'It is pretty special': Why Canberra Raiders captain Jarrod Croker gives fans his headgear

The times he wandered to the fence and tried to hand his sweat-soaked headgear to a kid jostling for a glimpse of their heroes, only for the youngster to turn away.

"A few kids get shy," the Canberra Raiders centre grins ahead of his 300^th NRL game, which comes against the New Zealand Warriors at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.

Then there are those who don't. Those who wear Croker's headgear - covered in sweat and stained by grass and field markings - to bed. Those who hang it on the wall. Those who make mum go and buy the exact same one from the shop so they can be like "Toots" when they play rugby league on a Sunday morning.

Those like Cooper Edwards - born with a rare neurological condition as well as autism, who wakes up from surgery and asks: "Did I bleed green?" And Lucas Wallace, a kid living with cerebral palsy who was gifted a pair of Croker's boots last year and refuses to let anybody - except his mum Phyllis - touch them.

There are kids like Luca and Archie Breen. Luca fell asleep in Croker's headgear on the way home from a game in Wagga Wagga four years ago. He even wore it to day care.

The only problem? Archie had missed out. So Croker turned up before school on a Wednesday morning with a fresh headgear and a kicking tee to replace the stubby holder the boys had been practising with in the backyard. The headgear stayed on so long their father Dave was even cleaning yoghurt off one.

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Now? "We keep it on our bedside," Luca says.

Try as he might, Croker still struggles to describe the feeling he gets when he hands over his game-worn headgear to a fan in the crowd. He'll see the eyes light up, the jaw drop, and the hand reach out to grab it as if time is running out.

"It's special. It hasn't really happened for the last couple of years until now obviously," Croker says.

"It is pretty special. It's easy for me to do, and I'm grateful to [headgear provider] Madison for letting me do it.

"Every year they send probably two or three boxes of a dozen down, and they're happy for me to give them out after a game. They've been really good over a long period of time. Once they started doing that, it was easy to get rid of after the game and find someone in the crowd.

"I've actually been knocked back a few times at a few away games, a few kids get shy. But then you see kids wearing them, a lot of kids kept them, and you see stuff on social media all the time.

"You see a lot of players at every club giving away jerseys and boots and all that sort of stuff, kids really appreciate it."

Which is why responses came flooding in when The Canberra Times put the call out for any fans with Croker's headgear to surprise him for a group photo.

And you just knew Lucas Wallace would be there in a heartbeat.

Croker warmed the hearts of rugby league fans when he handed Lucas a pair of boots last year, having first met him as a two-year-old when Croker and Terry Campese were ambassadors for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.

"Lucas and I were standing just over here, actually, trying to get Jarrod to sign a jersey," Phyllis said with a nod towards the seats on the other side of the Canberra Stadium fence.

"One of the amazing staff that work here saw how fascinated Lucas was with Jarrod, and asked if he would love a pair of boots. You can imagine he was very excited. They organised for the next home game for Lucas to get them.

"We actually met them down here in bay 53, and Jarrod came over and had a chat with Lucas and then handed him his boots. He was squealing and very excited. Jarrod signed both of them.

"He's had them in his bedroom ever since, and no one is allowed to touch them except for mum, just to move them so we can clean, and then they have to be put back exactly where they are. They've been sat there ever since.

"The team as a whole, they're amazing. The boys have the kids and the supporters at heart. We've had a few times when Lucas hasn't been very well, so we've got 'get well' messages from the team. He ended up in hospital last year and one of the boys sent him a message saying, 'I hope you feel better, get out of hospital quick, we want to see you back at the games'."

So back to games he went.

Just like Jackson Graf, who woke up with Croker's signed headgear on his birthday three years ago to help him through what his mother Tracey describes as a "really difficult time in his life".

Like Rachel Hewitt, who jagged a headgear from Croker so she could dress up like the Raiders captain at a company golf day.

Or like youngster Luke Fisher, Croker's "No. 1 fan", he tells you. Why else would he make his mother Michelle buy him the same headgear Croker wears? Because there is no way he would want to "ruin" the one the Raiders skipper gave him in 2020.

"I had my sign up saying Jarrod Croker's No.1 fan. I was screaming his name, he came up to me right after they won and I screamed as loud as I can, my whole family did, he came over, gave me my headgear," Fisher says.

"This means a lot to me because I have been his No.1 fan for as long as I can remember. I've been cheering him on, even through his injuries. I will always cheer him on."

Raiders officials are targeting a crowd of 20,000 to witness Croker's milestone on Friday, when he joins Jason Croker in Canberra's 300 club.

So, who gets the headgear this week? This one might be for his boys, Rory and Tate.

"I'm probably keeping this one, mate," Croker said.

"I've had a few people ask about it. Some people aren't real shy, they ask for the boots, the jerseys and everything. I'll be keeping everything this week.

"It's a pretty special week. The club will get the jersey done up for me, I've got a nice pair of boots with some writing on them. I'm assuming the match ball gets kept. I've even got a nice set of Budgy Smugglers on the way."

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