OPINION: Khoder Nasser – Cooper’s Puppeteer?

LeftArmSpinner October 2, 2012 108

Quade Cooper has already made several very poor decisions in his short career, the most critical being the appointment of maverick manager, Khoder Nasser.

You can’t even see the strings

The recent headline grabbing outbursts are classic Nasser tactics but show a distinct lack of judgement and understanding of Cooper’s chosen sport, his teammates, his employers and finally the fans that ultimately pay the bills.

Nasser has needlessly rolled the dice on Cooper’s career at least three times in the past 12 months as he attempted to increase Cooper’s value.

First, he advised Cooper to sign a one year deal prior the 2011 RWC. Cooper’s poor RWC form and subsequent knee injury derailed this. Yet the ARU has offered him the same deal as in 2011.

Second, Nasser has sat on this reasonable ARU top-up for three months, hoping that Cooper would recover from his injury and rediscover form. The opposite happened.

Finally, Nasser encouraged and supported Cooper’s public outbursts, and from a position of weakness. Rugby League is not a career option for Cooper. Even if he got a contract so late in the NRL contract cycle, he is not tough enough for the grind and he can’t tackle. His criticism of the Wallabies’ conservative play is nothing to League’s four one-out hit-ups and kick for every six tackle series.

There is never a good time to publically criticise your employer or boss nor attack an icon of the game like Richie McCaw and certainly not when you are about to visit his homeland for two months.

Both destabilised the nation’s rugby team and his friends and supporters in the team and at a time when, already missing 15 starting players, they are about to travel to South Africa and Argentina, with an inaugural wooden spoon as the penalty for losing!

You and me bro

What is in it for Khoder Nasser? He is a boxing manager at heart. He masks his desire for more high profile boxing clients and the ability to assemble a boxing card by convincing his rugby clients to don the gloves and put their whole career at risk.

Nasser uses proven missionary tactics. He remains in the background while Mundine converts SBW who then converts Cooper. The message is simple but effective: ‘You and me against the world, brother! We will show them who is boss!’

While it is ridiculously high risk for SBW, at the peak of his powers and earning capabilities, to have a concurrent boxing career, it’s laughable that Quade Cooper is also going to box.

Cooper is a non tackling, not very robust, back. He is delusional if he thinks that he has the ticker to become a boxer!

Cooper’s hands are his tools of trade. One hand injury from a misdirected punch and it is over.

Yet under Nasser’s management, he is seeking this dispensation. Nasser seems incapable of understanding the relationship between risk and reward. He presents it as a challenge for his clients to overcome before abandoning all the hard set-up work for yet another green field challenge. Team sports are not like that.

Nasser also ignores the personal and commercial benefits to his clients of stability, of rest periods and of putting down roots in a community and a sport. With proper workload management, the athlete performs better, earns more money in the long term and builds a brand for retirement.

These are some of the Nasser orchestrations:

Mundine and Williams’s mid-season departures from Saints and the Bulldogs respectively; Cooper is now refusing to play for the Wallabies.
SBW’s delayed arrival into New Zealand rugby, risking his All Black and RWC ambitions. SBW was on the bench for the final.
SBW’s departure from the Chiefs, after just one happy and productive year.
SBW’s late arrival at the dysfunctional Sydney Roosters, with a first-year NRL coach, and via Japanese rugby. This is already creating pressure on SBW and risks possible player resentment.
The fly-in-fly-out, 12 months a year, broad rather than deep management of SBW’s brand. Jonah Lomu built depth and still feeds the family today from rugby.

These tactics create headlines that boxing thrives on. They are an anathema to team sports and considered traitorous by their teammates.

Cooper plays a sport that is part of the establishment, conservative and traditional. Nasser’s management style is at odds with this.

All is not lost for Quade Cooper but a pattern has emerged. I am concerned for Quade Cooper. I enjoy his attacking play and I would prefer to see him stay in rugby, but only if he uses the correct channels to give his opinions. He would do well to put the management of his player affairs out to tender.

TAGS » Opinion, slide

POSTED IN » Rugby

About the author: LeftArmSpinner View all posts by LeftArmSpinner

Former non tackling fullback for Randwick, Uni of NSW and Roslyn Park, I am now a passionate rugby supporter and writer of more than 200 articles, principally on Rugby. Follow LeftArmSpinner on Twitter: @leftarmspinner or on Facebook: http://www.Facebook/leftarmspinner

Discussion »

A. Fox-Russell

Damn well-said. Nothing more.
- leftarmspinner
  
  Foxie, thanks for the compliment but surely you have some of your own opinions!!!!! LOL
rossco

nasser is a crumb, who cares ?
- leftarmspinner
  
  Bok, we care because he is influencing some of the most exciting rugby players away from the game.
The Rant

If there’s one thing that I’ve noticed about Quade, O’Connor and Genia and some others – it’s that when they give interviews – the words coming out of their mouths are obviously the words of someone else – be it the coach, the organistaion, the managers – depends on the subject. Rocky elsom was also guilty of it – parroting Deansesque talk about the game as work and sounding more like they were part of a company. Maybe this rubbed off on the young kids. Point is – they seem to easily get their heads filled with ideas and opinions that start somewhere else. It’s a shame they can’t step back and see the big picture and make better choices sometimes cos they seem nice enough otherwise (maybe not JOC – he comes across as a grade A [deleted] modelled on US movie high school jocks).

Khoder is just an agent -[Edited - play the ball not the man] who cares, he’s doing his job. The buck stops at the player who has to look teammates and fans in the eye.
The Rant

wow – are comments getting moderated now?
- http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ Matt Rowley
  
  You need the play the ball not the man mate. Cutting you some slack but we’re getting tighter on that now
  - The Rant
    
    fair cop, but who censors the word w&nker? Should just ban the trolls on this site who call each other names cos they can’t reasonably present a counter-argument.
    - http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ Matt Rowley
      
      The word wanker isn’t such a problem, it’s just when you call someone one, like a total wanker
    - sarina
      
      Yea like dave.
    - Moz
      
      Well done Matt, I though The Rant was being a bit of a wanker! :)
- murph
  
  Those who insult (enter victim here) will have their opinions metaphorically decapitated! Ululululu!
tommy

LAS, great article & I agree. Just interested if you have any player insight / inside word here or your just making your opinion as an outsider?

I love watching Quade & hope he stays but jeez it is not looking good ATM.
- leftarmspinner
  
  tommy, From the outside. I have assembled the facts and then looked for patterns. When I saw that Cooper was wanting to box, that triggered and exposed the tactic. He is no more a boxer than Campo!!!!! (Sorry Campo)
tommy

I’d love to know what the tweet from Drew Mitchell the other day was aiming at, “its getting hard to bite my tounge” or something like that & re-tweeted by Steve Moore. Did that mean they are getting the shits with Quade or did it mean they agree with him?
- http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ Matt Rowley
  
  I’d heard it was the former – not directly from either of those two guys though
- Jimmy
  
  Got to remember though that squeaks and Drew have been mates since they got out of high school. Their opinions are likely to overlap and may not represent the general feeling of the group.
  
  That said, while I personally don’t agree with much of what Quade does and I can’t stand his manager, by the looks of things on the field, this team doesn’t gel too well with Robbie
  - http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ Matt Rowley
    
    Not agreeing with Quade’s actions doesn’t mean you want Deans to stay, I would think
    - Jimmy
      
      No, I agree. I didn’t think I had eluded to that.
      
      I think Deans has to be at the core of the problem and I believe half the problems we are seeing are a the players trying to get rid of him. I’m just saying that those two are very close and I’m not surprised they had the same opinion.
- leftarmspinner
  
  Third and feedback is that there was friction between JOC/Beale/Cooper and the rest of the team during the RWC. I cant substantiate it but the source is credible. I know that Beale’s approach to playing rugby has several flaws that dont become apparent until you get to the pros. Fitness and ability or interest in studying opponents. there have now been three incidents where Beale has failed to arrive in the necessary physical shape required of a pro rugby player: i.e. at the Tahs, then he was not selected for the NH tour and now 2012. As a confidence/instinct player who relies on speed, his lack of fitness is a major factor.
- Dave
  
  Interesting to note that Sharpie had originally replied to the tweet along the lines of, Whatever could you mean Drew? But this has since been deleted.
  I took it as a sarcastic comment. Judging from a few articles that have come out there are some senior players that aren’t liking Nasser’s [cough!] I mean, Quade’s carry on.
chuntsah

Hear, hear on that Tommy, I too was interested in what could lie behind that comment. As the twitter guru, can Gagger provide some insight?
Agree also on the quality of the article, really interesting reading and the first big of commentary I’ve seen that even attempts to make sense of it all.
- leftarmspinner
  
  thanks for the feedback. Its a bit like the Allan Jones comments. They are so bizarre that there must be more to them. Rather than look at the wallabies, I looked at those influencing Cooper. And there were KN’s paw prints.
  - johnny-boy
    
    If Quade Cooper is so dumb, how come he can remember all these lines that Nasser is apparently feeding him ? Sorry if that doesnt fit your all knowing assumptions
    - DameEdnasPossum
      
      Quade is that you again?
      
      Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already.
      
      ‘All theses lines’
      
      Huh?
      
      Listen to your interview again. You repeat the same dopey line again and again. And not very convincingly mind you.
      
      ‘…er i just want to play my best … and, er … represent my country in the yellow jersey’
      
      KN: well done Quadey. No, no you can’t twit just yet. No sorry mate…no jersey this time…but i do have these pretty yellw shorts. Quick get them on, the punters are queing outside the tent. you’ve got to last a 5 minute round with each one. I’m going to make you a star. We’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams.
REDinCPT

extremely interesting article but i would have thought that an opinion like this would have a lot more punch if it had a name attached to it instead of being the first blog posted with this alias.
- Old Weary
  
  Check out the NZ herald article from 4th of Feb this year “Who is Khoder Nasser”.
  
  Very similar line of thought on the guy. Only two other interesting points a) he apparently paid the Bulldogs off $750k from his own pocket and b) SBW, Mundine and himself all Muslim (converted).
  The second issue has nothing to do with a religious choice (or any perceived bigotry that is all to common at the moment), but to my mind both go to the heart of his employment, that they are true ‘mates’ and he has their interest placed first – ‘us against them’. Unfortunately I don’t think he is truly doing them the best service.
  
  Also Quade and boxing? Seriously?
  - johnny-boy
    
    As I recall the $750,000 was paid via a loan from multi millionaire Nasser client Anthony Mundine. As far as I am aware, SBW is the only rugby player that made a donation in the order of $100,000 to the Christhchurch earthquake fund. I’m not a big fan of Mundine or SBW’s (saying he had to go to the Roosters to honour a handshake is just comical) but there’s no legs in knocking their financial capacity or generosity.
sph45

What is with Cooper’s love affair with Sonny Bill? I find it odd. “I want to play with Sonny Bill” seems to be an overriding motivation, to the extent that Cooper threatens his own career to fulfill this desire.

Has there ever been another case where two players sell themselves as “package deal”?

Great article LAS. I agree with your sentiments at the end.
- mxyzptlk
  
  Maybe this SBW package deal should be seen as another step in the overall brinkmanship. Consider: Quade was already in an untenable position well before the South Africa match, and didn’t have a lot of room to move — either back off entirely, which costs him negotiating leverage, or dig in on his position. The problem is he doesn’t have much ballast to support him in his current position; after his baffling Rugby Club appearance, the public isn’t sure that Cooper is even sure of his own grievances.
  
  So what’s he to do then? If he drafts onto SBW’s wake, that could possibly provide enough momentum to overcome the grinding, slogging, stifling crunch his career just hit, at least when it comes to negotiating leverage. He doesn’t have much else.
- mxyzptlk
  
  Oh — in U.S. team sports, players tend to get traded back and forth in package deals like they’re horses. Sometimes it comes with a current player and “a player to be named later.”
  - Davo
    
    In that instance it’s not the players that choose the package though. Watch Moneyball for an idea.
  - DameEdnasPossum
    
    What…and that makes it acceptable in all sports?
    
    There we have it…follow the good ol’ U S of A and everything will be just fine.
TheYank

I can’t believe how quickly this wallabies team is falling apart after winning the Tri Nations last year. I think this article hit the nail on the head when it pointed out the distractions that Quade cost the team during the WC in NZ.

I simply cannot understand why after all these problems that he has created for our organization that we are still putting him at the helm of our attacking line. He is an immature punk and we don’t need him on the wallabies. Australian Made… I don’t think so
- bill
  
  Simple, he’s the best 5/8 we’ve had since Wally Lewis.
  
  We need him, but we don’t need the circus that’s going with him at present.
  
  Whatever you think of Nasser at the end of the day every individual is responsible for their decisions, and Quade’s responsible for his.
  
  Boxing’s a side issue, more concerning was the reports he was talking about jap rugby in the offseason when he should be recovering, you can’t burn the candle at both ends and not pay a price in rugby.
  - Tim Fin
    
    You’re on drugs Bill if you think he is the best 5/8 since Wally Lewis. Apart from the code mismatch, you’ve glazed over Lynagh and Larkham to name QC as the best since.
    
    You’ve either got the Greg Martin disease or you’re plain stoopid.
    - bill
      
      Lynagh was a converted in centre, he was better than say, Barnes, nowhere near Cooper as a pure 5/8. I’d put Lynagh on a level with Jonny Wilkinson. Lynagh like Timmy Horan was a guy who matured really well though.
      
      Larkham, excellent player but still not in the same class as a 5/8. But I don’t think guys like Larkham fit into a easy mould like “he’s a 5/8 him”. Definitely one outside the box.
  - Tim Fin
    
    You’re on the wrong medication Bill if you think he is the best 5/8 since Wally Lewis. Apart from the code mismatch, you’ve glazed over Lynagh and Larkham to name QC as the best since.
    
    You’ve either got the Greg Martin disease or you’re plain stupid.
    - bill
      
      Lewis was an aus schoolboy union player, and I’d say better than Ella as a 5/8, not as a runner, but as a 5/8. Haven’t glossed over either Lynagh or Larkham.
      
      For a lot of Wally’s career he was against a 5m line in league not a 10m line. That guy was the last fella I saw with that sort of ability to put someone through a gap before Quade. But fair enough stick with your opinion.
      
      Jonathon Thurston vs Quade would be more of an argument. Jonathon’s a much better kicker, maybe not as good a passer.
  - Hawko
    
    Mark Ella and Stephen Larkham were the two best Australian 10′s since I began watching rugby in the early 60′s. Cooper is not fit to tie their shoelaces.
    
    Wally Lewis had to convert to league because on the schoolboys tour in the early 80′s Ella was the 10 and Lewis couldn’t get a game. So he went mungo.
mxyzptlk

I hadn’t realized boxing was part of his new negotiations (and a stint in Japan). Nasser’s really trying to get Quade to follow SBW’s path, and I think a good reason for trying to sell the two as a package deal is that’s about the best way to keep Quade Cooper’s stock up at the moment.

This is all fairly mercenary, but I’m writing from the U.S., where these sort of tactics are not unfamiliar (except for the sport-hopping). However, love him or loathe him, SBW seems to have the emotionally maturity to pull it off, while Quade Cooper doesn’t.

Recently after another Panasonic loss, SBW’s comments to the press were about how he felt the pressure to perform and what he needed to do to help the team succeed (in part because of their massive investment). That’s a far cry from blaming the coaches and structure at the top. SBW also didn’t seem to generate any animosity among his Kiwi teammates; again, love him or loathe him from an outside perspective, his teammates and coaches found him affable, a bit of a clown, extremely hard-working and dedicated in training, and they’d love to have him back. That emotionally maturity, combined with being an honest-to-godzilla freak athlete, allows him a bit more room to move than Quade Cooper.

(For what it’s worth, SBW’s an average boxer at best. He’s a hard slugger, but his footwork’s robotic, he drops his left to his hip, and he hangs his chin out while trying to push away his opponents’ shots, rather than tucking his chin and covering correctly so he’s in position for solid counter-shots. He also doesn’t use his height all that well to establish a flicking jab to stay on the outside and punish opponents. I don’t know if Francois Botha is the guy to take advantage of that; he has pretty sloppy defense as well, and also drops his left to their hip — that’s how Michael Grant KO’d him last year. Botha throws an overhand right a bit more cleanly than Clarence Tillman, and he could test the chin when SBW drops that left, but he also seems to carry all the flab that SBW has ever worked off in the gym over the past decade.)

As for league and boxing, part of me wants to see him to go and get his backside handed to him, if only to show that those other sports aren’t to be used as bargaining chips, and require a bit more than a clever manager. And by using them as bargaining tools, Cooper (Nasser? Nooper? Qhuader Casser?) is in fact disrespecting rugby with the suggestion that Cooper’s just so good he can go off and conquer these other realms if he wants. I’m not sure how many people agree with him; after his Rugby Club appearance, I’m not sure he even agrees with himself.

Recently Parramatta’s Jarryd Hayne was quoted in the press saying how well Cooper would do at league, but it really came off as a back-handed compliment (I think unintentionally). First he said Cooper’s position can sustain more mistakes in league than in rugby, because he gets the ball more (read: Cooper makes too many mistakes for rugby). Then he said the league 10m play-the-ball rule would provide Cooper with all kinds of space — “Can you imagine what he’d do with all that space?” (read: Cooper has difficulty with contact.)

I also know rugby players do a lot of boxing training for conditioning in rugby, but heavy bags have notoriously bad footwork and don’t often hit back. Let Cooper cash those chips, and lets see how the guy who has a hard time with tackling contact does taking jab-hook combination. There’s nothing like a good, honest beatdown to make you re-assess your priorities.
- http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ Matt Rowley
  
  Excellent post mate – almost got me starting Green and Gold Boxing!
  
  Ever thought of a different name though…?
  - mxyzptlk
    
    Thanks. The name comes from an old Superman character; its the one name that’s never taken.
- leftarmspinner
  
  mxyzptlk, after you have decoded your name, and I am sure that it is obvious to you, but certainly not to me, (LOL) and even my spell checker doesnt get it, your comments are excellent, particularly the boxing analysis.
  
  I am amazed that Cooper would even consider boxing, for so many reasons, not least of them being that he doesn’t have the ticker and by all reports, the boxing ring is a very lonely and scary place. I know this first hand from a friend, formerly the oldest active boxer in the world. He recounted the experience to me. Phew, scary
  - johnny-boy
    
    So you’ve seen Cooper box have you LAS ? – or this just another one of your abuse Cooper for the sake of it to make you feel better rants ?
  - mxyzptlk
    
    Who knows, maybe boxing would be the best thing for him? Your friend is right, it is a lonely, revealing place; individual combat sports in general are. If Quade (or any fighter) gets tagged a few times and finds himself exposed in front of the crowd, there’s only two places to go — down, or find something inside to come back and re-establish himself. Once that thing is found, the inner confidence begins to build, and it lessens the need for fear/bravado. Success becomes less about other people and more about how the individual masters his own skills and can effectively respond to whatever’s in front of him. It’s a necessarily maturing thing.
    
    One thing Quade seems to have lost since the knee surgery is that inner confidence to pull the trigger like he used to. Maybe he hadn’t yet built up the inner reserves he needed (he’s young). If he does get in the ring and finds it within himself to fight through some adversity, maybe take a loss and then get a hard-fought win, it might be the best thing for him.
  - Tim Fin
    
    If Cooper can box how come he gets Kurtley Beale to fight for him at the pub?
- Guy
  
  Another thing Jarrod Hayne said was that he would be “like in the top 10 or maybe 20 players in the nrl”…. (read: a top 3 rugby player wouldn’t really crack it in rugby league – Hayne never meant anything polite to cooper or rugby in his article)
  - bludge
    
    top 3 come on mate! DONT. BE. RIDUCULOUS.
Skip

Speaking from my lofty position as G&GR’s finance editor at large, this is a fantastic read. I’ve commented in a few places that QC now has put himself (or been put) in a position where his long term earning potential is greatly reduced. The goal of any business man (and what else when all is distilled is Mr. Nasser if not that) should be to maximize the long term value of his product / service. It seems patently clear that this is not being acheived for QC. If he’s extremely lucky he gets the contract he’s sat on for 3 months, failing that he either takes a pay cut in Australia at the ARU or a huge one at the NRL or a perhaps surprisingly large one over the medium term abroad when he will eventually be squeezed out of the pay band by players who have got the test caps he didn’t get. Short term and so incompetent it must drive the learned gentlefolk at the ARU mad having to deal with it.

As for the idea QC boxing, it’s quite simply ludicrous. SBW’s fights have been the boxing eqivilant of watching Ricky Hatton (a poor comparison as he acheived 10 times more in boxing than SBW has in both codes combined) play a club game in the italian 4th division. Furthermore, it’s an extremely technical sport and in order to ensure he doesn’t get knocked clean out, QC will be up against journeymen, who in his weight division, wouldn’t sell enough tickets to fill a playschool assembly hall.

The short term pain of finding a capable replacement whose defense isn’t an insult and who doesn’t throw strops or provide our rivals with motivation is more than with it, in the long term (there’s that key phrase again).
- leftarmspinner
  
  Skip, spot on. Follow the money and if it doesnt stack up, and in this case, Cooper has risked and lost much commercial value through this last 12 months, did anyone else prosper? NO. So it was simply dumb to do it.
  - johnny-boy
    
    They said the same about SBW LAS. How did that work out for SBW ?
    - Skip
      
      read the comment by mxyzptlk above. in short, SBW is a good player who isn’t a liability and doesn’t piss off half the team
  - mxyzptlk
    
    I’ve heard before that Nasser’s payment structure is pretty lean — something like he doesn’t take a percentage of the contract, or just something really out of the ordinary for a manager. Not sure what it is — maybe something like Greg Jackson in mma, where he just takes donations to his gym.
    
    Does anyone know what/how Nasser gets paid off managing just four athletes, and how that fits into this fiasco?
David Weir

All the losses the Wallabies have had are Quade’s fault, what a load of bullshit, get a life you guys. Toxic?? Lets put it this way, a crewman finds a hole in the hull of a motorboat and doesn’t tell the skipper, the owner, the passengers and the rest of the crew and the boat sinks, that’s toxic. The captain of the ship takes the blame. The whole problem is Dingo, bad selections, bad bench use, and bad game plans.
- murph
  
  Bingo
- leftarmspinner
  
  David, presumably you dont have a problem with people going public when involved in team sports. I do have a problem with this appoach.
  
  There is a better way to do it:
  
  1. Get yourself fit, play well and build influence within the team;
  2. THEN sit down with Deans/Nucifora et al, and discuss it.
  3. If they don’t listen, suggest incremental changes, slowly slowly catchie monkey;
  4. If this doesnt work, ultimately you can move on to a place where you get your way;
  5. Dont, I repeat, Dont bring the whole organisation down, particularly at a time when they are all under the pump in SA and Argentina, with so many injuries……….
  
  Team sport has unique elements to it. it is a collective unit on and off the field!!!!
  - BloodRed
    
    After that steaming bag of shit that was the Wallabies’ performance on the weekend I just don’t get the continuing slagging off of Quade. He simply confirmed what everyone, both the public and the media had been saying – there is something very wrong with the Wallabies’ set up. He is the bellwether in this. Although he may have used poorly chosen words (and medium) and he would be the first to admit that book smarts isn’t his thing, understanding and playing rugby most certainly is. Certainly performances since last years’ trinations back up his assertions and the rather lame counter evidence supposedly contradicting Quade’s claims ironically comes in the form of tweets from other wallabies.
    - Tim Fin
      
      Mate, he’s had one, maybe two good seasons, shagged a high profile swimmer and didn’t stand up at the World Cup. He’s a fecking liability and you forget that the Wallabies have been and will be around longer than QC.
    - BloodRed
      
      Sorry TF but what has that got to do with my point. And by the way, 2 good seasons and shagging Steph Rice looks pretty good on the resume to me.
Brumby Jack

How things have changed for QC in the last 2 years.

Might be timely to revisit this contract announcement from 2010.

http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/audio-qc-contract-announcement/

Would love to hear the 2012 version of the contract negotiations.
- Skip
  
  another article i thought of was Lance Free’s “on your bike Quade, we’ve got James O’Conner”. Can’t find the link right now but the essence was, QC is not irreplaceable
Jeff

Excellent article with which I totally agree.Just a pity beside it is an incorrect and out of date Rugby Championship Ladder.
Come on G & G you can do better than that.
- http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/ Matt Rowley
  
  Gimme a break – would you wanna change that?!
‘Boutbloodytime

Maybe Mr Nasser subscribes to the mantra ‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity’…which may be true of used car & snakeoil salesmen, but even a person of average intelligence realises this is a short term strategy at best.

Unfortunately, when your manager convinces you to enable him to do all your negotiating on your behalf, when handled well it can create a very lucratrive financial deal but can also backfire massively by isolating the ‘commodity’/player from the people who can ground them.

It seems QC has been isolated from stabilising influences who can pull him aside & get in his ear & maybe give him a bit of a reality check…it’s a shame someone like Link (who QC seems to admire & respect) hasn’t been able to have a quiet word…the guy is an obvious talent, needs his real friends around him at the mo to take the piss & bring him back to earth.

Unfortunately, he’s not the first & definitely wont be the last to believe the smoke blown up his arse by his publicists/manager/yes men & hangers on…he needs a dose of good old fashioned honesty…maybe he needs to give his Nan a call in NZ…dunno really, but his Foxsports interview mirrored his recent efforts on the field; uncertain, tentative, inconsistent & baffling…& in my opinion, he’s better than that, a lot better.

Man management, a mentoring process & a few hard nuts to get in the guys’ ears before each game to explain what it means to be a Wallaby & pull on the Gold jersey is what ALL the players need (especially the ‘superstars’) before any game, to keep them grounded & focussed…but it’s damn hard to do that when the head coach is a kiwi who can comprehend what it means to be an All Black, but not a Wallaby & the sport we all love is described as ‘work’ & like a business.

Rod Macqueen established a culture with the Wallabies, based around Aussie mateship, with pride & emotion displayed by former Wallabies as they handed out the team jerseys & gave the team talk, with reading passages from famous Australian campaigns in battle & finally culminating with John Williamson playing Waltzing Matilda after the national anthems…all of this was carefully planned for the benefit of the players & the fans, similar to the culture that Australian cricket enjoyed under Steve Waugh…even though we currently see half arsed attempts at recreating this culture at home tests, in comparison it comes across as a tad amateurish.

I remember Dean Jones talking in an interview after scoring 200+ in a test match in India, when he was vomiting at the end of each over, dehydrated & he said to Allan Border: ‘Skipper, I dunno if I can go on’…to which Border replied something like: ‘Are you an Australian? Find me someonbe with balls, maybe I need a Queenslander’…or words to that effect…even tho it’s a bit off topic, these Gen Yers, or whatever other tag we want to pin on them (whether it’s QC, KB, JOC or any other set of initials that are having brushes with authority), need a mentor, someone like a Border, Waugh, Dwyer, Horan, Gregan etc (probably not Alan Jones), to give them the support, guidance & mentoring they need. After all, most of these guys are kids thrust into the international spotlight without the emotional maturity to deal with it successfully.

Maybe if the ARU had a better policy of player support, mentoring & man management, guys like QC wouldn’t need to be relying on people like Mr Nasser to attempt to promote him using overhyped sensationalism.
- Jimmy
  
  Perhaps a “Paul Roos” kind of character would be a good influence? He seems to know how to build and maintain a club and a great culture.
  
  Could coach a bit too.
  - Tim Fin
    
    Are you referring to the No Dickhead Policy that Roos implemented?
    
    Bring it back I say!
- leftarmspinner
  
  Cooper isnt listening to those with the good advice and is listening to those with the bad advice.
  
  Remember how stoic Link was during the Waratahs saga. He never said a bad word about anyone. Just retained his dignity.
  
  What comes around goes around!
Grease gun

I can’t forgive him for the yellow jersey comment. I would like him gone. Plays for himself in life and sport.
- Chucka
  
  The yellow jersey comment got on my nerves a bit too…… To quote Bill Lawry (12th man) “that’s Australian f%&king gold my friend and don’t you f%&king forget it!!!!!!”
- Pedro
  
  He’s obviously just given away his REAL goal, a move into professional cycling. It’s non contact, so it seems more viable than other suggestions.
johnny-boy

Blah blah blah. Khoder Nasser is evil. Blah Blah blah, Quade Cooper is the devil. Blah Blah Blah Robbie Deans is a god that us useless Aussies should be grateful is gracing our shores trying to prop up our shit players who will never be as good as kiwis.

No wonder Australian rugby is going so well..

We don’t want that bloody Quade Cooper getitng people excited about rugby or going round saying he just likes playing rugby and having fun with his mates.

The mean and vindictive out of touch silly old farts in this game who seem determined to drive youngsters away from it and are determined not to have them grow up with any australian pride and passion in the wallabies by having a foreign coach, is astounding.
- Jimmy
  
  I’ve read your post 3 times and still don’t know what you were trying to say.
Nutta

JB

It was said earlier that it is not a QC vs Dingo discussion. They are two distinct subjects.

QC is petulant kid who is suffering poor form after a hard emotional & physical ride and so is lashing out and blaming everyone else for his issues. This is a young man who has had a gravy ride (comparatively) all through life up until the last 12mths. Now things are getting harder and he’s struggling with that. Don’t misunderstand me in that a lot of that baggage is self induced, but nonetheless it’s hardly been a quiet 12mths for him or one filled with joy. IMO he is fkn lucky to be where he is especially considering the free-kicks he’s been given along the way, but he obviously feels hard done by (like a lot of angry young men do – Christ knows I did too at his age). Poor diddums. But at the end of the day HE and HIS manager are rolling the dice in contract negotiations. That’s their choice. I think they are rolling losing dice but that’s their call and it’s entirely their accountability either way as AGENT & PLAYER

IMO that has some peripheral over-lap but pretty much fk-all to do with a coaching structure and leadership team that is clearly not getting results for our game at the highest level. Be it player fatigue leading to errors and higher injury rates, be it lack of 3rd tier to develop a production line of capable players and the odd nugget along the way, be it poor game-day tactical options against opponents, be it player/coach respect issues leading to deviations from game-plan, be it side-line managers who can’t count and lose track of replacements and/or be it poor relations with referees so we don’t have proactive knowledge of their rule interpretations at scrum/replacement/breakdown time – or a combination of all of it (gee do ya think?). This is a problem with the ARU and JON who are ultimately responsible for this as it is the holistic management of the GAME.

One issue is about a individual player. The other is about the guardianship of our national game. They overlap because it’s all within the world of rugby and many will in good-natured desparation look for a simple answer to a complex problem and thus cling to the “Cooper is Right” lifeline. But that’s as far as it goes and the argument has no ability to hold water. They are two distinct issues IMO (others may/will disagree and in the Republic Of Nutta they are allowed to. But they are wrong).

(And yes – I have a whole socio-political theoretical model for the Republic Of Nutta which would end many of our community ills and it includes Rugby as National Service, but that’s not for this forum)
- muffy
  
  Off topic, but … Rugby as a national service … and I would like to add … all backs to pack a scrum at least for one entire game….
  
  Sigh
  
  The world would be a different place… and order would be restored.
  - bill
    
    re scrum,If it was against other backs no problem, quite fun, against forwards, there wouldn’t be any backs left. I tried second row once, not fun.
johnny-boy

Very good post Nutta. One of the best I’ve ever read. The only disagreement I would have is that it’s the clinging to the ‘Cooper is Wrong’ lifeline that is the problem.

And I would be the first to say that the three Amigos should have been brought in to line earlier. But Deans was too weak. His coaching is so poor he needs these brilliant individuals to bail him out time and time again. And they know it and being young kids you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile so they can discover where the boundaries are and clearly there aren’t any..

JOC not turning up for World Cup announcement was a glaring sign there is little or no real respect for Deans or JON..

I think Eddie Jones and John Connolly have to accept as much blame as anybody else because their bloody mindedness to play crap rugby convinced us we had to get anybody but an Australian as coach.
QC-begone

Why are we wasting do much time and energy on Quade? If he doesn’t want to play “Good Bye”, end of.
Richo

Interesting article, but a bit short on facts and high on supposition.

Where is the evidence that Khoder told Cooper to Tweet what he did? That he told him he wouldn’t play for the Wallabies? I know this is his modus operandi, but it doesn’t actually make any logical sense unless there are big offers on the table that we don’t know about it. If there are, who would they be with? League? Japan? France? Why aren’t there stronger rumours?

If Khoder is trying to play out Quade’s contract situation in the public sphere, why hasn’t he or Quade said, “Bro, I can get $1 million a season in Japan from Blah blah blah”? Why would you give the Wallabies an out in not matching any other offer?

There’s a lot here that doesn’t make much sense.
- LeftArmSpinner
  
  richo, if you are earning 30% of a players earnings, you have a very big say. Managers, and paretic, one as controversial as KN, will be very clear as to what should be done.
  
  There are plenty of facts. His players have done runners. SBW now regrets leaving the chiefs. He was also on the bench for RWC final. He is going to roosters in feb, busted arse as they are and all.
  
  Cooepr said what he said and tweeted what he tweeted. Okay, maybe KN didnt control the tweet, but he arranged the Fox Sports appearance. He has ingored the ARU offer for three months.
  
  It is in coopers cntract that he can box.
  
  Is any of this what you would want from your manager?
- LeftArmSpinner
  
  rich, you say that it doesnt make sense. I agree and that lack of sense has two conclusions: Either it is a clever, very clever plan or it is plain dumb or it favours someone else other than QC ……I go the latter items. There is nothing smart about it.
  - Richo
    
    I agree with you that Nasser is a problem. What I don’t get is how any of this makes sense as a management ploy. One answer would be that Nasser is an idiot and has royally screwed this up. Another would be that QC has dug his own hole, but that Nasser has aided and abetted him.
    
    How do you know that Nasser set up the Fox interview? How do you know he fed Quadr his lines? At the moment, it seems to me the evidence is very circumstantial, which means we need to think about why this “strategy” might have been employed. I don’t see much that makes any sense as a strategy. What’s the end game? What was supposed to be achieved?
    
    Without clear answers to those an other questions, to my mind we need to ask what is more likely: a nonsensical “negotiating tactic” from a manager or a dumb series of comments from a frustrated player that spiraled out of control?
Cantab

Is it even possible for quade and $BW to sign jointly to an NRL club? Both would only accept big dollars, with the NRL salary cap the manager might need to pick up a bag of peanuts on game day to pay the rest of the squad.
- Nutta
  
  Cantab
  
  The Melbourne Storm have made 5 of the last 10 Mungo Grand Finals based off nothing more then having 3 “value players” and 14 robots of various descriptions
  
  You only need to spend $$ on 3 players and you can get any robot for peanuts for the other 14 spots
- LeftArmSpinner
  
  and cantab, the salary caps are well and truly spent for next year………
Harry

Fine article LAS and think you are 100% on the right track.
Going back, I was very suprised when Quade announced on the Rugby Club he had signed a 3 year deal with the Reds – before he had returned from injury! It was entirely against Khoder’s normal way of operating, and I thought at the time I betcha he’ll work out a way to sabotage this if Quade returns to his best. Sure and soon enough this has happened, enough though Cooper is well off being back to his best – and I wonder whether we ever will see him doing this skips and steps again.
The ARU’s offer is generous at, from all I can gather, around $750k a year. Lets look at the alternatives:
- Very much doubt, even with the increased salary cap, whether Quade would be able to get that in the NRL. Though thena gain there’s plenty of chumps (eg Chris Sandow) on half a mill a year so they could rationalise it away.
- Could probably get a million in Japan. But the standard of rugby is very low, with poor crowds. Quade loves his sushi though and for purely lining the pockets without much work, Japan’s hard to beat.
- Could probably get around 750 to a mill in France as well, though not sure the French clubs are splashing around that much cash?
-Speculation about South Africa I think is wishful thinking on Camp Cooper’s behalf.
Quade sprouting about toxic environments and inadequate facilities is just a smokescreen to prepare the ground to move out of the ARU, the last thing Khoder wants is a guy in a stable background working as part of a team for a shared long term goal. Khoder can point to Mundine’s lucrative and long career as proof of his abilities to produce great outcomes for his clients, and with SBW’s star ascendant Quade is probably highly impressed by these 2 and wants to emulate their success and pathway.
But he won’t, for reasons whiuch have been well articulated above.
In a wide open field I suspect we’ll see Quade in the NRL for a year, possibly 2, where he’ll do nothing special, then Japan.
Lose-lose for everybody really.
Bobas

Khoder Nasser sounds like Max Markson.

I think we’ll see Quade at the Roosters next year.
white lightning

remember boys Jack Gibsons qoute “you gotta fix the front office first”.
Mate this problem comes from the top.
Oz

Just an alternative thought – and not sounding like a reds tragic… But maybe some of QC’s frustrutions is having legitimate contenders for the green and gold in Tapui and Harris who he has regularly played with, not even get a look in….especially in place of players like horne who are injured and lacking form.
- sarina
  
  Thats “tapuai”
chuck

QC’s behaviour can be explained as cognitive dissonance. He believes he is a great player and therefore if he makes mistakes it can’t be him. His teammates are also good players therefore the only answer must be the environment or coach. That for him psychologically must be the only answer and reason is unlikely to affect that view. And yes we all do it most of us are just not so public.

As for the managers reason i can’t see any, his boxing obviously depends on him being a top sportsman in another code otherwise there is no draw. The rest of the sorry tale has been well covered here.

In all of this I am minded of the expression “never attribute to malice that which can be explained adequately by stupidity”
- johnny-boy
  
  The only trouble with that theory Chuck is that Quade probably thinks that some of his teammates aren’t all that good and it’s enormously frustrating for him to have to play with guys who don’t really deserve to be there.
  
  Players at that level know only to well who deserves to be there and who doesn’t and when they see clumsy favorites continually getting picked based on contradicting criteria espoused by the coaches, guess what happens ?
  - sarina
    
    Problem with that is quade doesnt deserve to be there
Oz

Not at all condoning the means of his behaviour by the way
chuck

QC’s behaviour can be explained as cognitive dissonance. He believes he is a great player and therefore if he makes mistakes it can’t be him. His teammates are also good players therefore the only answer must be the environment or coach. That for him psychologically must be the only answer and reason is unlikely to affect that view. And yes we all do it most of us are just not so public.
As for the managers reason i can’t see any, his boxing obviously depends on him being a top sportsman in another code otherwise there is no draw. The rest of the sorry tale has been well covered here.
In all of this I am minded of the expression “never attribute to malice that which can be explained adequately by stupidity”
chuck

Damn a double post which just goes to show my stupidity.
- muffy
  
  I put it down to malice :)
bill

I don’t know, if you’re Quade in the wallabies world cup year it probably is a toxic environment, look around you, McCabe crash ball, McCalman openside and that’s your road map? That’s a diabolical situation if you’re a 5/8 who puts guys through holes and challenges the line.

If you’re McCalman or McCabe the same environment must be akin to going back to the womb though.

The public sphere isn’t the right place to go though and Quade deserves the tweets from Mitchell and Moore.
A. Fox-Russell

Have to say this is one of the more fascinating threads I have seen on the site, and there have been some good ones.

I am with ’boutbloodytime re needing a good old fashioned hard-graft mentor to steady the QC express that is careering out of control (although, Link was mentioned and I am sure he is in touch with Quade in some capacity, he seems pretty well plugged in to all Reds-related goings on I think).

I actually am finding it quite sad to see all this playing out as the guy is a complete child and struggling under his own steadily inflating ego (which in turn is being stoked by Nasser), but as we all know, he can transform our back line into something special when on song. So it’s painful to see the team performing so badly and clearly having deep-seeded issues higher up in the ARU, and having Quade stick the boot in publicly at the same time, whether coerced or not. It’s not helpful, no matter how “honest” and “telling it how it is” you think he’s being.

That said, and maybe I am being overly blinkered here, I can help but feel like we’re in the middle of bit of a cathartic storm the other side of which we could emerge a leaner, battle-hardened side. There’s nothing like a tonne of injuries to really lay bare the character and depth of a side and give exposure to a Wallabies side that otherwise would never have seen the other side of the selection table.

Last weekend was ugly. But what a humbling and raw experience for Hooper/Shipperly and the like. This weekend we could well lose. But what better way to show there is a deep need for change. I am no Deans hater, in fact I still find it hard to accept where we have ended up, but even I am now calling for the hook.

In short, this tour is the way to demonstrate that there is something wrong, not via Tweets and bone-head comments on TV. A small part of me hopes the flames rise even higher as it just may be the path we have to tread to front up to the Lions a battle-hardened team mongrels who are hungry to do the green and yellow ( ;) ) proud.

As for Quade, I say pull your head in and get behind the team and your training and you are warmly welcome to be my Wallabies 5/8 (or at least in the squad). If not, phhhhhark off, we’ll be fine.
- Nutta
  
  A few years back I was at 2 lunches about 6mths apart where the speakers both said the same thing. The speakers were Brad Thorn at one and Shane Webke at the other. They both lamented the maketing push for “better product” had meant the game of rugby league was sped up (amongst other things). The nett result of a faster game was that older players were weeded out quicker and so a calming and mature influence was lost resulting in a lot of the behavioural issues we see in pro-teams today. Sharpy is the only Elder in the group and he’s only still there by luck rather than design. I think they had a point especially as a full-of-it kid will listen to a team-mate before a fuddy from management (especially if that team-mate benches twice the smart-arses bodyweight)
gerard flanagan

Nasser is a card carrying goose. Joke is on Quade, who, if he’d signed when he should have, would have been set up for life.

In saying that I’d love to see him play at the third most successful and continious RLClub. The Mighty Chooks.
Nutta

Mr Nassar
How’s your negotiations going on behalf of Apples Cooper now? Do you remember him? He was the kid all coiled up with frustration, injury and poor performance that you strung out waiting for a better deal. All panning out as you expected? I’m interested in your thoughts on how Beagle Beale went in the last 2 tests?

Mr Cooper
How’s your boxing skills? Did you enjoy watching the national side come 2nd in the rugby championship? How’s your contract negotiations going now? Are you happy with your manager and how he is obviously serving your best interests?
- johnny-boy
  
  Ya might have spoken just a bit too soon Nutta :)
http://lezdate.sapphiclounge.com/ToniaOrt Lisette

Do you have a spam problem on this blog; I also am a blogger, and I was curious
about your situation; many of us have created some nice procedures and we
are looking to exchange strategies with others, why not shoot me an e-mail if
interested.
swiss

Big balls indeed for a nom de plume article, why don’t you sign your name to such a fearless and incisive article captain courageous?
Cooper although not exactly ‘establishment’ material has provided good service, so what if he doesn’t fit the mould and so what if he says out loud what we’re all thinking…..rugby has degenerated into an listless pile of shit.
Programmed drones playing the most unimaginably dull rugby ever seen. He could stay the safe route, keep his mouth shut, tow the line, turn up and collect his pay check and one day die still wondering ‘what if’.
I say he has earned the right to speak his mind, right or wrong, and windbags like you with your highly inflated, exalted, self opinions should do just that….keep em to yourSELF. No one is interested oxygen thief
http://twitter.com/LeftArmSpinner LeftArmSpinner

Now that Cooper has had his day in court, and received, apologetically, his medicine, I look forward to the next steps of he and Kodder. Kodder, now split from his major boxing client, Anthony Mundine, may find that he loses Cooper as well. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/boxing-mma/anthony-mundine-splits-from-manager-khoder-nasser/story-fndeeimb-1226431715700

This, in my view, would be a very good thing.
http://twitter.com/LeftArmSpinner LeftArmSpinner

and now, of course, the folly of SBW’s strategy of trying to play 12 months of the year in three different sports is coming home to roost. What must the Roosters be thinking? Well, now that I think about it, they clearly have not seen a problem from the very start, so why would that change now????? Except that SBW is an injured athlete and now has no contract to pay the bills once Japanese contract ends…………… How bloody stupid!!!!!!
Geck

Wow!! How true a note this is ringing now. Good on the Wallabies for offering a package that reflects his true value to the set up going forward. One can’t help that feel sorry for Quade and wonder if he was not ill advised last year and put pen to paper last year for more than one year would he be in a better position now on field and in a better head space… Management Gabbling with young peoples lives.