The 35-year-old, who won two premierships with the Melbourne Storm and then another last season with the Sydney Roosters, will hang up the boots at the end of the current campaign.

Cronk's retirement comes 16 years after he first pulled on a Storm jersey and in the years since, only Johnathan Thurston has received as many plaudits as one of the NRL's very best playmakers.

Through 360 NRL games, 22 Origins and 38 Tests for Australia, Cronk has won it all.

He was a critical part of the Queensland Origin dynasty, steered the Storm to premierships which were later stripped in 2007 and 2009 before earning redemption in Melbourne in claiming the 2012 and 2017 titles.

He then left the Storm for the eastern suburbs of Sydney and the Roosters, where he produced one of the most courageous performances of all time when steering his team to victory with a broken scapula.

The amount of team success Cronk has enjoyed has naturally brought individual gongs, too. As well as his Dally M Medals in 2013 and 2016, he was also the Golden Boot winner in the latter year.

He claimed the Clive Churchill Medal in 2012 and is a four-time winner of the Dally M Halfback of the Year award.

More to come