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Reds coach Brad Thorn is perfectly entitled to drop Quade Cooper from his roster, but the decision may come back to bite him.
Cooper is one of Queensland’s favourite sons, having played 129 games for the club, and 70 internationals for the Wallabies.
The 30-year-old has been a divisive character for a large part of his career, but he was late to mature as both a player and a man.
And Queensland needs him.
It’s all very well for Thorn, a legendary footballer as an All Black-Kangaroo, wanting to bring on new talent for the future, but when push turns to shove – as it has lately – the Reds desperately need a playmaker pf the Cooper mould.
All looked well this season when the Reds won three Super Rugby games on the trot for the first time in three years, and only their second game overseas
in 21.
But they have lost their mojo in the last three and have the Chiefs and Lions in the next two rounds.
So they are looking down the barrel at five successive losses, which would be a return to the bad old days Thorn was hoping to erase.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Already the Reds are in debit on the scoreboard, having scored 131, but given up 183.
Their biggest problem is the lack of a playmaker, resulting in the inability to cross the stripe.
In seven games, they have scored only 13 tries, seven fewer than the pathetic Sunwolves, and well below the two top teams in the Australian conference – the Waratahs, with 30, and the Rebels’ 32.
Cooper can fix that problem overnight.
Selecting him will not only lift Queensland, but be a relief for Rugby Australia having to pay Cooper $650,000 a year just to play club rugby in Brisbane every week.
And if Thorn has any ambitions to coach the Wallabies once Michael Cheika calls halt, reinstating Cooper would be a shrewd move politically.
I would expect Thorn to have that ambition, simply because he has always wanted to be the best in both codes throughout his stellar career.
His track record is mighty impressive:
In rugby, he played 122 games for the Crusaders and 59 for the All Blacks, while his rugby league career spanned 200 games for the Broncos in two stints, and nine for the Kangaroos.
He was still playing rugby for Queensland Country when he was 41.
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Thorn reminds me of the legendary Tony Miller, who made his Wallaby debut in 1952 against Fiji, and played his 41st and final Test against the All Blacks in 1967 at the age of 38 years and 113 days – that’s still the record.
Add over 100 games for NSW in an era where state games were minimal, and the 23 years of first grade with Manly, with the 346 games that went with it, and ‘Slaggy’ Miller was one magnificent warrior.
And so was Brad Thorn, as a player.
How he fares as an elite rugby coach will be governed by his selections.