Bob Cooper (rugby league)

Bob Cooper
Personal information
Full name Bob Cooper
Nickname Longback
Playing information
Height 196cm
Position Second-row
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1977–82 Wests Magpies 76 14 0 0 42
1984 North Sydney Bears 4 0 0 0 0
Total 80 14 0 0 42
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
1980 New South Wales 1 0 0 0 0
Source: Rugby League Project and Yesterday's Hero

Bob Cooper is a former professional rugby league player in the New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) competition. Cooper primarily played in the back row for Western Suburbs Magpies, North Sydney Bears and the New South Wales State of Origin team.

Cooper was selected to represent New South Wales for the inaugural Origin game in 1980.[1]

In 1982, Cooper was given the equal-longest suspension in rugby league history after he ran in to join a brawl and left three Illawarra Steelers flattened during a match at Wollongong Showground. Chairman of the NSWRFL's judiciary, Jim Comans, when handing down a fifteen-month suspension to Cooper, said, "Acts such as these must be obliterated from the game, and I'll begin by obliterating you." [2]

Cooper attempted to keep fit during his suspension by playing Australian Rules football but after only four games with North Sydney in 1984 he dislocated his shoulder and retired from football.

Cooper was named in the second-row when the Western Suburbs Magpies named their Team of the Eighties.[3]

References

  1. "State Of Origin - Game 1, 1980". Rugby League Tables. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  2. "No such thing as a free punch". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2006-08-26. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  3. "VEST, KEATO, COGGER ALL HONOURED". weststigers.com.au. Retrieved 30 June 2011.