Josh McCrone

Josh McCrone

Personal information
Full name	Joshua McCrone
Born	(1987-04-12) 12 April 1987 (age 37) Temora, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	89 kg (14 st 0 lb)
Position	Halfback, Five-eighth, Hooker
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 2009–15 Canberra Raiders 133 34 0 1 137 2016–17 St. George Illawarra 28 1 0 0 4 2018–20 Toronto Wolfpack 40 10 1 1 43 Total 201 45 1 2 184 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 2012–14 Country Origin 3 1 0 0 4
Source: [1][2]

Josh McCrone (born 12 April 1987) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a halfback and five-eighth for the Toronto Wolfpack in the Super League.

He has previously played for the Canberra Raiders and the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL. McCrone played for the Country Origin side between 2012 and 2014.

Early and personal life

McCrone was born in Temora, New South Wales, Australia.

He played his junior football for the Temora Dragons and represented the Country Rugby League at a junior level.^[3]

He is qualified as an electrician.^[4] McCrone and rugby league star Ryan Hinchcliffe are brothers-in-law.

Early career

McCrone started his professional career with the Canberra Raiders but failed to break into the first-grade team in two seasons.^[5] He was signed by the Penrith Panthers in 2007, following coach Matthew Elliott from Canberra to Penrith, before returning to Canberra at the end of the 2008 season without having appeared in the NRL.^[4][6]

First-grade career

He moved to the Canberra Raiders in 2009, making his first NRL appearance in April at Halfback.^[7]

McCrone was demoted from the side at the beginning of the 2010 NRL season, relegated to Canberra's feeder club Souths Logan.^[8] By the end of the 2010 season, he had returned as the Raiders' regular halfback, forming a combination with five-eighth Terry Campese to lead the team to a six-match winning streak, landing the Canberra club in the finals before being knocked out by the Wests Tigers.^[9] McCrone re-signed with Canberra through to the end of the 2012 NRL season.^[10]

In the 2011 NRL season, McCrone scored 9 tries and played five-eighth for the majority of the year due to Terry Campese being injured. As a result, the Canberra club signed Matt Orford from the Super League but used rookie Sam Williams instead for most of the year to partner McCrone in the halves.

Demoted to the New South Wales Cup for most of 2015, McCrone was named at five-eighth in their 2015 Team of the Year.^[11]

On 12 October 2015, McCrone signed a two-year contract with the St. George Illawarra Dragons starting in 2016.^[12]

On 13 September 2017, it was revealed that McCrone had signed a contract to join The Toronto Wolfpack.^[13] In the 2018 season, Toronto reached the Million Pound Game against the London Broncos but lost the match 4–2. In 2019, McCrone was part of the Toronto side who were promoted to the Super League after defeating Featherstone in the Million Pound Game.^[14][15]

Representative career

In 2012, McCrone was brought into the New South Wales Country side for the annual City vs Country Origin match after Danny Buderus was ruled out.

References

1. loverugbyleague
2. "Josh McCrone – Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
3. "Josh McCrone – Canberra Raiders". Raiders.com.au. Canberra Raiders. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
4. Beniuk, David (16 September 2010). "McCrone sheds 'weak link' tag". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
5. Jancetic, Steve (18 June 2007). "Williams off to Panthers". Australia: Fox Sports. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
6. "Raiders sign new player deals". Australia: ABC News. 18 September 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
7. "NRL Canberra Raiders name rookie halfback Josh McCrone for first-grade debut". Australia: Fox Sports. 21 April 2009. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
8. Blaschke, Ben (10 September 2010). "How McCrone went from zero to hero". National Rugby League. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
9. Prichard, Greg (17 September 2010). "McCrone shows he isn't half bad after given regular run". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
10. Bennie, Mike (7 May 2010). "Canberra Raiders re-sign Josh McCrone through 2012 NRL season". Australia: Fox Sports. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
11. "2015 VB NSW Cup Team of the Year". NSWRL. 27 September 2015. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
12. "Dragons sign McCrone & Faifai Loa". Zero Tackle. 12 October 2015. Archived from the original on 12 October 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
13. "Toronto Wolfpack sign Dave Taylor, Josh McCrone and Olsi Krasniqi | Rugby League News | Sky Sports". Sky Sports. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017.
14. "McCrone gutted as Toronto just miss promotion". The Sydney Morning Herald.
15. "A fantastic story Toronto wins promotion to english super league". The Sydney Morning Herald.

External links

• Toronto Wolfpack profile
• Canberra Raiders profile
• http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/player?id=111277&name=josh-mccrone&team=55004