As the Storm and Cowboys shape up for Sunday night’s NRL grand final, focus has shifted a little from the firestorm that came from Macklemore’s decision to perform Same Love to centre on two-time Dally M winner Cooper Cronk.
Because, according to Fairfax, it will be his final rugby league game before relocating to Sydney to be with his fiancée, TV presenter Tara Rushton.
Cronk’s coach Craig Bellamy told the news outlet if anyone was to bid farewell to such a highly decorated career for love, it would be the 33-year-old.
“If anyone was going to do it, it would be Cooper,” he said. “He’s lived his life the way he wants and now he wants something different and he’s willing to give something up for it. We’re happy for him – and he’s happy.”
Johnathan Thurston, his longtime friend and Cowboys captain, told Fairfax Cronk is simply “not guided by what other people want him to be”.
In April this year, after several years in a long-distance relationship with Rushton, the NRL star announced he planned to leave Melbourne Storm after 14 years to join his fiancee in Sydney.
In a press conference at the time, Cronk was frank, admitting “there’s more to life than football”.