Cooper in dash to check out Eels
By
Brad Walter
SMH
August 21, 2010
Leaving ... Quade Cooper departs for South Africa with the Wallabies.
Photo: Peter Rae
PARRAMATTA officials are willing to wait until Quade Cooper's return from South Africa in a fortnight to learn whether he will switch codes. Less than 24 hours before he boarded the Wallabies' flight for Johannesburg, Cooper is understood to have travelled to Parramatta on Thursday night for a look at the club's set up.
The Wallabies' team management, aware that the 22-year-old five-eighth was planning to meet Eels officials, made the visit difficult by scheduling a mid-afternoon weights session yesterday after the players had completed ball-work training, and he was later required to attend a team meeting.
However, the
Herald was told yesterday that Cooper had made the trip to Parramatta and is believed to have been picked up at the Wallabies team hotel in Coogee by Eels officials and dropped back several hours later.
Whether he makes the switch now or waits until after next year's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Parramatta officials are convinced Cooper eventually intends to play in the NRL and have tabled a massive offer that could enable Australia's Super 14 player of the year to earn up to $1 million through third-party deals.
However, the ARU has increased its initial $360,000 offer, which includes $150,000 from the Queensland Reds.
It is understood Cooper would now be guaranteed more than $500,000 if he re-signed and could earn an additional $180,000 in match payments if he played every Test for Australia next year.
The ARU and Parramatta want Cooper to sign for three years, but ARU boss John O'Neill indicated this week that a one-year deal with an option for a second year might be acceptable to ensure the Wallabies playmaker was available for the World Cup.
Given his standing in the team, the ARU cannot afford to lose Cooper before the World Cup and may again increase its offer to prevent him becoming the first Wallaby to switch codes for the first time since Garrick Morgan in 1995.
But Eels officials are also desperate to sign a top-rate playmaker to partner Daniel Mortimer in the halves next season and had expressed interest in Cooper Cronk, Trent Barrett, Brett Kimmorley and Matt Orford.
The Eels are believed to have offered Cronk $850,000 and that deal has now been made available to Cooper, who is said to have been insulted by the ARU's initial offer of a $100,000 increase on his $260,000-per-season deal.
Suggestions Cooper may struggle in South Africa, thereby affecting his negotiating power, appear wide of the mark, as he has been man-of-the-match in three of the four Super 14s matches he has played there.
Link:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/cooper-in-dash-to-check-out-eels-20100820-138ug.html
