Matt Cooper wore the St George Illawarra jersey in 243 games over 14 seasons.
They didn’t come any tougher and no-one wore it with more pride.
One game, in 2011 against the Wests Tigers at Kogarah, he played through the excruciating pain of fractured cheekbone and a broken hand because he loved the jersey.
It’s why the
current crisis at the Dragons is hurting him as much as the above injuries.
“There’s no pride in the jersey anymore,” he says.
Junior players wanting to quit, old players slagging off on the club.
Only
three turning up for the club’s presentation night. Another failed year in missing the finals.
Doubts about the coach’s future and now a
chairman using club letterhead to write a reference for a shamed ex-player who used a sex hotline to share child abuse material.
“It’s disgraceful,” says Cooper as we begin to chat about the broken culture at his old club.
Although he left the Dragons on bad terms in 2013 – promised a job that was never delivered - the former NSW Blues and Kangaroos centre insists he is not speaking as a disgruntled ex-player.
Matt Cooper has unloaded on his former club.
“It’s terrible where the club is right now,” Cooper said.
“From 2001 to 2011 we only missed the finals twice. Since then we’ve only made them twice.
“Obviously it changed when Wayne Bennett left. It all starts from the top with the hierarchy. That’s where the culture comes from.”
Cooper finds it hard to believe that local juniors
Tyrell Sloan and Jayden Sullivan would want out.
“In the old days kids would do anything to wear the Red V,” he said, “They grew up with a dream to play for the Dragons.
“Now there’s no pride in the jersey. There’s no team-first attitude.
“You can see that when these players are asking to be released.
“And I’m not blaming them. There is a reason why they want to go elsewhere.”
Sloan and Sullivan have since withdrawn their release requests.
We move on to the club’s presentation night debacle. Only three players from a 30-man squad bothered to turn up to see Ben Hunt awarded the prestigious Dragons Medal.
“When I read that I thought it couldn’t be true,” he said, “Seriously, three players. It’s a joke.
“If that doesn’t show there’s something seriously wrong, what does?
Craig Young’s character reference for Brett Finch. Credit: Supplied.
Dragons chairman Craig Young. Picture: NRL Imagery
“I loved this club so much and it is really sad to watch stuff like this happening.”
On Craig Young, the chairman who wrote a reference on club letterhead to disgraced former player Brett Finch, Cooper unloads again.
“He should stand down,” Cooper said.
“For the chairman of the board to give a reference to a person who used a sex chat service to send sick messages about young boys is just disgusting.
“To do it on the club’s letterhead is even worse. If I was still a player I would have spoken up about it. In fact I would have even had to consider my position at the club.”
We start talking about the culture from a decade ago.
When he played alongside great leaders like Beau Scott, Brett Morris, Jason Nightingale, Ben Hornby, Dean Young, Ben Creagh and Michael Weyman. Men who bled for the jersey.
“I often think about the game I played with a fractured cheekbone and a broken hand,” he said.
Matt Cooper is shatter at the current state of his former club.
“The doctor looked at it at halftime and said it was a depressed fracture. He said my hand was broken as well.
“I said to Wayne I’m going to keep going. That’s what the jersey meant to us. It’s what you do when you’re playing for a club you love.
“I had surgery after the game. Eight screws in my hand, four in my cheekbone. I was out for six weeks. I can look back now with great pride that I didn’t quit that game.
“It’s the way it was back then. No one quit.”
Cooper’s body suffered so much physical punishment over his 14 seasons.
In retirement he became addicted to painkiller medication and spiralled into depression.
It’s seven years now since he touched a painkiller. He is again strong and healthy.
The only pain these days is witnessing the capitulation of his beloved old club.
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