Cooper Still In Talks About New Contract

Illawarra Mercury

Monday April 21, 2008

By PAUL ZALUNARDO

CONTRACT-CHASING St George Illawarra centre Matt Cooper said the Dragons remained his preferred option for 2009 and beyond.

Speaking after the club's 30-18 loss to the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night, Cooper said his hopes of remaining a one-club player hadn't been diminished by the Dragons' poor start to the season.

"I would like to be a one-club man and hopefully I get the chance to stay," he said.

"At the moment my manager is still in talks with the Dragons.

"Hopefully we can get it sorted in the next couple of weeks. A few clubs out there are making offers."

Despite being part of a team that has won just once in six matches, Cooper remains one of the premier centres in the game.

He was helpless to prevent the schoolboy mistakes that led to three of the Bulldogs' four first-half tries.

Beau Scott, Simon Woolford and Rangi Chase were the culprits who presented the Dogs with opportunities they weren't going to pass up.

Scott spilled the ball inside his own half in the 29th minute.

A penalty and four tackles later, Tim Winitana crashed over out wide to give the home side an 8-6 lead.

Woolford, rested from last weekend's loss to North Queensland, followed Scott's lead with a fundamental error three minutes later.

After he was unable to pick up the ball at dummy half, the Dogs surged downfield, with Matt Utai scoring in the next set after charging onto a perfectly placed Daniel Holdsworth grubber.

Dragons full-back Brett Morris, who has spent time playing for Helensburgh in the Illawarra Carlton League this season, never looked in much of a hurry to get to the ball. Worse was to come for the red and whites.

The first half ended with North Queensland-bound Dogs centre Willie Tonga running 70m to score following a horrible attempt at a chip kick from St George Illawarra five-eighth Chase.

Earlier in the half, Utai scored his first of the day from a Ben Roberts kick, before Chase Stanley opened the Dragons' scoring when he crashed over out wide after winger Michael Lett batted a Chase bomb into his arms.

It was starting to look like a broken record for the Dragons as the second half started with Morris spilling the ball in the 42nd minute and Dogs interchange forward Danny Williams scoring within 60 seconds.

Cooper and Simon Woolford scored consolation tries inside the final 10 minutes.

But all that did was flatter the Dragons' scoreline.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

Back to News Index | Back to Home