Former Parramatta Eels lock or front rower Jesse Cronin will play the 2020 season with the Tweed Heads Seagulls in the Queensland Cup competition after attracting the eye with his performances with the Parramatta Eels Jersey Flegg side in 2018 and 2019 and in the U18 SG Ball competition in 2017, the same year that he represented the Australian School Boys Rugby League side against New Zealand a team mate in the side that defeated New Zealand was Titans NRL player Tannah Boyd.
The 2017 Australian School Boys representative originally signed with the Eels as a 15 year old in 2014 from the Newcastle region moving to Sydney to finish his school at Hills Sports High a school from which he was selected in 2017 to play for the Australian School Boys side that toured New Zealand.
In 2019 Jeese Cronin captained the Parramatta Eels in the New South Wales U20 Jersey Flegg competition playing in sixteen matches scoring seven tries (43.75% strike rate). Jesse Cronin scored a double in Round Fourteen against the Warriors and also scored in Rounds Seven, Nine, Sixteen, Eighteen and Twenty against Newcastle, Penrith, Victoria, Canberra and the Warriors respectively.
Jesse Cronin started the first five of Parramatta’s matches at lock, but after missing Round Six through injury started the next three rounds from the bench before coming back into the starting side in Round Twelve against Souths Sydney once again at lock maintaining his place at lock for the remaining matches that he played in 2019 except for Round Twenty when Jesse Cronin started in the second row against the New Zealand Warriors.
In 2018 Jesse Cronin was also part of the Parramatta U20 Jersey Flegg side playing in nineteen matches including starting from the bench in their Week One Finals loss to Canterbury. Jesse Cronin started the first two matches of the 2018 season on the bench before making his starting debut in the front row in Round Three against Newcastle, going on to start in eleven matches, nine at lock, one in the front row being his debut and Round Fifteen against the Sydney Roosters in the second row.
Jesse Cronin’s sole try of the 2018 Jersey Flegg season came in Round Twelve against the North Sydney Bears.
Jesse Cronin became an International rugby league player in 2018 when he started at lock for Malta in their 30 – 24 loss against South Africa in a rugby league World Cup qualifying match when he played alongside his older brother.
In 2017 Jesse Cronin was prominent for the Parramatta U18 SG Ball side and was in fact named as the Player of the Year for the Eels. Jesse Cronin played in ten matches, missing only one including starting at lock in both the SG Ball Grand Final win over Cronulla and Parramatta’s U18 National Grand Final 48 – 12 win over the Western Mustangs.
Jesse Cronin started nine games at lock and one in the front row in Round Five against the Wests Tigers with his sole try coming in Round Six against the North Sydney Bears.
Previously Jesse Cronin captained the New South Wales Combined Catholic Colleges U15 side at the ASSRL National Championships whilst still in the Hunter region. It was at these Championships where ultimately he was stopped by the Eels.