Passion for the game still burns brightly for Crooks

It may seem a paradox given the famous ball-playing prop debuted for Great Britain while only 19-years-old, scored a match-winning Challenge Cup final try with his home-town Hull soon after, earned the respect of Australia’s toughest and became the world’s most expensive player following a £150,000 move to Leeds.

But his remarkable ascent in the game was not without its matching troubles as the international forward battled to get to grips with his instant fame, the pressures of fatherhood while still a teenager, an obvious fondness for a drink, especially when things did not go his way, and an inability to control his strong opinions and emotions when challenged.

Heated run-ins with chairmen and coaches alike, the undoubtedly gifted Crooks often had to prove himself time and again, all of which is chronicled in his refreshingly honest, typically forthright and recently-released autobiography From Hull to Hell & Back.

Re-surfacing after desperate lows – Crooks never won in four Challenge Cup finals at Wembley, that sole 1982 victory coming after a replay against Widnes at Elland Road, and was often out of favour with his country – means he can fully comprehend just how Castleford Tigers are feeling ahead of tonight’s fixture at Headingley.

They lost a Challenge Cup semi-final against Leeds Rhinos in agonising fashion on Sunday, missing out to Kevin Sinfield’s controversial ‘golden point’ penalty in extra-time to be denied a first visit to Wembley since Crooks led them there himself in 1992.

Now they must quickly face the same opponents in Super League while still coming to terms with that painful exit.

“The players will be devastated to have had that chance taken away from them,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

“Wembley is something to savour. I may have lost there three times but I never lost a semi-final and the lads must be so disappointed,

“I know I was there as a supporter in the stands; I just felt absolutely drained at the end of it all.

“Now it is a massive test of their character. The game is as much about psychology and mentality than anything else and I think Terry Matterson’s major role this week will have been regaining that confidence and self-belief.

“It’s quite ironic. There’s been a massive change in that over the last couple of years here. There’s a real steely resolve to them and some of the goal-line defence against Leeds was as good as I’ve seen from any Cas’ team in a long time.”

Crooks knows that subject well. He was the last Castleford captain to lift silverware, memorably helping them to a famous 1994 Regal Trophy final win over the mighty Wigan, Shaun Edwards, Martin Offiah et al, and still lives in the town having also returned to the club to take charge of their Under-15 side.

Talking about that success – the image of Crooks raising the trophy remains the centrepiece of an advertisement currently adorning Wheldon Road – rekindles plenty of memories for the 47-year-old, who revitalised himself in Castleford colours following a demoralising stint at Leeds.

“I’ve never played in a team performance like it,” he said, of a since idolised squad including Kiwi stars Tawera Nikau, Tony Kemp and Richie Blackmore, alongside gritty homegrown products such as Martin Ketteridge and Grant Anderson.

“Every single one of us played to our maximum performance.

“It wasn’t a fluke. The papers said Wigan had seven internationals out. But they still had nine in. We’d beaten them once already that season and 1993-94 was a great year, probably the most enjoyable of my career, although they beat us in the Premiership final later on.

“A lot of the success was down to the club’s earlier decision to bring in Darryl van der Velde as coach. He had a massive impact on not just the rugby side of things but the administration too.

“He was also an inspiration to me and helped solve a lot of my off-field problems.

“I’ll be forever grateful for that and Darryl made sure I was more professional for the last seven years of my career than I’d ever been before.”

Crooks’s spell with Leeds was less rewarding although he admits it was as much to do with his own “petulance” after Hull – dogged by financial problems – forced the transfer as the West Yorkshire club’s “arrogance.”

While current captain Sinfield is rightly labelled Leeds’s finest given he has lifted four Super League titles and could end their long quest for a Challenge Cup in a fortnight, Crooks recollects a time of under-achievement during his turbulent two years at Headingley, the 1988 Yorkshire Cup the only trophy he hoisted.

“They expected me to jump at the chance of joining them but that wasn’t the case,” he says.

“Looking back it was a missed opportunity on my part but they spent so much money on players yet watched us all train on a postage stamp at the back of the sticks. There was six big Australians there alone – Peter Tunks, Andrew Ettinghausen, Cliff Lyons, Peter Jackson, Steve Morris and Marty Gurr – before you even mention myself and Garry Schofield but they never got the best out of them.

“There were a lot of extroverts and it needed a very, very strong man-manager. When Leeds did get one – Malcolm Reilly – they let him go after a year.

“There aren’t many people around like Malcolm. It’s no coincidence that when Leeds did get someone like that with Tony Smith they became very successful, just as Warrington are now under him.”