Quade Cooper playing park footy is a slap in the face for Force and club rugby

The Quade Cooper situation is an embarrassing indictment on the game and the Queensland Rugby Union has a lot to answer for, writes BRENDAN CANNON.

Quade Cooper of the Barbarians looks on during the match between the Australian Wallabies and the Barbarians at Allianz Stadium on October 28, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

RUGBY Australia was at great pains to say the Western Force needed to be axed from Super Rugby because we could not financially sustain five teams.

Yet heading into this new, shiny year, we’ve got a guy reportedly earning $800,000 preparing to play park footy.

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The Quade Cooper situation is an embarrassing indictment on the game and the Queensland Rugby Union has a lot to answer for.

I understand that the Reds kick in $250,000 while RA pays the vast majority of Cooper’s contract.

Cooper with the Reds in 2017. Pic: AAP

New Queensland coach Brad Thorn dropped Cooper from his squad late last year, saying he wanted to go in a new direction.

Three weeks ago Thorn was quoted saying: “I thought Quade last year ... the team struggled, his game management, his attack, his defence (struggled).”

This is a player you’re trying to offload, but you’ve publicly denigrated him in front of the global market.

I don’t see how overseas clubs are suddenly going to be scrambling to offer Cooper massive contracts when the head coach of his club has bagged him like this.

In action for Brisbane City. Pic: AAP

And how does RA sit back and allow Thorn and the QRU, who are the minor party to the contract, to talk down one of the biggest financially-invested assets in Australian rugby?

It’s ludicrous.

I know Thorn and Cooper had run-ins during their international careers, but whether there is lingering animosity from that on-field incident years ago is anyone’s guess.

In any case, this has been handled amateurishly by the QRU. They should never have approved Thorn bagging Cooper so publicly when they’re clearly trying to move him on.

And how does RA, as the governing body and major financial contributor to Cooper’s salary, not have a mechanism to move him to another Australian team.

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I understand there are some conditions around the collective bargaining agreement that are difficult to shift, but surely in this instance RA can ask the Brumbies, Rebels and Waratahs to make an offer for Cooper, with the Reds to make up the difference.

Cooper is only in the second of a lucrative three-year contract, and is entitled to earn that money playing park footy.

As far as I can see, he has done nothing wrong here.

He is getting all of the benefit, while Australian rugby gets none. That’s not Cooper’s fault — it highlights the poor decision-making around his three-year contract.

It wasn’t long ago Cooper was playing for the Wallabies. Pic: AAP

Every kingdom has its castle, and I hope Raelene Castle can sprinkle some fairy dust on the promised land she’s inherited and fix this mess as a matter of urgency.

Now is the time for RA to ask Australia’s other Super sides to make an offer.

If one of them could sign Cooper for $100,000 they’d jump at it, and with the Reds and RA covering the rest, we’d have one of the highest-paid players in the country still visible to the Super Rugby audience.

The alternative is a big middle finger to the game’s heartland.

Every game Cooper runs around in club rugby is another slap in the face for Force supporters, and the grassroots community having to beg and borrow every dollar.

Originally published as Quade Cooper playing park footy is a slap in the face for Force and club rugby