Jarrod McCracken

C’bury went to great lengths to secure the services of this fiery NZ centre in 1991. The son of former NZ Test winger Ken McCracken and a Junior Kiwis’ captain McCracken came to Australia to play with Norths in 1989 but spent the year in the clubs’ lower grades. He left Norths for Port Macquarie in 1990 where he represented North Coast against France. McCracken was playing in a local grand final when he was spotted by Bulldogs’ secretary Peter Moore who had travelled north to check out McCracken's team-mate Rex Terp. The NZ Rugby League tried to block McCracken’s move to C’bury to protect their future investment but Moore threatened legal action and the Kiwis backed off. McCracken made a huge impact in the centres during his first season but despite representing NZ in the three-Test series against Australia he received lengthy suspensions in club matches for biting and for a high tackle. McCracken came of age at C’bury, however, and he represented NZ in his second Trans Tasman series in 1993 although injuries ruled him out of the Kiwi tour of England and France. A member of the C’bury team that was soundly beaten in the 1994 grand final by Canberra he initially followed the club’s lead and signed with Super League in early 1995. In a major controversy at the time McCracken and three team-mates (Smith, Pay and Dymock) reneged on their contracts citing ‘unfair inducement’ to sign. While this ruling was subsequently upheld in court and McCracken signed a contract with the ARL coach Chris Anderson dropped all four players to reserve grade. While the club’s other ARL-aligned players fought their way back into C’bury’s first grand final winning team McCracken preferred to sit out the club’s semi-final campaign and missed winning a premiership title. Linking with P’matta the following year he moved into the forwards and captained the club in 1998. At international level he played in all three Tests against Australia in 1995 but missed the World Cup because of injury. McCracken represented the ‘Rest of the World’ in the ARL’s only Test match in the divided 1997 season but returned to the NZ team in the reunified 1998 season and played in all three Tests of the Trans Tasman series. In 1999 he was named NZ captain for the ANZac Test following an injury to Quentin Pongia but was ruled out of the Tri Nations competition at year’s end with an arm injury. In 2000 McCracken was named captain of the newly-merged W’Tigers but his career came to a crashing halt when he suffered a serious neck injury after being illegally dumped by opposing Melbourne forward (and former Kiwi Test team-mate) Steve Kearney in a club match. His 22 Test and ten-year Sydney career were over and McCracken moved to Townsville to develop his building business.