Raiders junior Mitchell Brophy has received the first ever Jarrod Croker Scholarship from the Raiders Foundation.
The Raiders Foundation launched the Jarrod Croker Scholarship Program in 2024 to honour and acknowledge the tremendous contribution Jarrod has made both on and off the field since making his debut for the Raiders in 2009.
The scholarship will be available to a contracted Canberra Raiders Junior player aged between 17 to 19 years old who lives in Canberra or within a 100km radius.
Currently these players do not receive a living away from home allowance and have limited access to an education allowance. The scholarship would assist with rent, food, travel, and education expenses, something that was not available to Jarrod when he moved to Canberra from Goulburn at 17 years of age.
Croker said it was a proud achievement to have a scholarship named after him and touched on the importance of the scholarship to assist local talent.
"Yeah, it's special. Being a local junior, even though I was lucky I only had to come down the road to Canberra, we didn't the centre of excellence and these facilities that the young guys have access to now. I'm all about local juniors, we're very much a local juniors-based club," Croker said.
Raiders Foundation Manager Paul Walshe was pleased to announce the Jarrod Croker Scholarship, further investing into the youth of the Canberra Raiders.
"It was looking at an area where we hadn't had a scholarship before. We've got the Don Furner Snr Scholarship for regional NSW, but nothing for the ACT and the surrounding regions, so it was an obvious thing we had to do," Walshe said.
"We developed a criteria for the Jarrod Croker Scholarship and here we are today announcing the inaugural recipient. It's a great day for the club, for Jarrod, and for the recipient, Mitchell Brophy."
Mitchell Brophy was excited with the opportunity and was thankful for the scholarship which will assist him on his rugby league journey.
"Obviously watching Jarrod growing up, he's been an inspiration of mine ever since I started watching footy. Having this opportunity from him and the Raiders was far too good to turn down," Brophy said.
