Sorry if this has been mentioned before. The Sydney Sun-Herald for April 7 says

"Warrington prop Mike Cooper is the latest player to confirm that he is prepared to leave the Super League in the hope of testing himself in the world's best competition. The 24-year old prop who has more than 100 Super League appearances to his credit has already begun preliminary discussions with several clubs and intends deciding his future within the next fortnight...."

Before anyone asks, no I don't have a link. I am quoting from the print edition, The Sun-Herald is the Sunday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald so the full story may be on their website.

That's Jack, his brother, isn't it?

www.zerotackle.com/nrl/more-poms ... -nrl-9020/ linky. personally i wouldn't mind him leaving, i would be proud we produced some talent that the best clubs in the world are interested in. good luck to him. The only thing is how much would he play? It would seem a similar move to scott moore going to the cowboys, but with cooper having a lot less off field controversies.

www.zerotackle.com/nrl/more-poms ... -nrl-9020/ linky. personally i wouldn't mind him leaving, i would be proud we produced some talent that the best clubs in the world are interested in. good luck to him. The only thing is how much would he play? It would seem a similar move to scott moore going to the cowboys, but with cooper having a lot less off field controversies.

Going off his display against Saints away in the GF Eliminator last season, he should be getting in the England squad and would be a good player in the NRL. Going off most of the rest of his professional career he'd be desperately out of his depth in the NRL. Going off his performance at Leeds yesterday you could pick any prop from Oxford Hemel or Oldham and your get a higher quality performance.

Good luck to the Mike, if he gets the chance grab I say...he has put his time in at Warrington why shouldn't take the opportunity if offered, I know I would !

Good luck to the Mike, if he gets the chance grab I say...he has put his time in at Warrington why shouldn't take the opportunity if offered, I know I would !

I really don't see why he is rated as a player.

A few years ago i thought he had all the things needed to go right to the top. Unfortunately he hasn't progressed at all. Games seem to pass him by these days all to easily.

lately he looks like a middle of the road forward with hardly any bite. Lacking in size, power, pace.. and the one thing he used to have in abundance....aggression.

If he left now, i don't think we would miss him.

Cast your minds back, boys and girls to the CC semi v the Worriers in '09. Cooper had a great game, and looked like he could kick on to very good things.....


.....and from there on in, it's been stagnation.
The next two seasons, he merely treaded water, and I thought we've got another Pickersgill. Local lad, unable to reach the next level.

Another two years have passed, again, and Cooper's reputation has not increased any more. Time to go, fella. Thanks for your efforts.

Surely this is a wind-up, re the NRL. He'll be a county player at best, probably not getting on the bench for an NRL team's third tier squad. Mike Cooper in the NRL? Tommy Cooper's got more chance.

Still young for a prop forward (year younger than Chris Hill) and I'm sure that his best years are ahead of him. If he went to the NRL know I'd imagine he'd struggle to hold down a place in the first team but with Ryan Tandy in mind you never know.

I'd be sorry to see him go at this stage of his career. For all the dismissing of him above I like to see a list of other props in Super League of his age who people consider better players.

It's been reported in this weeks RL press as well, double-checked the date wasn't the 1st April edition.

If clubs down under are seriously viewing Cooper as NRL material then I can only assume his agent is claiming to clubs that he is a long-lost member of the Burgess clan, or the NRL clubs salary cap is being reduced to £1.50.

Wow, Cooper is this weeks escaped goat

Bit of an easy target by no means the worst, some players with 'bigger' reputations need to look at themselves a lot harder than MC does.

Perhaps the fact that he views himself as NRL material, is indicative of why he hasn't progressed more rapidly and has always seemed somewhat short of allies amongst the fans (compare and contrast Chris Hill).

Oh wow...do you actually watch the matches? He's had one poor half which was Wigan in the first half, since then he has been one of our lead forwards with Hill and currie, if we lost him it would be a massive loss, and leave a big gap in our forward pack, he's a work horse who never gives up, good luck to him, cracking player very very underrated, maybe this is what he needs

He doesn't necessarily need to get into one of the NRL first teams yet anyway. He can probably make more money playing in reserve grade NRL than he does in SL.