As arguably the game's most cerebral player, Cooper Cronk knew full well that by saying that he doesn't have an answer to the question of what his future holds would in fact generate another spin of the media cycle.
A large crowd that had gathered in Queen St Mall in Brisbane on Friday afternoon to make the Storm and Sea Eagles feel even slightly at home ahead of the Suncorp Stadium double-header had to be shushed from their fervour as Cronk emerged ahead of his teammates to address the media in attendance.
Throughout his decorated career Cronk has been just as crafty with his answers to questions as he has been executing meticulously plotted game plans and when the incumbent Kangaroos and Queensland No.7 does decide whether to play on in 2018 or simply hang up the boots and begin the next phase of his life in Sydney it will be big news.
Heck, Cronk explaining that he still doesn't have an inkling as to which way he will lean is now news in itself.
There were niceties exchanged regarding the atmosphere generated at the double-header, Melbourne's imposing record at Suncorp Stadium and how his side will cope without three of their key middles but before long we got back to the question for which he still does not have an answer and won't in the foreseeable future.
"I know you guys want to know and out of respect I will have the answer for you at some stage but until that day comes we can just keep walking around in circles," said Cronk, who sent the rugby league world into an inter-planetary spin when he announced in early April that he would be leaving the Storm at the end of 2017 in order to be with his fiancée Tara Rushton in Sydney.
"My situation is completely different to any other player that's retired in recent times. When you come to this decision you need to have all the information in front of you and make a smart decision and while you guys would like an announcement or a decision made overnight, a smart decision is not made overnight. It's well thought through and thought after.
"I can't add any more texture to the conversation as it stands.
"It is what it is and it won't be changing for a period of time."
But there was an element of the conversation that he could in fact clarify on Friday; a potential to link with Super Rugby and the New South Wales Waratahs that surfaced mid-week.
If the thought of pulling on a blue jersey and representing NSW wasn't difficult enough to stomach for a man who in a fortnight will earn the Dick 'Tosser' Turner Medal for playing 20 Origins for Queensland, Cronk outright rejected the notion that he would return to the game at which he excelled at schoolboy level whilst attending Brisbane's St Laurence's College.
"Everyone has their right for opinions and conversation and conjecture around what I'm doing but as I stand here today I haven't had any conversations with rugby union. I've got no intention," Cronk said of a potential code switch, emphasising the point with words such as "categorically" and "absolutely".
"My intention is to make a decision of whether I want to play on next year, not where I want to play. You guys have every right to write your stories and articles and I respect that but from the person who walks in my shoes I haven't had a conversation with anyone outside of myself and I won't be doing that for a period of time.
"You could add one plus one and sometimes it doesn't make two. In my situation I did play a little bit of rugby at a school just up the road from here. Thoroughly enjoyed my time and I watch rugby union from afar. I played with some of the current Wallabies players but I love rugby league.
"I love what it's given me. It's given me everything I have in today's life and I'm an avid supporter of growing the game of rugby league and playing the game at the highest level.
"The only question I need to ask myself at this stage is whether I want to play on, not where."
And until we have that answer we'll just have to keep asking the question.
