Brodie Croft would not have it any other way at Salford – despite coffee calls
BRODIE Croft owes his Salford team-mates coffees for the next eight seasons, if you believe them, after snubbing a return to Australia to sign a new contract.
He also gets teased about his dress sense and faces dark winter mornings with traffic queues on the M60 motorway until 2030.
But he would not have it any other way.
The reigning Steve Prescott Man of Steel turned down an offer from NRL side St George-Illawarra to commit his future to the Red Devils.
After consulting wife Saf and getting the most awkward part of negotiations out of the way – convincing his mother in Queensland – he put pen to paper.
Now he is ready to repay the faith the club showed in him by taking them towards silverware.
“Apparently I can’t get enough of it, my manager got me a beauty!” Croft laughed.
“Also, I owe the team coffees for the next seven years. I’ll also still be around when Tim Lafai’s six-year-old son comes through!
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“But I wouldn’t have it any other way, definitely not.
“Two things swung it for me – the stability of the contract, which is important having a young family - and the confidence the club has put into me.
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“Saf was very open throughout the contract talks, both with the possibility of heading back and the possibility of staying here, which certainly helped.
“When we discussed the contract, all options were on the table – there wasn’t a scenario we didn’t think about. We went through everything that could’ve happened.
“But calling my parents was probably the toughest call to make when I first started talking of the possibility of it. They were among only a few people I confided in to get different opinions.
“Bringing up the possibility of even staying here for that amount of time was tough to put into words to my mum – but they’re excited about it and excited about me going home in the off-season.
“I spoke about the confidence this club gives me, along with how we’d be able to get home in the off-season. We spoke bout how it would work with them coming over here, they came around to it in the end.
“That belief from the club has given me confidence. I go to work every day with a smile on my face. The people at the club give me a sense of belonging.”
Croft’s sensational season – and staying on – is a huge boost as Salford, who do not spend the full £2.1 million salary cap, want as they look to go further than 2022’s Super League semi-final loss.
He is alongside England internationals in Andy Ackers, Marc Sneyd and Kallum Watkins, and a World Cup finalist in Samoa’s Lafai.
All that, the 25-year-old believes, points to Paul Rowley’s side challenging for honours.
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He added: “We saw last year, as we went on, we grew as a team and as individual players – a lot of players are starting to believe we’re not just that lower team that people look down on.
“We can match the big teams.”