QUADE'S BILL A MILL
PARRAMATTA's offer is worth close to $1 million a year for Quade Cooper - and it includes a compensation payment of $150,000 for this year if the ARU suddenly dumps him if he chooses to head to league. The Eels have been playing down their role and the amount of wooing they have been doing behind the scenes. But the level of interest the club has shown is enormous. They have car deals and third-party sponsors lined up. On Thursday night Paul Osborne picked up Cooper from the Wallabies team hotel and gave him the grand tour of the Eels' facilities. It's my understanding that Cooper came away very impressed. Not only has Jarryd Hayne been used in the negotiation process but Timana Tahu has also had a behind-the-scenes role - a clever tactic by the Eels. It was two weeks back that we first raised the prospect of Cooper switching to rugby league, after the ARU showed him no love with its contract offer. It now appears that he will get the dollar respect he deserved before the Eels stepped in. There is no doubt that Cooper is the key to the Wallabies' hopes of making any kind of impact at next year's Rugby World Cup, and the ARU's initial offer was nothing short of an insult. He was looking at a base of less than $300,000 - that was the combined offer of the QRU and the ARU. He then asked for the kind of money that Matt Giteau is on and the ARU has had to come running. If he plays in the Test matches next year and the RWC, he can earn close to $900,000. That's the sort of money a player with his match-winning ability deserves.
