Dave Wessels – ‘Quade Cooper suits the way we want to play’

Melbourne Rebels head coach Dave Wessels says new recruit Quade Cooper is the type of player that ‘suits the way we want to play’.

Cooper will reunite with Will Genia with the pair having steered the Reds to a maiden Super Rugby title in 2011. And Cooper said he was excited to reunite with his old mate Genia.

“It’s exciting and hopefully we can make some new memories,” he said.

With Jack Debreczeni having recently left the Rebels for the Chiefs, it has left a hole at fly-half and Wessels said he was hoping if everything went to plan that Cooper could fill that void.

“We feel Quade is the type of player that we feel suits the way we want to play,” Wessels said.

“Whether that happens remains to be seen because there’s a lot of hard work between where we are now and actually implementing that.

“If Quade’s prepared to work hard we are going to get on fine.”

After having had a tumultous relationship with ex-Reds boss Brad Thorn, Cooper said he ‘had a lot of respect’ for Wessels.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him, with him taking the time to come up and get to know me as a person and talk to me about football and we were able to work out the future,” Cooper said.

“I was grateful that he was able to make his own judgment.”

Wessels said it was his responsiblity to bring out the best in Cooper and Genia as a combination.

“It’s my job to create the framework and then within that you expect players of world class calibre such as Quade and Will to produce some magic,” Wessels said.

“That’s probably the difference between the really top teams as those players produce the magic at the right time.”