I think Australia has yet unrealised potential with cooper at 10, but I don't think we will see it with Deans gameplan
I doubt whether, at ANY point, Deans or any of his assistants wrote down or spoke the words "throw a stupid pass instead of going into contact".
But whatever. This blame for Deans not having the right game plan for Quade ignores the fact that Quade doesn't seem to have any game plan that isn't for Quade.
I don't have a problem with him defending out wide*, and yes he does make tackles on par with most players when called on - provided he can take the side-on approach. Had he improved in this area? Not to my thinking.
Watch any tackle where he has help and you'll see he doesn't attempt to impose himself physically and perhaps pull off a dominant contact to turn over the ball. He lets the other guy take care of it, then spins off to realign or tries a quick strip. Maybe he needs to judge those on a case-by-case basis rather than making disentanglement his primary option.
* it is interesting to watch the kiwi sides use this frequently with players like Barrett, Cruden, etc when kiwis have been some of Quade's harshest critics. I think now it's too late - he has a reputation as a bad defender and won't be able to shake it, like Baxter got a reputation as a bad scrummager and couldn't shake it despite all evidence to the contrary.