July 30: Bulldogs salute General

On this day, the Bulldogs salute a favourite son, Cooper Cronk inks a long-term deal with the Storm and Andrew McCullough suffers a cruel injury blow.

1966

Dally M player of the year in his 30th birthday year (1996) Allan 'Alfie' Langer turns 56 today. He played 34 times for Queensland and 24 times for Australia, making the line grubber one of his signature moves.

1985

Cowboys, Maroons and Australia prop Matt Scott is born. After making his debut for North Queensland in 2004, the rugged front-rower played 268 NRL games. Scott was a co-captain when the Cowboys won the 2015 grand final. On the rep scene, Scott played 22 Origin matches for Queensland and made 27 appearances for Australia. 

2008     

Melbourne halfback Cooper Cronk provides the Storm and the NRL with a major vote of confidence by re-signing with the premiers for a further five seasons.

2010

Canterbury players celebrate teammate Luke "The General" Patten’s 100th NRL try with a military-themed salute during their team's 32-12 defeat of South Sydney at ANZ Stadium. After playing 13 games for the Illawarra Steelers in 1998 and 44 for the Dragons (1999-2000), Patten played  225 matches for Canterbury before retiring in 2010. 

2017    

Brisbane lose hooker Andrew McCullough for the rest of the season after scans reveal that he had torn his ACL and MCL in his team’s 28-14 loss to Parramatta two days earlier.

This article contains information from the official records of NRL historian David Middleton.