are going to get from a player, then that builds trust in the group and the coaching staff,’’ Seibold said.
“The beauty of Lachlan’s game is that he is always that seven or eight out of 10 every single week.
“He does a lot of the work that goes unnoticed. He made 61 tackles last week against the Dragons.
“No one probably sees that or respects that outside the group, but certainly we do.
“He is such a tough competitor. He has shown a lot of perseverance.
“I said last week that his career is a fantastic story to show other young players who get hit with some hurdles right at the very beginning, whether it’s non selection or injuries they have to come back from.
“He has got a great story. I’m really proud to be his coach and he brings that dependability to the group.”
As for the man himself, you know 'Mr Reliable' will deliver again.
“It’s something you sort of dream of as a kid and then I thought that dream got away from me for a little while there. Nights like this, it’s the best job in the world,’’ Croker said after the win over the Dragons.
“This (the jersey) means the world to me every week. Living the life we live, I never take it for granted and it’s something that I always strive to be better at.”
