Matt Cooper

I’warra junior (Shellharbour) represented Country Origin in successive years in 2003-04. A hard-running centre, Cooper scored a club record four tries against defending premiers Penrith in 2004 before taking his place in the NSW State of Origin team. Although dropped after the Blues’ narrow 9-8 win in the first match of the series he was selected for Australia in the Tri Nations competition at year’s end. Cooper could not break into the Australian Test team in England but represented the combined Australian-NZ ‘ANZac’ team that defeated Cumbria and played in the international match against the USA Tomahawks. Following NSW’s State of origin success in 2005 Cooper continued his partnership centre club and State centre partner Mark Gasnier in four Tests of Australia’s unsuccessful Tri-Nations campaign. New Australian coach Ricky Stuart kept the combination intact in the 50-12 win over NZ in April 2006 (Cooper and Gasnier were try-scorers) but following the Dragons’ demise in the finals Cooper missed selection for Australia’s Tri-Nations campaign through injury.