| Matt Cooper playing for the Dragons in 2009 | ||||||
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Matthew Cooper | |||||
| Born | 18 April 1979 Port Kembla, New South Wales, Australia |
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| Height | 186 cm (6 ft 1 in) | |||||
| Weight | 98 kg (15 st 6 lb) | |||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Position | Centre | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 2000– | St. George Illawarra | 220 | 116 | 0 | 0 | 464 |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 2003–2004 | Country Origin | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 2004–2010 | New South Wales | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 2004–2006 | Australia | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 2010 | NRL All Stars | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| As of 7 December 2011 | ||||||
| Source: RLP | ||||||
Matt Cooper (born 18 April 1979 in Port Kembla, New South Wales) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays for the St George Illawarra Dragons of the National Rugby League. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative centre, he has played his entire career to date at the Dragons, with whom he won the 2010 NRL Premiership.
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Cooper originally gained an interest in rugby league while watching and supporting the Western Suburbs Magpies, the club his father supported. He began playing rugby league at the age of six for his local junior side, the Shellharbour Sharks, while also enjoying athletics and being actively involved with his local surf club with his close cousin Corey.[1]
After moving to Illawarra, Cooper began supporting the Illawarra Steelers. Cooper was originally signed on to the Illawarra Steelers club as a teenager prior to their merger with the St. George Dragons at the end of 1998. He made his debut for the merged St George Illawarra club in 2000 at the age of twenty-one.
After the merger of the St George Dragons and the Illawarra Steelers clubs in 1999, Cooper was signed onto the new club, quickly impressing club officials and was awarded his first grade debut in the opening round of the 2000 season against local rivals the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, he had an uneventful debut game without managing to score.
After making his debut Cooper was replaced in the Dragons line-up for the second game of the season and was not re-called until round seven in which he crossed the line for his first try against the New Zealand Warriors, Cooper in total scored two tries in limited appearances in the 2000 season. The 2001 season was not a successful one for Cooper, with minor injuries causing him to miss many games. He returned just before the finals, scoring two tries in the semi-final victory over the Bulldogs.
In 2002, Cooper was able to retain his position in the team for the majority of the season and finished the year with a total of seven tries from nineteen games.
Cooper held down his spot for the duration of the 2003 season. In total, Cooper scored eleven tries including three doubles during the regular season, he then tasted his first representative honour being selected to play for Country in the annual City and Country Origin. Although the season eventually finished on a low note both for the Dragons and Cooper with another injury yet again forcing him out of the side. Though all was not lost for Matt as he was nominated for the Dragons player of the year, eventually losing out to Ben Hornby while he picked up the Geoff Selby Memorial NRL Coaches Award.
The 2004 season yet again was one of improvement and new opportunity, Cooper began the season well scoring a total of eight tries in six matches for the Dragons including four tries in a single match against the reigning premiers the Penrith Panthers. At the conclusion of the season he had scored a total of seventeen tries and subsequently impressing the international selectors so much that he gained a spot in the Australian side for the 2004 tour of Great Britain, France and the United States, though he did not play a competitive match on the tour.
His form continued well into the season and he was yet again selected in the New South Wales State of Origin side playing in all three matches of the series and scoring his first try for his state. He finished the season well with thirteen tries from twenty games and yet again was selected to go on the Australian tour of Great Britain.
Injury yet again hit Cooper early on in the 2006 season in the form of a damaged hamstring while playing in the season opening fixture against the Wests Tigers. Cooper was forced to miss several fixtures for the Dragons and the opening game of the State of Origin series.
Cooper scored the only try in the Dragons' 8–1 win over the Parramatta Eels on a rainy Friday night, the first night game hosted at Oki Jubilee Stadium since 1999. The games was scoreless for seventy minutes.
In Round 26 of the 2010 NRL season Cooper scored his 100th try for the St. George Illawarra Dragons becoming only the second player to achieve this feat for the club behind Nathan Blacklock.
In the first round of the 2010 finals, St George Illawarra Dragons defeated the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 28-0, with Cooper scoring two tries, surpassing Nathan Blacklock's record of 100 tries to become the Dragons highest try scorer, with 102 tries.
On 3 October 2010, Cooper was a part of the Dragons side that beat the Sydney Roosters 32-8 in the 2010 NRL Grand Final, helping the joint venture club claim its first premiership. This was also Cooper's 100th career win out of a possible 199 NRL games.
The following February Cooper travelled with the Dragons to England to play the Super League champions, Wigan in the 2011 World Club Challenge. He scored a try in St George Illawarra's victory. Cooper ended the 2011 season as St. George Illawarra's leading tryscorer with 14.
During the 2004 season after several solid performances for his club side, Matt was called up for the third and deciding State of Origin match of the series for New South Wales replacing Luke Lewis to partner his clubmate Mark Gasnier in the centres after the side had lost the second match.
After having an impressive debut match in the 2004 series, Cooper was subsequently re-selected for New South Wales in the 2005 State of Origin, playing in all three matches of the series helping New South Wales to another series win scoring one try along the way in game two.
Cooper was selected in the starting line-up for the 2006 State of Origin series but after failing to recover from a hamstring injury sustained during the round one NRL fixture he was forced to withdraw from the squad being replaced by winger Eric Grothe, Jr. from the Parramatta Eels[2].
After missing the first game of Origin for New South Wales, Cooper failed to be called up for game two with Grothe retaining his position after a solid performance in game one. On 11 June it was announced that Cooper had been called up as 18th man on stand by for the game.
In 2010 he got a recall to the Origin side. He played Games 1 and 2 but sustained an injury which kept him out of Game 3.
After some impressive performances in the 2004 season for the St George side, coach Nathan Brown recommended that he should be selected for the Australian rugby league side to coach Wayne Bennett[3], though he eventually opted for the usual more experienced international representatives.
With the conclusion of the 2004 season and some impressive performances with both the Dragons and the New South Wales State of Origin side Cooper was selected in the Australian squad for the Tri-Nations tour of Great Britain, France and the United States but did not make an appearance for the duration of the tour.
At the conclusion of the 2005 season, Cooper was again selected to go on to tour of Great Britain with the Australian national side. He appeared in the first three test matches on the tour scoring five tries.
Cooper was once again selected to play for Australia in the mid-season test match on 5 May 2006, he scored once during a dominating 50 to 12 win over New Zealand. This was the last time Cooper has represented Australia.[1]
In August 2008, Cooper was named in the preliminary 46-man Kangaroos squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.[2][3]
He was selected for Country in the City vs Country match on 8 May 2009.[4] However, he did not play in the match after withdrawing with injury.[5]
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