No NRL team interest in signing rugby union renegade Quade Cooper
James Hooper From: The Sunday Telegraph November 25, 2012 12:00AM
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No NRL clubs have shown interest in rugby renegade Quade Cooper. Picture: Darren England Source: The Courier-Mail
RENEGADE rugby union player Quade Cooper has been dealt a dose of reality, with every NRL club slamming the door on a code switch.
Tomorrow, at the Brisbane Convention Centre, Cooper will officially announce his plan to stage a boxing bout on the undercard of the latest Sonny Bill Williams sideshow against 44-year-old Francois Botha in February.
As world champion Danny Green pointed out last week, Cooper calling himself a boxer is like Green announcing his intention to takeover as the Wallaby five-eighth.
It's an insult to all the great names to have graced Australian pugilism over the past 50 years such as Lionel Rose, Jeff Fenech, Jeff Harding and Daniel Geale.
Cooper has been labelled a mercenary and high maintenance after walking away from his contract negotiations with the Australian Rugby Union.
And no NRL club is prepared to take a risk on the former Queensland Reds playmaker, with all 16 clubs contacted by The Sunday Telegraph issuing an emphatic "no".
Despite the New Zealand Warriors having ample room to accommodate Cooper, new coach Matthew Elliott branded him too much of a risk.
"He's obviously a sublime talent, but at this stage we're not in a position to take the risk," Elliott said.
"We are in a position where we do have some freight and we are looking at halves and outside backs, but we're not in a position to speculate that much money on a player coming from union to league."
It was a similar story at every other rugby league club.
From premiers Melbourne Storm to wooden-spooners Parramatta, no club was prepared to gamble on what Cooper might be able to bring to the table.
Surprisingly, Cooper found an ally in triple world champion boxer Jeff Fenech.
Fenech argued Cooper was only trying to make as much money as possible during his time as a professional athlete.
But he could also understand how his dalliance with boxing was a slap in the face for every up-and-coming amateur boxer or pub fighter dieting and training seven days a week for a shot at a decent purse.
"I don't begrudge Quade Cooper wanting to make a dollar, but I do feel sorry for all the fighters out there who are dieting and starving themselves to try and get a shot at the big time and then these other guys with the big names can just come in and trade off their reputations," Fenech said.
No question, the former Wallaby No. 10 can be brilliant with the ball in his hands. But defensively, as evidenced during the Australia's ill-fated World Cup campaign, Cooper is a huge liability.
And he's coming off a major knee reconstruction.
The reality for Cooper now is he's going to have to play rugby union in France or Japan and bide his time for Wallabies coach Robbie Deans to be sacked.
With Deans out of the picture and Ewen McKenzie his obvious successor, the door will re-open for Cooper to re-negotiate a new ARU deal.
Source:
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