Slack: Waratahs have needlessly taken Joe Cotton from Bulldogs

Wests Bulldogs have to tackle the QLD Premier season without one of their young guns, and it’s all because the Waratahs have needlessly demanded Joe Cotton move south immediately, writes Andrew Slack.

On Saturday, Australia play South Africa in the first game of the Rugby Championship.

Also, Wests play Souths in the penultimate Queensland Premier home and away game of the season.

In this World Cup year it is understandable that every available penny and any scheme deemed worthy of improving the Wallabies chances should be utilised or implemented.

Even that brilliant plan to rest potential Wallaby players during Super Rugby was put into place despite nobody being able to demonstrate any sound reasoning behind it. (In fairness, New Zealand have also rested their players, so come November 2, it will have proved a completely useless exercise for one country, and perhaps both.)

David Pocock training at Wests Bulldogs Rugby Union Club. Picture: Stuart Walmsley

David Pocock has played hardly any Super Rugby this season courtesy of an injury he picked up in a Wallaby pre-season training camp.

Perhaps pre-season training should be banned for fear players will be worn out come season’s end.

OK. You win some, you lose some.

Not every plan makes sense, but the point is, nobody begrudges the Wallabies being given every weapon to help maximise their performance.

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What then of those battling little Bulldogs at Sylvan Road who have put in all year, between studies and work, showing up for night training sessions, for no recompense, just the love of the game and the camaraderie?

The same deal with the boys and girls at Souths and every other club. That’s their choice and they shouldn’t expect the big brother of professional rugby to throw an over abundance of resources at them.

Nor however, should officialdom in the pro ranks construct hurdles just to flex a muscle or two.

Joe Cotton (left) with fellow junior Wallaby Josh Nasser. Photo: Stuart Walmsley

This appears to have happened in the case of Wests and Australian under-20 hooker Joe Cotton who, in a fair and reasonable world, would be slugging it out against the Magpies in a must-win match on Saturday to try to help his club qualify for the finals.

A former 2nd XV player for Nudgee College, Cotton’s ambition, hard work and desire, not to mention some excellent coaching at his club Wests, has won him a contract with the Waratahs.

Maybe like Nick Farr-Jones and Phil Kearns he can successfully negotiate the journey from the school Seconds team to the Wallabies, but in the meantime, his mates at Wests are delighted he’s achieved goal number one of a professional rugby contract.

Nick Farr-Jones in action in 1985 playing for NSW against Canada. Picture: Anthony Weate

Why, however, have the Waratahs demanded he head to Sydney immediately and not allow him to finish the club season in Brisbane with the team that’s got him to where he is?

Should Wests make the finals, he would have been far better served by the experience than a couple of games with Southern Districts in Sydney, who aren’t even going to qualify for the Shute Shield semis.

Should Wests miss out on a finals berth, he’d be down in Sydney in a fortnight anyway. The Waratahs haven’t even got a coach at the moment so I’m not sure what genius is going to be such an advantage for Joe that he needs to get there post haste.

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Such demands by professional teams is what helps build up the disconnect between club rugby and the professional game.

No one in clubland wants to limit the opportunity of the individuals within their ranks but they also don’t wish to be treated as some kind of feudal serfs simply existing to serve the master.

I doubt the Waratahs would like it if a similar thing happened to them.

In a year in which perhaps far too many biblical quotes have seen light of day in the rugby press, the decision makers in professional rugby might take note of just one more.

Do to others as you’d have done to you.