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Quade Cooper breaks silence on Brad Thorn with an anything but subtle social media post


Cooper and Thorn lock horns in 2011 (Getty Images)
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Quade Cooper has finally broken his silence on his exile from the Queensland Reds at the hands of Brad Thorn.

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The Wallaby flyhalf was famously deemed surplus to requirements by Thorn at the start of the 2018 Super Rugby season, but Cooper had resisted having a pop at the former All Black secondrow.

Up until now that is.

Today he posted on instagram with an image of himself handing off Thorn, the message below reading: “Sometimes you are forced out of the place you love but thank god there’s more than one place that loves me.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Sometimes you are forced out of the place you love but thank god there’s more than one place that loves me ??

A post shared by Quade Cooper (@quadecooper) on

The post comes with the expectation that the Melbourne Rebels are to unveil Cooper as a new signing, with it being widely rumoured that Rugby Australia rubber stamped his move south today.

Fellow stars of the game – Ugo Monye, James O’Connor, Drew Mitchell, Reece Hodge and Simon Zebo all responded to the post, with Zebo saying: “Shots fired”. #

Read how the Thorn Cooper feud started.

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In February Thorn publicly spoke to reporters for the first time about his decision to drop Cooper.

“I thought Quade last year… the team struggled, his game management, his attack, his defence (struggled)” Thorn explained.

Quade Cooper during the round seven NRC match between Brisbane City and Canberra Vikings at Easts Rugby Club on October 14, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia. (Getty Images)

“I’m in this role — sometimes you’ve got to make tough decisions.”

“I played against him as a Crusader, as an All Black. He’s played over 100 games for this club — he’s had success here,” he said.

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“He’s a guy who’s served this club really well.”

He still has another year to run on his Reds contract – a reported $800,000 per season one at that. His dropping effectively made him the most expensive domestic club player in Australian Rugby Union.

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Phantom 34 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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