One of the NRL era’s most durable and underrated competitors, and loyal clubmen enters the hallowed ranks of players to bring up 300 premiership appearances this Friday.
It’s a milestone that looked set to elude Canberra centre Jarrod Croker, who played 21 games or more in all but one season from his 2009 debut to 2020 – a period that encompassed the deadeye goalkicker captain the Raiders to their first grand final in 25 years in 2019.
Beset by injuries over the past three seasons, Croker forced his way back into a battling Green Machine line-up earlier this year and has helped spark a major turnaround.
Such is the esteem the 32-year-old is held in at the club, coach Ricky Stuart took the unprecedented step (albeit to a fair amount of ridicule) of resting Croker for a crucial Round 14 road trip to allow him the opportunity to celebrate his 300th match in front of the GIO Stadium faithful.
As Croker prepares to become the 48th player to pass the 300-game mark against the Warriors on Friday – and just the 18th to do it for one team – we’re celebrating an unsung champion clubman from every NRL club.
Alex Glenn (Brisbane Broncos)
Surrounded by Queensland legends Darren Lockyer, Corey Parker, Sam Thaiday, Michael Hancock, Allan Langer and Andrew Gee in the upper echelons of the Broncos’ all-time appearances list, Auckland-born Glenn was an unlikely prospect to play 285 NRL games for the club.
The centre/back-rower captained Brisbane to the inaugural NYC grand final in 2008 and became a first-grade staple from the following season – the first of 11 straight NRL campaigns he would play 20-plus games.
Though it was a low period for the club in general and coincided with the first genuine injury setbacks of his career, 12-Test Kiwi Glenn captained the Broncos in 2020-21 before hanging up his ultra-consistent boots at the end of the latter season.
Jason Croker (Canberra Raider)
No relation to Friday’s milestone man, Jason Croker is the only other player to turn out 300 times for the Raiders. Though the representative rewards he deserved largely eluded him, he is in the conversations for both the most versatile and toughest competitors of the modern era.
Croker burst onto the scene as a 17-year-old winger in 1991, gravitated towards the back-row before scoring 22 tries in Canberra’s ’94 premiership-winning season as a Mr. Fix-it, was Dally M Lock of the Year in 2000, won the inaugural John Sattler Award for Courage in 2001 and plugged a five-eighth gap in 2003.
Croker represented NSW in 1993, 1996 and 2000, while he belatedly earned a Kangaroos call-up for the 2000 World Cup. His tally of 318 games (in which he scored 120 tries) was 73 ahead of the next closest Raider when he retired in 2006.
Steve Folkes (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs)
Only two players featured in all four of Canterbury’s four grand final triumphs of the 1980s: brilliant halfback Steve Mortimer and unassuming second-rower Steve Folkes.
The ultra-fit Folkes was a tireless, hard-hitting forward who played well above his weight, providing the backbone of the pack for Ted Glossop’s ‘Entertainers’, Warren Ryan’s ‘Dogs of War’ and under rookie coach Phil Gould. He played five Tests for Australia and nine Origins for NSW from 1986-88.
Departing Belmore at the end of 1989, Folkes had a stint in England before returning as a club conditioner but came out of retirement to play 10 games for the Bulldogs in 1991.
Folkes’ 245 games for the Bulldogs was second only to Mortimer at the time and has only been bettered by Terry Lamb and Hazem El Masri since. He went on to coach the club for a record 11 straight seasons – encompassing the 2004 premiershp – but tragically passed way from a heart attack in 2018, aged 59.
Mitch Healey (Cronulla Sharks)
Local junior Healey debuted for Cronulla as a 19-year-old in 1989, was a mainstay through the club’s dark days in the early-1990s and was an underrated linchpin of the Sharks’ surge to powerhouse status in the second half of the decade.
Boasting one of the most lethal kicking games in the business, the diminutive half left for Super League the end of 2000 – departing Shark Park at the same time as club icon Andrew Ettingshausen, then the only player to have made more appearances for Cronulla than Healey’s tally of 222.
Mark Minichiello (Gold Coast Titans)
Foundation Titan Mark Minichiello still holds the club record for most appearances (173) almost nine years after he departed to Super League.
The former Roosters and Rabbitohs back-rower played the early part of his career in the shadow of superstar brother Anthony but came into his own on the Gold Coast, representing City Origin for five straight years (2007-11).
An unerringly reliable performer during the club’s spirited NRL early seasons, the highs of top-four finishes in 2009-10 and the lows of a wooden spoon in 2011.
Alan Thompson (Manly Sea Eagles)
The likes of Bob Fulton, Terry Randall, Graham Eadie and Max Krilich get more fanfare when it comes to Manly greats of the 1970s and ’80s, but super-consistent five-eighth Thompson broke St George legend Norm Provan’s then-record for most games for one club with 263 appearances in maroon and white.
A key component of Manly’s 1976 and ’78 premiership-winning sides, Thompson played for Australia from 1978-80 and was Dally M Captain of the Year in 1983, leading the Sea Eagles in a grand final loss to Parramatta as a 30-year-old that year. Later coached the club in a disastrous 1989 season.
Matt Geyer (Melbourne Storm)
A 1998 foundation player, Geyer was the only survivor of the Storm’s 1999 premiership triumph to feature in the club’s 2007 grand final-winning team.
Geyer started as a goalkicking winger, played five-eighth in the ’99 grand final and filled in wherever required on the Melbourne team sheet, turning out in 19 games or more in 10 straight seasons before hanging up the boots in 2008 with 113 tries from a then-record 262 games for the Storm.
Tony Butterfield (Newcastle Knights)
A fringe player for four seasons at Penrith, Butterfield was one of only three 1988 foundation Knights – with long-serving front-row partner Paul Harragon and lock Marc Glanville – to celebrate in the club’s euphoric 1997 grand final triumph.
The club’s Player of the Year in 1988 and ’96, teak-tough ‘Butts’ was also the last Newcastle original to retire – finally hanging up the boots as a 34-year-old in 2000 with a then-record 229 games to his credit, a tally that still ranks fourth in Knights history 23 years later.
Paul Bowman (North Queensland Cowboys)
There’s no doubt over the esteem in which Bowman is held at North Queensland Cowboys: the club renamed its Player of the Year award after him following his retirement in 2007.
The 1995 foundation player from Proserpine became their first locally-produced Origin player in 2000 (going on to play 12 matches for Queensland), took over the captaincy in 2001 and was the only pre-1998 player still in the line-up when the Cowboys belatedly made the finals in 2004.
The unfashionable centre featured in the Cowboys’ 2005 grand final loss to the Tigers and became the club’s first 200-game player two years later.
Luke Burt (Parramatta Eels)
Parramatta’s version of Jason Croker, Burt played 264 games for the club (third in Eels history) and scored 1,793 points (second), including 124 tries (first) from his debut as a 17-year-old in 1999 until 2012.
Frequently pinpointed as one of the best players to not play Origin, the winger was a model of consistency and professionalism. Burt was one of only three players – with rep stalwarts Nathan Hindmarsh and Nathan Cayless – to play in the Eels’ 2001 and ’09 grand final losses.
Steve Carter (Penrith Panthers)
Top of the pile ahead of grand final heroes Simmons, Alexander and Gower, feisty five-eighth Steve Carter’s 243 games remains a Penrith club record more than two decades after his retirement.
Debuting at 17 in 1988, the Wyong product was the Panthers’ Player of the Year in their ’91 premiership season (he would win it again in ’95), keeping budding superstar Brad Fittler in the centres. He played a solitary Origin for the Blues the following season.
By 1997 the ever-combative Carter was club captain and led the Panthers to two finals series before departing at the end of their 2001 wooden spoon campaign.
Jason Nightingale (St George Illawarra Dragons)
A somewhat unlikely customer to carve out such a long and successful career, Nightingale averaged 22 games in 12 seasons with the joint venture to finish with 266 appearances that garnered 110 tries – including a double in the Saints’ 2010 grand final victory.
The winger was the Dragons’ Player of the Year in 2011, while his 33-Test tenure for New Zealand featured 19 tries and Four Nations final wins against Australian in 2010 and ’14. He retired in 2018, the last of the 2010 premiership side to leave the club.
John Sutton (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Back-rower/five-eighth Sutton holds an esteemed place in history as South Sydney’s drought-breaking premiership captain – leading the club to glory in the 2014 grand final – yet he arguably doesn’t get his dues in terms of recognition among the Rabbitohs’ legends.
Debuting in the dark post-readmission days of 2004, the gifted ball-player stayed loyal despite enduring multiple wooden spoon seasons and ultimately played 336 games: over 100 more than any other Souths player and the fifth-most for one club in premiership history.
Desperately unlucky not to represent NSW during a 16-season NRL career.
Mitch Aubusson (Sydney Roosters)
The consummate utility, Aubusson debuted for the Roosters as a 19-year-old in 2007 and retired 14 seasons later with a club record 306 appearances.
He played 22-plus games every year from 2012-19 and was one of five players (with Daniel Tupou, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend) to play in the Roosters three grand final triumphs during that period.
Representative honours eluded him, but widespread admiration from Roosters supporters and the wider NRL fanbase was some compensation.
Awen Guttenbeil (Warriors)
Intimidating lock Guttenbeil’s racked up a modest tally of 170 first-grade games in 11 seasons for the Warriors, but his contribution and dedication to the club can’t be questioned.
A Point Chevalier Pirates junior alongside Stacey Jones, Guttenbeil was a Tonga World Cup rep prior to making his Warriors debut a month after his 20th birthday in 1996. But a shocking run of injuries restricted the highly-rated tyro to just 34 games in his first five seasons.
But the end of his luckless streak coincided with the club’s first successful era. Guttenbeil played 20-plus games each year from 2001 until his retirement in 2006, starring in the side the powered to a minor premiership and grand final in ’02.
Chris Lawrence (Wests Tigers)
Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall both returned to Wests Tigers (after acrimonious splits) to overtake Lawrence’s club appearances record of 253, but the centre-cum-back-rower’s run of 15 unbroken seasons remains unmatched at the joint venture.
After making an unforgettable debut as a 17-year-old schoolboy in 2006, the powerhouse starred in the Tigers’ drive to top-four finishes in 2010-11 and represented Australia in both seasons. Lawrence was a reliable presence during the eight subsequent turbulent seasons at the club before retiring in 2020.