{"id":109767,"date":"2021-08-01T05:27:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T05:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=109767"},"modified":"2021-08-01T07:56:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T07:56:34","slug":"unrelenting-croker-eclipses-rugby-league-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=109767","title":{"rendered":"Unrelenting Croker eclipses rugby league legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker<\/a> has slotted a sideline conversion to move into outright third on the all-time points leaderboard, pushing ahead of Cowboys legend Johnathan Thurston<\/a> in Canberra's 34-24 loss<\/a> to Newcastle.<\/p>\n

Croker headed into the Raiders' clash with the Knights in Brisbane equal with Thurston on 2222 points, but he budged his tally up to 2224 when he converted a Harley Smith-Shields try in the 29th minute.<\/p>\n

Storm icon Cameron Smith<\/a> (2786 points) and Bulldogs<\/a> great Hazem El Masri (2418) remain the only players with more points than Croker.<\/p>\n

"Croker's first kick, there he is … He's moved ahead of Johnathan Thurston!" said Fox League commentator Andrew Voss as Croker split the posts.<\/p>\n

"What a kicker and what a servant he has been of the Canberra Raiders, Jarrod Croker."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Croker had already surpassed the points total of rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns (21760) this season.<\/p>\n

However, when the Canberra centre drew level with Johns the legendary Newcastle halfback hit him with a reality check<\/a>, saying he wouldn't match Smith's tally of 2786.<\/p>\n

"I don't think he'll reach him," Johns said on Wide World of Sports' Freddy and The Eighth.<\/em><\/p>\n

"A lot of shoulder problems for Jarrod, numerous operations on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

"(Raiders coach) Ricky (Stuart)<\/a> might have a tough call to make soonish."<\/p>\n

Croker is 30 and is today playing his 289th NRL match.<\/p>\n

The New South Welshman is contracted to Canberra until the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

Johns said if there was one current player who could reach Smith's total of 2786 it was Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary, who's 23 and has racked up 973 points.<\/p>\n

Cleary could join the 1000-point club this season, but he will first need to return from a serious shoulder injury suffered during State of Origin II.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker has slotted a sideline conversion to move into outright third on the all-time points leaderboard, pushing ahead of Cowboys legend Johnathan […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109769,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109767\/revisions\/109769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}