#1 Quade Cooper
I just can’t go past him. He was the cornerstone of our success. He played every game, nay minute, in 2011 and we won the tournament. We’ve only had one full season from him since and that was the last time we made the finals (2013). Sure it points to the fact that we may be overly reliant on his brilliance at 10 to get us over the line, but when you have a player of his abilities you tend to want to use it.
So where does it put us know? Well it puts us down the bottom of the ladder for starters as we struggle to find a replacement this season. It puts us in a situation where we will have to completely restructure our game plan and bring in a flyhalf with likely little or no Super Rugby experience (Jake McIntyre? Jack Tuttle? Duncan Paia’aua? Sam Greene?).
But more than anything it gives the sporting public one less reason to attend Reds games. Now with all due respect to the rest of the team, Cooper was the type of character that brought fans into the stadium – new fans, old fans, lapsed fans. He was a magnet. The QRU will struggle to find anyone, or anything, with a greater marketing value that QC. We will unlikely see his like again.
