If Quade Cooper goes, will we miss him?
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With Quade Cooper tweeting some unflattering opinions of Robbie Deans and the ARU, it sounds like he’s read the writing on the wall, or on a new contract with another code, and feels there’s little to be lost by putting in his grumpy two cents worth.
It would appear that he’s on the edge of saying goodbye to international rugby.
He apparently has no quarrel with McKenzie or the Queensland RU, and wants to continue playing for the Reds.
But he says he’d also like to play with his good mate Sonny Bill Williams outside him.
He doesn’t say where this would be, and only a few movers and shakers know where Sonny Bill plans to fetch up after his stint in Japan.
The most likely destination is the Sydney Roosters if they have pockets deep enough to satisfy killer agent Khoder Nasser.
Could Nasser offer SBW, currently the biggest marquee name in rugby, with Quade as a sort of bonus on the side?
Before the Rugby World Cup, this was definitely on the cards. But after Quade’s debacle in that tourney, and his less-than-brilliant play in subsequent tests matches, the double offering must have lost its allure.
SBW has been great for the All Blacks, and if available, would be their first choice for the centre spot against the Pumas next weekend.
However, Quade’s injury run and mixed performances might mean he is thought of as eminently expendable, more so if Berrick Barnes has a good game against the Boks.
Berrick, with Deans’ blessing, will kick long for territory in the thin air of Pretoria, but he’s been told not to try the speculative short stuff, and I believe he’ll comply.
If he tackles well, as he usually does, and distributes well, he’ll be seen to be the very thing that Quade isn’t – reliable.
Quade is erratic, and that’s the last thing you need in an international playmaker.
Carter/Cruden, Hernandez, Trinh-Duc, Sexton/O’Gara, Hook/Priestland, Flood/Farrell are all players who can be depended upon not to make multiple mistakes in a game.
But many Wallaby fans have little confidence in Quade these days, partly because he seems to have little confidence in himself.
He appears to be resigned to the fact that his Wallaby services may no longer be needed, specially when Halangahu comes off the injury list.
So if he goes, will he be missed by Wallaby fans?
Speaking for myself, in words of my own choosing, no.
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September 25th 2012 @ 10:15am
Chris said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:15am | Report comment
As a Brumbies fan I will be very, very happy if Quade leaves.
Quade isn’t up to test standard (at least not for a top 4 nation) but he is an extremely good Super Rugby player. If he leaves it almost guarantees the Brumbies top spot in the Aussie conference next year (we saw how bad the Reds were this season when Cooper wasn’t there). It also means our number 10 (Lealiifano) will get some test experience and be a much better Super Rugby player for it.
As a Roosters fan I am worried, Quade doesn’t strike me as having the kind of game that suits RL. He can’t exactly hide on the wing in defence in the NRL because the opposition will just kick bombs to his corner all day long. Plus I’m not sure his attacking style really suits a code where you don’t have half the team sucked into a ruck during each play.
Quade should really just go to French or Japanese rugby. They would pay him well and his playing style would suit those competitions (although I’d imagine the Japanese might find his ill-discipline a bit of a turn off).
September 25th 2012 @ 10:25am
Brett McKay said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Chris, if Cooper reckons the Wallabies play too restrictive, he’d be in for a nasty shock if he headed to France or Japan. Very structured…
September 25th 2012 @ 10:30am
Sailosi said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:30am | Report comment
Or the nrl for that matter. I don’t think many coaches will too happy if Quade decides that the chip and chase from inside your own 20 on the second tackle is the right option.
September 25th 2012 @ 11:21am
Matt said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:21am | Report comment
As long as he’s on the opposing team he can try that all day long!
September 25th 2012 @ 4:45pm
Jono said | September 25th 2012 @ 4:45pm | Report comment
7s circuit?
September 25th 2012 @ 6:40pm
jeremy said | September 25th 2012 @ 6:40pm | Report comment
Hmmm….he would be a fantastic 7s player. Almost a certainty for the Australia bid for the CWG and Olympics events.
September 26th 2012 @ 12:50am
bluerose said | September 26th 2012 @ 12:50am | Report comment
7s circuit will expose his defensive liabilities even more, i can see the big Samoan Fa’asoliva running at him all night long, he would probably have nightmares for the rest of his life
September 26th 2012 @ 1:15pm
Albo said | September 26th 2012 @ 1:15pm | Report comment
I think the Reds did rather well without him all things considered. It’s when Lucas et al got injured that they started to struggle.
September 28th 2012 @ 8:58pm
Minz said | September 28th 2012 @ 8:58pm | Report comment
Personally, I reckon a couple of years of league would be great for him – as long as the body lasted. He’d learn to tackle (nowhere to hide), and would (hopefully) grow up a bit being a small fish in a big pond.
He may struggle to make a side, but who knows, with a bit of coaching he could be a handy player. And if not, well, call it an experiment and head back to union? That’s what they do these days, it seems!
September 25th 2012 @ 10:16am
The Battered Slav said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:16am | Report comment
Short Answer: Probably not, with a maybe.
Longer Answer: Probably not, so long as either one of these three things happen:
1. KB finds form and can be played at fly-half, becoming a long term prospect in that role.
2. Lealiifano regains the sparkling form he showed earlier this year for the Brumbies after he recovers from injury
3. Toomua grows into a Test quality flyhalf and shows excellent form at the Brums next year.
However, even if one of these three things occur, that doesn’t necessarily mean we will automatically be in a better position that we were with QC, but it means that we’ll be much less likely to miss him if he were to chase the almighty $$$$ and play mungoball.
September 25th 2012 @ 12:15pm
sittingbison said | September 25th 2012 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
There is also a fourth option:
4) Another younger player develops. I’m thinking the likes of Godwin.
September 25th 2012 @ 2:16pm
DingoBob said | September 25th 2012 @ 2:16pm | Report comment
And 5) Deans isn’t coaching
September 25th 2012 @ 11:41pm
crusader-in-auckland said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:41pm | Report comment
Pick Beale at 10, stick with him and hope he finds his mojo:
September 26th 2012 @ 2:39am
RJG said | September 26th 2012 @ 2:39am | Report comment
Will some one buy the man a scrum cap, a white one.
September 26th 2012 @ 7:27am
crusader-in-auckland said | September 26th 2012 @ 7:27am | Report comment
INDEED
September 25th 2012 @ 10:17am
Red Kev said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:17am | Report comment
Australia certainly has the cattle available to not miss Quade Cooper in a purely rugby sense – there’s a decent argument to be made that Beale and Lealiifano would be as effective creatively without the mistakes (sorry but I can’t agree on Barnes).
However Australian rugby will miss Quade Cooper immeasurably. Kids want to be Cooper, they want to watch Cooper play. He is one of only a handful of players available to the ARU that can be used to grow the sport.
Make no mistake, rugby in Australia needs to grow, because if it doesn’t it’ll be swallowed by the NRL, the AFL and the A-League.
Without Cooper rugby in this country loses marketability, it loses fans, it loses exposure, it loses column inches in newspapers and segments on news broadcasts, it loses the next generation.
Or at the least its capacity to compete for these things is significantly reduced. And considering the marketplace rugby in Australia has to survive in, that is no small thing.
September 25th 2012 @ 11:45am
El Gamba said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:45am | Report comment
“However Australian rugby will miss Quade Cooper immeasurably”
Agreed RK. An ironic point is that Quade Cooper, via twitter, has actually done a lot to promote rugby by being so approachable to his fans. He actually spends a lot of time engaging with people even if it is just a “thanks” when you tweet him “good luck”.
September 25th 2012 @ 12:57pm
rl said | September 25th 2012 @ 12:57pm | Report comment
“Kids want to be Cooper”. An extremely scary thought indeed. Lock up your laptops!!
September 25th 2012 @ 2:11pm
gekko said | September 25th 2012 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
September 25th 2012 @ 7:35pm
Sprigs said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:35pm | Report comment
That’s right.. the kids think Quade is great as I found out at the Wallabies public “training session” [read PR session] on the Gold Coast.
Old duffers like all of us over 30 haven’t a clue.
Quade is a celebrity rugby player…the biggest in Australia. He is worth 10,000 people to the ground at least and much more on the TV.
And if you want women to pay any attention? Make sure Anthony F. is in the team.
September 28th 2012 @ 9:06pm
Minz said | September 28th 2012 @ 9:06pm | Report comment
Meh, personally, make sure that Stephen Moore’s in the team. I love a good hooker, and he has such a fantastic rugby face! Then again, maybe that’s just because I’m an old front-rower myself
September 25th 2012 @ 8:18pm
macka said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:18pm | Report comment
If he switches to league then definitely it will signal an accelerated demise for rugby in Oz. Already, rugby is losing followers & the ability to prove its worth (viewing wise) in Australia, as against the competing sports of league, AFL and soccer. Matty John’s could not be more correct in saying a Cooper defection would really hit the credibility of rugby.
I had so much hope for the first Bledisloe match this year, after the incessant promotional build-up. However, it only ended-up confirming my worst fears of late – that the Wallabies are incapable of playing anything other than a boring game, that has no devoted structure or plan to it. One can tell that Dean’s is just chopping & changing strategy as it comes. He seems incapable of building specialised tactics around the unique skills of his most prominent players. Instead he stamps one boring style of play upon every last player on the team – from the props to the fullback. I predict that he will be gone before the end of his tenure is up – & good-riddance because the ARU has really been far too charitable to his unfulfilled promises of leading Oz to greener pastures…and if he isn’t sacked prematurely then i guess that will only vindicate Cooper’s claim of an ARU that has lost its way.
Anyhow, thank goodness for the All Blacks and their pleasurable brand of rugby. I’ve given up on following Oz (for now)…our mates across the ditch will just have to do.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:22am
onewerewallabies said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:22am | Report comment
Especially if Halangahu comes off the injury list? He could be as fit as a fiddle and still wouldn’t be chosen in the 50 man squad.
I think Khodher has landed QC in some mess here… ARU will do the smart thing and not speak out. QC will be forced to quit on his own terms and enter Rugby League (at less than what he would like)….assuming he fails, which most of us already acknowledge, he will try to venture out to France, at which point, the ARU will show him the QLD RU contract….
Goodbye Quade… We stuck by you through your slump (which still continues), but Aus Rugby needs to move past you and focus on the future.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:26am
kingplaymaker said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:26am | Report comment
Does anyone really want to ‘be’ Cooper? Maybe the Wallabies can find a more dignified roll-model than Cooper. Cooper never really had that much star-power anyway, unlike SBW. He doesn’t have the showy tricks that fans love: he’s not really a Benji Marshall.
I’m not convinced Beale is the same calibre in creativity, however he is certainly very creative and so it’s not as if the Wallabies will have to go from a magician to a journeyman.
September 25th 2012 @ 7:38pm
Sprigs said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:38pm | Report comment
Not much star power?
You have to be kidding, KPM, or you weren’t at the Reds’ games in 2011.
Kids don’t want role models. They want edgy, smiling guys who play a thrilling game, and give the finger occasionally to blokes like us, snare a gorgeous girl friend and run like the wind…
September 25th 2012 @ 7:45pm
GWS said | September 25th 2012 @ 7:45pm | Report comment
Thank god someone else gets it. My wife and kids both love him. My boys love the way he plays and the wife well she’s got bad boy issues…
September 25th 2012 @ 8:25pm
macka said | September 25th 2012 @ 8:25pm | Report comment
He doesn’t have the showy tricks that fans love: he’s not really a Benji Marshall.?
Are you on drugs?
The fans love him precisely because he HAS showy tricks. Did you not watch last years Super Rugby? You can’t really judge the guy on 2012 – after recently returning from major injury and obviously still carrying some niggling injuries.
Do yourself a favour…type Quade Cooper into YouTube…maybe you could also include the word “tricks” at the end of it.
September 25th 2012 @ 9:17pm
WobbliesFan said | September 25th 2012 @ 9:17pm | Report comment
Lol…….nfi
September 25th 2012 @ 10:26am
Grimmace said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:26am | Report comment
When Halangahu comes off the injury list !?!? Benny A shows more creativity.
We do have a bit of 5/8 depth, athough a lot of it injured and green to test football. I think Barnes has run his race at playmaker, his first thought always seems to be to kick, Barnes complying with a game plan? Judging by Stephen Moore’s reaction against the AB’s, Barnes chip kicing in the 1st few minutes wasn’t part of the plan and we saw quie a lot of it. Why would he comply now?
I’m not sure weather I’m in or out of Quade’s camp, he is erratic, terrible at his worst and brillant at his best. the one thing Rugby lacks at the moment is star power, and he has it. But that needs to be weighed up against his effect on the rest of the side, both through his comments in social media and his behaviour after hours. i’ve seen that sort of stuff tear amateur sides apart, hate to see what would happen when playing football is your job. But who really knows what goes on behind the scenes with both the squad and head office. Is this a case of smoke from a fire or him playing the contract game? He raised some good points.
On the field we may not miss him but as an attraction for Rugby, we would.
September 25th 2012 @ 1:22pm
nickoldschool said | September 25th 2012 @ 1:22pm | Report comment
Was about to post the same! I hadn’t heard about Halangahu for a good few months and to see him and QC in the same sentence was odd! Probably meant Lealiifano….I hope.
Oz rugby is not at it’s peak and to lose a guy like QC isn’t good for the game. Some kids have chosen rugby over league because of him. Any sport needs this type of player, unpredictable, genial but at times a handsful. Not sure the Reds are happy about that either.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:28am
Sailosi said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:28am | Report comment
No, I don’t think he will be missed but the worrying thing is that at the age of 23 when players careers should really only be beginning, his and Kurtley Beales seem to be over. Whether this is a result of picking players to early I’m not sure.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:53am
Ryan said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:53am | Report comment
I think KB is in a bit of form slump since the end of S15 but he will get over it. I watched him play for the Rebels a few times earlier in the year and he was amazing. Those sort of skills don’t disappear and his mojo will be back with a little more game time.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:31am
Pogo said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:31am | Report comment
“SBW has been great for the All Blacks, and if available, would be their first choice for the centre spot against the Pumas next weekend.”
No he wouldn’t, 2nd5 maybe but Conrad has centre locked down.
As to whether cooper would be missed, i would lean towards yes. Comparisons to Carlos Spencer, although usually intended to be derogatory, are apt (apart from defence where Spencer was quite tenacious). Both players are/were capable of being breathtakingly good or bad, often in quick succession, but a flawed player is not the same thing as a useless player. Often those occasional sparks of brilliance can break games wide open. People forget or neglect to mention that Spencer was as instrumental to the blues 2003 title as Cooper was to the reds title.
I think people need to accept that Cooper is a fundamentally high risk player so you have to take the rough with the smooth, and hope you come out ahead at the end.
Besides which who wants to watch Berrick Barnes kick for touch all day? At least Cooper’s worth watching one way or another.
September 25th 2012 @ 11:42am
moaman said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:42am | Report comment
Good points,well-made Pogo. Though I’m not overly keen on QC I do believe he would be a loss to the game and therefore also to Australian rugby. We need players who break the mold-it’s just a shame that this particular one wasn’t disciplined early and often enough to minimise his non-conformity off the park.
Seems to me that many talented youngsters get away with murder by coaches who value their on-field contributions so much that the overlook bad behavior.Could be QC is such a player,I don’t know.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:40am
Harry said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:40am | Report comment
Yes, unless we can find someone with his attacking ability and flair.
James O’Conner is the most likely. But he’ll have to get over his injury, and play regularly at 10.
Lealiifano was going OK at 10 until his severe long term injury. But he remains unproven as a genuine test class 10 and has to come back from a very serious injury.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:54am
The Battered Slav said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:54am | Report comment
Lealiifano going OK at 10?
He was the form flyhalf in the comp.
However you’re definitely right in questioning the ability to come back from an injury like that and find the same form….not to mention he’s never pulled on a gold jumper in his life.
We’ll see what happens in the Super Rugby next year, I for one hope he puts his hand up.
September 25th 2012 @ 11:02am
Jutsie said | September 25th 2012 @ 11:02am | Report comment
I think if beale regains form and fitness he is more likely at 10 than o’connor.
September 25th 2012 @ 12:20pm
sittingbison said | September 25th 2012 @ 12:20pm | Report comment
sorry, James O’Connor does not cut it for me as a 10. He does not have ANY of the natural instincts to pull strings, to direct traffic.
September 25th 2012 @ 10:56am
kovana said | September 25th 2012 @ 10:56am | Report comment
What a whinger,
The fact that Argentina showed him up really is sad.
Just because he plays badly he now blames Deans. Pathetic.
I am a huge fan of QC, but he needs to get the faingaa, I MEAN FINGER, out and take responsibility.
He is out of form…. He has to work hard to find it again.