Ep 68 Mick Crocker

You arrived at a pretty good time for the Roosters as well because you ended up playing in three consecutive grand finals after making your debut in 2001.

What was it like for a young boy from the north side of Brisbane heading down to the bright lights of Sydney and playing with such a big club at a time when they were putting their foot down?

Yeah, obviously it's a big change.

Sandgate and Redcliffe are pretty quiet, sleepy towns.

It was a great upbringing, but living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, it's a whole different beast.

Obviously, as a young man as well, there's obviously a lot of distractions, so making sure that you're balance that out a little bit.

But like you said, the squad that they had then and the players that I got to be mentored by and brought along with the ride, like Luke Rickardson, Fitzy, Adrian Morley was there.

These guys were sensational for me in the way they prepared the way they play and the way they loved getting the team together.

So they were always making sure that everyone was around each other for a feed or a beer or whatever it was.

And they all had a lot of fun.

So it was, yeah, it was a very good team to be a part of.

Graeme Murray was obviously the coach the first couple of years I was there.

And then Ricky came in and obviously we had that run of success under his coaching.

It was very quick really when you think back.

You're playing Colts – sorry, the Colts into Queensland Cup.

You played a couple of games for Redcliffe.

Then you're playing Jersey Flake for the Roosters.

Then all of a sudden in 2001 you're playing first grade and in 2002 you win a premiership.

Yeah.

So like I said, my junior year, 12s through to 15s, we won the grand final.

Went to Redcliffe, we won 16s and 17s, made the grand final in Colts.

And I think the first year I played in the NRL was – 2001, we got knocked out the first game of the semis.

And I was like, this isn't how it's supposed to happen.

But that hurt.

So, yeah, I think coming in and playing in that grand final as a young kid, It was almost too easy.