Bob Cooper (rugby league)

Bob Cooper

Personal information
Full name	Robert 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 with St George in the Sydney Football League in 1983 and won the reserve competition's best and fairest award.^[3]

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.^[4]

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. Mack, John (4 December 1983). "Cooper kicks off with a new outlook". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 47. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
4. "VEST, KEATO, COGGER ALL HONOURED". weststigers.com.au. Retrieved 30 June 2011.