Quade Cooper reveals Brad Thorn’s brutal decision prompted retirement thoughts before career rebirth

Wallabies pivot Quade Cooper has revealed how he came back from the brink of retirement at the age of 30 to still be playing six years later.

The fly-half was always considered a huge talent at age-grade level and it was no surprise to see him make his international debut at the age of 20.

Cooper went on to become a key player for Australia, but the playmaker struggled to maintain that consistency and was prone to brain fades.

A bust-up with Michael Cheika in 2017 then saw him exiled before Dave Rennie brought him back in 2021.

He would go on to enjoy an international renaissance and appeared set to play a crucial role at the 2023 Rugby World Cup, only for new head coach Eddie Jones to drop him ahead of the tournament.

Up until that point, it had been a remarkable turnaround by Cooper, who discussed how his attitude to the sport changed as his career progressed.

Too much partying

“I didn’t hate weights but you kind of got away with being light. You wanted to be light and nimble, but the game is a collision sport, so your body needs to be built strong enough to withstand the collisions,” he told the Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast.

“During that time, we just wanted to be out having fun all the time, so spending that amount of time working on your body, on top of the amount of time you’re spending on the field working on your skills, there wasn’t enough time for us to have a good time as well.

“That was one of the reasons we didn’t really enjoy the gym.

“When I went over to France (to play for Toulon in 2015), the same sort of thing. I was even worse because all I wanted to do was party, so when I came back to Australia, when all the stuff at the Reds happened (banished by head coach Brad Thorn), I genuinely felt like I was going to retire.

“I was at this point where I was 30, I’m not playing well. I had no help, no support from anyone.

“I had no facilities, no team, no team-mates, so I was kind of at this point of my career going, ‘f***, this is the end’.”

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After being discarded by Thorn, who felt that Cooper was ‘fifth choice fly-half’, the playmaker decided to alter his approach and completely dedicate himself to the sport.

“When I went back and played club footy, I really started to enjoy helping other players. At club footy, they’ve got nothing, no resources and the coaching is very minimal, but everybody’s giving their time,” he said.

“What they’ve got an abundance of is guys willing to give time. For me, that was a huge point where everything changed in terms of what I want to do with my time.

“When I started, I said: ‘I know I have to be strong to play this season and if I’m going to be playing club footy, I can’t just be blending in.’

“It couldn’t be, ‘yeah he seems a bit better than those players’, I had to be the best player on the field every single week.”

What makes players great

Covid then shut the sport down for a few months, but that benefited Cooper, who elevated his training to another level.

“That was a huge crossroads for me, but then Covid was where I took that to a new level,” he added.

“We couldn’t do anything else so I really took time into learning about my diet, learning about how I was training, learning about how I could get better.

“It was about really loving the process of it, rather than going, ‘okay, the part that I love is playing the game on Saturday.’ I had to find love in the process of Monday through to Friday.

“No one’s ever questioned my ability or talent, and we never questioned anyone’s ability or talent, but the difference between the guys who are good or great are what they do Monday through to Friday.”

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