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Des Hasler, Ben Barba and Quade Cooper give this week a good sporting feel

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Expert
24th October, 2018
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With the baggy greens a shambles, the Wallabies winning just three of nine internationals this campaign and both Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic just a couple of matches away from another unwanted headline, Des Hasler, Ben Barba and Quade Cooper have changed the sporting horizon for the better.

Hasler returned to Manly where he should have never left. Barba has come back close to the grassroots with the Cowboys. Cooper has had his Super Rugby career reborn with the Rebels.

Hasler will lift Manly from the Trent Barrett doldrums to again be a force in the NRL, of that there’s no doubt.

He’s not only a damn good coach as his career stats prove with 14 seasons at Manly and the Dogs producing 12 finals series appearances, five grand finals, and two premierships, but he totally understands what makes Manly tick – the culture.

Without that, no coach can succeed at Brookvale as Barrett found out.

Hasler can be a prickly hombre, and he’s never suffered fools, but there’s no more genuine coach in the NRL.

Sure he left both Manly and the Dogs under a cloud, but when the problems have been investigated, Hasler wasn’t at fault and mahogany row were the culprits.

On a more positive note, pre-season training kicks off on November 5, and by then Hasler will be right on top of it.

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Daly Cherry-Evans is the only Manly player left from Hasler’s last premiership success, and it will be interesting to see if he retains the captaincy, or Hasler opts for Jake Trbojevic.

If it’s the latter don’t be surprised if he skippers NSW Origin, and Australia as well, so it will be a big call.

But the biggest call of all will be a Manly grand final, and a premiership.

That will give the vast army of Manly-haters the ultimate uppercut.

Talking grand finals, the 2016 version was the last time Ben Barba was in NRL action, playing a major role in the Sharks capturing their first premiership in half a century.

He went from an all-time high to an all-time low when he tested positive to cocaine, and was suspended indefinitely by the NRL.

But it got worse when Barba headed for Toulon for a rugby stint, only to be sacked after four games.

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The tide turned when he signed with St Helens to return to scintillating rugby league-best, scoring 34 tries from as many games.

Last season was the highlight with 28 tries, and 24 assists, from just 23 games to capture the coveted Man of Steel Award as judged by his peers.

Barba became only the second Australian after Gavin Miller to win both the Man of Steel and Dally M Medal – the code’s highest awards.

Miller won the 1986 Man of Steel and followed that up with the 1988 and 1989 Dally Ms as a Shark – Barba won his Dally M as a Bulldog in 2012.

Now Barba fans can look forward to him as a Cowboy, and their fans will be hoping Barba can turn on his electric rugby league in the first post-Thurston season – the timing couldn’t be better.

Canterbury Bulldogs NRL coach, Des Hasler,

(AAP Image/Paul Miller)

Domestically, Barba will feel close to home with his family in Mackay, so he’s set for a big year and ready to crack the NRL three figures of career tries, sitting on 99.

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And Quade Cooper has come out of a season in the rugby wilderness.

Shunned by Reds coach Brad Thorn last season after 118 games and 70 Wallaby caps, Cooper will be a Melbourne Rebel next season, linking again will former Reds halfback Will Genia.

I never gave a thought to either leaving Queensland, but strange things can, and do, happen in professional sport.

The exciting Genia-Cooper combination will be joined by Matt Toomua to give the Rebels a superb Super Rugby backline with Reece Hodge, Tom English, Marika Koriobete, Jack Maddocks, and Dane Haylett-Petty.

Just as importantly, Michael Cheika will no doubt swoop to have Cooper as Bernard Foley’s standby, as flyhalf and goal-kicker, whenever the Wallabies are on duty.

At the moment Cheika has no-one on standby after the Kurtley Beale experiment turned out to be a failure – he’s a world-class inside centre, or fullback, but not a 10.

So Quade Cooper is back, and that can only be good for Wallaby rugby.

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