Stuart Honeysett | April 03, 2008
WAYNE BENNETT is facing his first challenge at St George Illawarra with NSW centre Matt Cooper weighing up lucrative offers from five English Super League clubs.
Off-contract Dragons centre Matt Cooper at WIN Stadium. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Cooper is one of several players off contract at the Dragons and is considered a 50-50 chance of staying on after this season.
Bennett was confirmed on Tuesday as the Dragons' coach from 2009 but is expected to work closely with the club's recruitment and roster manager Craig Young this season.
Cooper is certain to become the top priority over other free agents Jamie Soward, Rangi Chase, Josh Morris, Jason Nightingale, Kirk Reynoldson and Jarrod Saffy.
Working in the club's favour is the fact Cooper, 28, is unlikely to sign with another NRL club.
However, the centre could be tempted to take the big money on offer from England and join former team-mate Trent Barrett (Wigan) and a host of other NRL stars overseas.
"I know Wayne Bennett is a big fan of Matt Cooper, having coached him at representative football," Cooper's manager, George Mimis, said yesterday.
"Whether that translates to something I'm not sure. It's still premature. He's a born and bred Dragon, he loves the place.
"I don't think Matt Cooper would necessarily play for another NRL club but the lure of Super League is one that we're all aware of."
Bennett's present club Brisbane also has a host of players off contract. That issued bubbled to the surface this week after Brisbane was said to have paid $1.4million for Melbourne rookie Israel Folau, with the Storm predicting it would cause dissension among the Broncos players.
Brisbane still has $1m of talent to re-sign, including David Stagg, Sam Thaiday, Steve Michaels, Ben Hannant, Darius Boyd, Michael Ennis and Joel Moon. While there is speculation Bennett could take some of those players with him to the Dragons, Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen declined to comment on the situation. "Any player that is off contract with the Broncos this year is vulnerable to approaches from the other 15 clubs," Cullen said. "I don't expect that situation will change."
While Cullen was tight-lipped, several of the game's leading player managers said Bennett's move to the Dragons would have a big impact on recruitment at both clubs.
Mimis, who played a leading role in helping the Dragons land Bennett, said it was a reasonable assumption that any of the game's leading coaches would drag quality players through the door.
"There's no doubt it will attract players," Mimis said.
"Having worked with Chris Anderson over the years, when you put those sort of people in different environments it doesn't hurt in attracting players."
Manager Steve Gillis said he didn't think the Dragons would have any problems luring players with Bennett on board for 2009.
"With no disrespect to Nathan, Wayne's got an aura about him and a highly impressive resume," Gillis said.
"When a guy who's won six premierships invites him to come and join him at the club, it's not easy to say no."
Dragons players were doing their best to downplay the situation at training yesterday, with captain Mark Gasnier saying it would have no bearing on the team's approach this season.
"It's good for the guys that are coming off contract or guys wanting to come to the club to know the coaching situation at the club for '09 and beyond," Gasnier said.
"Other than that I don't think it changes our campaign for 2008.
"We know exactly where we stand in '08, and all the goals we set in pre-season and all the hard work we did in the off-season isn't going to go to waste because there's been a change of coach next year.
"It's unfair to talk about '09 and Wayne when 2008 is so important."
Dragons fullback Ben Hornby welcomed the change but said the players owed it to Brown to try to send him out on a high this year.
"Obviously we're excited that there's going to be change, but we've had a lot to do with Browny and he's had a lot of influence on our careers," Hornby said.
"It's sad in a way ... mixed feelings. We've got to focus on this year and trying to do well this year, and winning this week more importantly."