Jarrod Croker
Encyclopedia
Jarrod Croker is an Australian rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 player. He plays for the Canberra Raiders
Canberra Raiders
The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership since 1982...

 in the National Rugby League
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...

 (NRL) in the centres or as a winger.

Hailing from Goulburn, New South Wales
Goulburn, New South Wales
Goulburn is a provincial city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Goulburn Mulwaree Council Local Government Area. It is located south-west of Sydney on the Hume Highway and above sea-level. On Census night 2006, Goulburn had a population of 20,127 people...

, Croker played for the Goulburn Stockmen club as a junior. He played for the New South Wales Schoolboys and Australian Schoolboys representative teams in 2007 before being selected for the New South Wales Under-18s in 2008. Croker was part of the Canberra team that won the inaugural National Youth Competition (Toyota Cup) in 2008.

Croker broke into Canberra's first-grade side in 2009, making his debut in Round 2 against the Sydney Roosters
Sydney Roosters
The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australian rugby league history, having won twelve New South Wales Rugby League...

, and went on to make 21 appearances in his rookie season. He was again a regular in Canberra's 2010 side, making 25 appearances as Canberra finished 7th and made the NRL finals. However, it was a missed penalty goal from Croker that ended the Raiders' 2010 season. In a sudden-death finals match against the Wests Tigers
Wests Tigers
The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's mid-western suburbs. They have competed in the National Rugby League since they were formed at the end of the 1999 season as a joint-venture club between the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs...

, in front of a home crowd of 26,476, he pushed wide a 30 metre kick that would have tied the match at 28–28. Canberra's coach David Furner
David Furner
David Furner is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the Canberra Raiders of the NRL...

—himself a former Raiders goalkicker—defended Croker, arguing his goalkicking form had won a number of matches for the team during the season. Days later, Croker was selected for Australia's
Australian national rugby league team
The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...

 train-on squad for the Four Nations
2010 Rugby League Four Nations
The 2010 Rugby League Four Nations tournament was played in Australia and New Zealand in October and November 2010. The tournament was the second time the Four Nations had been held, following on from the 2009 edition held in England and France....

 tournament.

Croker is contracted to the Raiders through to the end of the 2013 season. He is distantly related to former Canberra, NSW
New South Wales rugby league team
The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...

 and Australia player Jason Croker
Jason Croker
Jason Croker is a former Australian professional rugby league footballer. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative utility player, he previously played club football in the NRL for the Canberra Raiders, with whom he won the 1994 Winfield Cup and set club...

.

Interesting facts:
Jarrod Croker recently signed on with the Raiders until the end of 2013 on the 6th of August.

Jarrod has been playing rugby league with Josh Dugan since he was 15.

Andrew Johns during about mid State of Origin series this year labelled Croker as a possible answer to the NSW team's centre crisis. He also said he is a future rep star for sure.

External links

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