Cooper Cronk says he cannot take credit for Queensland's 21-20 victory in State of Origin III, despite his long-range field goal proving to be the difference in the series decider at Lang Park.
The diminutive half-back entered Maroons folklore on Wednesday night when he slotted the winning field goal from 40 metres out in the 75th minute against New South Wales, his effort breaking a tense 20-20 deadlock.
It was enough of a buffer for the Maroons to hold through to full-time, ensuring Mal Meninga's troops captured an unprecedented seventh-straight Origin series.
The humble Cronk wanted to deflect attention away from his match-winning performance, highlighting that it was the commitment of the entire Maroons' 17-man squad that clinched the series triumph.
"You do dream of it and opportunities do rise, but you've got to do the hard work to make the most of them," he said.
"This team has been able to do that for a long period of time and I'm just glad I played my small part."
Cronk's "small part" came as no surprise to his Maroons and Melbourne Storm captain Cameron Smith.
Smith recalled Cronk landing a field goal from a similar position for the Storm against the Broncos in 2011, when his one-pointer in the shadows of full-time helped set up a 29-22 victory at Lang Park.
"I've seen him slot a few actually over halfway at training, but in a game situation is a lot harder," Smith said.
"You're kicking under fatigue, you're kicking under pressure."
The Maroons anticipated Origin III going down to the wire, so much so that Cronk spent 30 minutes after Tuesday's final training session at Lang Park practising field goals.
That attention to detail was noted by Smith, who always had confidence that Cronk would land the field goal attempt once the ball left his boot.
"It's down to his training and practise," he said.
"He stayed back probably half an hour last night slotting field goals. We all knew it was going to be a tough, close game and luckily Coops slotted one there for us at the end."
The tightness of the contest helped set up the moment for Cronk, with the Blues having played themselves back into the match after trailing 16-8 at half-time.
They cut the Maroons' lead back to two points when Brett Stewart touched down on a Robbie Farah grubber into the in-goal area in the 47th minute, with Todd Carney adding the extras.
The hosts were able to push out to a 20-14 advantage with consecutive penalty goals to Johnathan Thurston, but again the Blues fought back to level the score when Josh Morris scored a miraculous try in the right-hand corner in the 70th minute.
Farah again set up the play with a cross-field chip bomb to the right flank, but even he could not have counted on Morris athletically outjumping Darius Boyd to gain possession and dive down to score.
Carney's conversion from the sideline set up the grandstand finish, before Cronk broke the hearts of Blues supporters amongst the crowd of 52,437, who had not tasted a series victory since 2005.
The 28-year-old revealed the field goal option was always on the cards, considering full-time was fast approaching.
"There's a bit of a rule in the game that when you get down to 10 minutes in a tight ball game you should probably take a shot when you get the opportunity," Cronk said.
"I had a bit of work to do, I didn't get it straight off the boot but obviously glad we got the result."
Cronk, playing his first full Origin series after making his debut in 2010, admits a field goal attempt is always a high-risk play that can easily come to nothing.
"You just practise as much as you possibly can," he said.
"It doesn't guarantee you success at all. There have been a number of times that I've missed shots like that, so you just hope that it happens more times than it doesn't."
Cronk did not allow himself to get caught up in the moment however, as there was still just over five minutes of play left in the match.
"You don't have too much time to stop yourself in the moment," he said.
"You just gather your thoughts ... once you get down to those single digits on the clock anything can happen."
Cronk felt privileged to have played his role in sending out veteran Maroons prop Petero Civoniceva out a winner, describing the 36-year-old front rower as a "special person".
Tags: rugby-league, nrl, sport, state-of-origin, brisbane-4000 First posted July 05, 2012 02:26:45
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