BY STAFF WRITERS

Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters legend Cooper Cronk may have raised a few eyebrows after appearing on The Matty Johns Show podcast when he left out one name when retelling the story of switching from the Storm to the Chooks at the end of 2017.

Cronk and fellow former Rooster Mitchell Pearce were both guests on this week’s episode and discussed the ruthless nature of the Roosters replacing premiership-winner Pearce with Cronk who was apparently set to retire after winning the title with the Storm at the end of ’17.

Pearce would then quit the Roosters and Cronk would go on to win back-to-back titles at the Tricolours.

“I remember the first thing I did, I spoke to Pearcy on the phone,” Cronk explained before arriving at Bondi.

“I also spoke to Jared (Waerea-Hargreaves), Aubo (Mitch Aubusson), (Jake) Friend, (Luke) Keary, I spoke to everyone, it had to be relationship-based as opposed to a business-decision – it was difficult.

“The other thing too, looking back on it, there was a little bit of success at the back-end but on Anzac Day in that first year, we got pumped and I think we were 4-4.

“So it wasn’t all positive to start with.”

As Cronk continued, he then shifted to the different dynamics at the Storm.

I’d spent 14 years combining with my backrower and my fullback Slater and trying to attack edges, that’s where I played most of my footy.

“I get to the Roosters and you’ve got Keary and (James) Tedesco who move sideways across the field quicker than anyone in the game, the first two months was clunky as, I had to change a lot and became a little bit more like Adam Reynolds, creating space and things come from there.

“Emotionally and football wise it was a huge challenge.”

Intriguingly, Cronk didn’t mention fellow Storm icon Cameron Smith with the ice still quite frosty between the two despite winning many titles together and all of Storm’s attack released in those glory days by Smith’s work at dummy half.

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The pair clashed for the first time on rival sides of the field in the 2018 grand final which saw several incidents with Smith brushing Cronk from his loser’s speech on the podium completely.

Strong word is the feud really escalated after Smith and his wife refused to attend Cronk’s wedding in Sydney in 2017 after Cronk announced he was leaving the Storm.