Melbourne Storm halfback pushes opponents out of the running for the NRL title.
A field goal in golden point extra time to Cooper Cronk has ended the Gold Coast Titans’ season in heartbreaking fashion.
Locked-up at 22-all in extra time, Cronk recreated his heroics from the 2012 State of Origin series as he launched a shot for goal from 41 metres out.
Cronk’s field goal sailed truly as he helped give his side a momentum boost heading into the NRL finals while also ending the season for the Titans.
Gold Coast suffered the loss of representative forward Nate Myles before the game, but in his place came a stand out performance from David Taylor.
His heroics enabled the Gold Coast to lead 16-12 at AAMI Park, but the Storm’s class and experience in tight games saw them get back into contest and the race for the premiership.
The early end to the season for the Titans will have leave them scratching their heads and wondering what might have been.
After comfortably sitting around the middle of the top eight for much of the year, they lost seven of their last 10 games to fall out of the race for the finals.
If they had of been able to spring their second upset in as many weeks, having beaten the Sydney Roosters the round before, they could have extended their season by at least another week.
But their failure must continue to mount pressure on coach John Cartwright as he has not been able to take the Titans to the finals since 2010.
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