The bloke is savagely attacked by the media no matter what he does.
You imply that he does something others don't. How much vitriol does foley cop from professional media for example.
This "massive douchebag" is also on of Aus and QLD rugby's greatest ambassadors and one of the best at engaging fans whilst also being at the centre of Aus and QLD rugby's greatest successes during his career.
List me all the great wins Quade HAS NOT played in?
Yet still have articles targeting him and with false facts. Professional journalists run articles saying he's a weak defender and foley will improve defence, despite the fact foley is statistically inferior defensively. Then articles saying that Foley's boot will be a great improvement, despite the fact that when kicking conversions (ie. When you can't decide whether to take it or not) Foley's statistics are inferior.
Don't get me wrong this isn't an attack on foley as I don't think his statistics in these facets are poor, it's just a comment how Quade will be derided and stated as a fact to be inferior by journalists regardless of what he does.
I don't think any supporter of his has felt he has been great the last 2 games either, people just take offence to the way he is singled out and viciously brought down.
Push somebody enough, they'll probably push back eventually.
It's not just the last two games, it's been the last two years...
Foley's kicking was pretty bad today, but it's a coin toss with him, Cooper and Beale - none of them are world class kickers. Other than that though, Foley had a decent game, but not a terrible one.
As for Quade and defence, his stats are a little furry because he also attempts less tackles than guys like Foley and on top of that he actively avoids contact with the ball. As I said before - at points in the game he wasn't just running sideways but BACKWARDS and away from forward support!
The most telling thing for me was that we actually looked BETTER when he was Yellow Carded (as soft as that was) and we were down to 14 men.
As for the tweet - well yeah he cops a bit, but he's a Khoder Nasser player and so it's part of the douche-central inner sanctum of Australian sport, and I reckon that's got more to do with his attitude than copping flak and needing to push back.
This is another reason I'd prefer Giteau - he just seems way more mature now and has just become so much more measured in the way he responds to his position in the Australian rugby set-up. There's a level of entitlement with Cooper (which the tweet illustrates) that isn't there at all with Giteau anymore, and from a team culture perspective it's guys like Giteau you want more than the Nasser influenced loose canons.
I'm not sure what the tweet was in response to, but it wasn't the "media" - I haven't spotted an article "attacking" him following that game, even if they may have commented on some of his poor decision making.
And no, Cooper isn't one of Australian Rugby's "greatest ambassadors" any more than Kurtley Beale or James O'Connor are. Guys like Pocock, Hooper, Folau and Genia - they're great ambassadors for our code. Cooper is not.
