Some members of the Australian rugby media and several players are upset about Brad Thorn’s decision to boot Quade Cooper out of his Reds squad, despite the controversial playmaker’s massive $650,000 annual contract from the Queensland Rugby Union.

Thorn has been typically restrained about his reasons for this decision. He has pointed out something that is, or should be, obvious to anyone who knows anything about rugby: “I thought Quade last year… the team struggled, his game management, his attack, his defence (struggled).”

This is being about as kind as any coach could be about why he is not going to risk a revival of his club on Cooper’s play, on and off the field.

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My guess is Thorn is deliberately not going deeply into his objections to Cooper being a Reds talisman because he is trying to protect Cooper in the hope that another club, presumably out of Australia (in Japan, perhaps?), will put him on their books.

Thorn’s rugby coaching experience is based on the coaching he was given by three All Black coaches: Robbie Deans, Sir Graham Henry and Steve Hansen.

The essence of that coaching is the notion that ‘there is no I in team.’

Over the weekend, the 55th annual Halberg Awards, New Zealand’s pre-eminent sports awards, presented current All Blacks coach Steve Hansen with the 2018 Sport New Zealand Leadership Award.

Here is what Sport New Zealand CEO Peter Miskimmin told Hansen and the gathering why the award was made:

“Steve Hansen is a world-class coach and he has fashioned a remarkable record to prove it. It’s not just his success that has set him apart as a great leader and coach but how he has gone about achieving it… He has rethought and reshaped his approach to how he coaches… he picks on character and culture and expects everyone to put the team first.”



Let me repeat that last sentence: “He picks on character and culture and expects everyone to put the team first.”

Let me be blunt here. If you are selecting a leader to enhance a culture that puts the team first, would that leader be Quade Cooper?

No one during the Henry-Hansen era of the All Blacks and the Deans era of the Crusaders epitomised the cultural imperative to “put the team first” more than Brad Thorn.

Not long after he joined the Crusaders from the Brisbane Broncos, Thorn was told he was going to be selected for a touring All Blacks side. At this stage of his code-switch, Thorn was not entirely certain whether he was in rugby for the long haul. He declined the offer of a place in the All Blacks.

This is an example of how Thorn, the player, bought in the Crusaders-All Blacks culture of team first.

Robbie Deans was the Crusaders coach responsible for bringing Thorn into rugby and for building up his skills to Test level in the code.

To build up Thorn’s lineout skills, for instance, Deans and Thorn practised for hours in a drill involving throwing an old boot for Thorn to leap up and catch.



The ultimate success of the drill came with the last lineout throw in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final. The All Blacks had only to win the throw and boot the ball into touch to win the Webb Ellis trophy. Andrew Hore, the hooker, threw a short, hard throw to Brad Thorn. The catch was made. France were forced to commit a penalty to try and force a turnover. Game over.

Thorn also learnt from Deans, Henry and Hansen that the team-first principle also applies to the coaches.

Deans is famous for coming to practice before anyone else, for setting up the bags and so on, and then staying on long after the bulk of the players have left, working on the kicking, say, of Dan Carter.

Henry and Hansen, too, are meticulous with their own homework and preparation and for trying to enforce a ‘no dickheads’ policy that ensures the team-first principle.

Thorn was famously taciturn on and off the field as a player. He let his actions speak. But when he did occasionally speak – as a player and now as a coach – you get a sense of his profound belief that the quality of a player and his usefulness for the team is revealed by how he reacts to tough times.

AAP’s Vince Rugari recently wrote a brief but fascinating article on how ‘Brad Thorn embraces bad times at Ballymore,’ which opened this way:

“The most-treasured memories in Brad Thorn’s storied 22-year dual code career weren’t necessarily the ones involving trophies. They were the bad moments, the deep, dark struggles from which success eventually bloomed.



“With Queensland arguably at one of their lowest Super Rugby ebbs, new Reds coach Thorn wants his players to see things from the same perspective.”

With this insight into Thorn’s coaching philosophy, it is easy enough to see why he doesn’t want Cooper anywhere near his young team of battlers.

As Thorn pointed out to Rugari: “I don’t want to be a guy that’s talking a whole heap… I prefer action, and we’ll see how we go.”

Implicit in this statement, too, is the notion that he doesn’t want his players talking all the time, either.

It has been somehow forgotten by the Fairfax Media rugby writers that Thorn actually played against Cooper. He experienced Cooper’s ‘tactics’ as an All Black. He knew how the Cooper antics distracted the Wallabies and inspired New Zealand to smash Australia in the 2011 Rugby World Cup semi-final.

Thorn has also noted that the Cooper trash-talk has most likely had a negative effect on the performance of the Reds over the years, except in 2011 where Cooper was brilliant in winning the Super Rugby tournament for Queensland.

I don’t doubt, too, that Thorn has had some conversations with Robbie Deans about Cooper’s Twitter rant on the Wallabies and Deans in 2012: “I love rugby but there’s s*** going on behind and above the players that effects (sic) the whole organisation.”



When a Twitter follower told Cooper he should be allowed to play his attacking game, the player responded: “I am allowed from February to May, sir. If people want to go out and play a boring brand of football then there’s other guys they can pick to do that.”

Later, Cooper elaborated on these criticisms suggesting that he was critical not only of Deans but also of the ARU as an organisation: “There’s a lot of people who are afraid to say what they feel so they just go along with it and nothing is going to change. That’s why I feel so strongly as a player. I don’t want to be involved in the toxic environment, and that’s how it is at the moment.”

And why was the Deans’ Wallabies camp so toxic? Answer: “It’s an environment where things aren’t going to plan and everyone is looking to point the finger.”

The Australian’s Wayne Smith has been one of Cooper’s strongest supporters. But even the veteran rugby writer was rightly tough on Cooper for his “toxic environment” statement. In a trenchant article headed, ‘Quade Cooper’s rant lifts the lid on deeper team malaise‘, Smith noted:

“There is widespread bewilderment within the Wallabies over Cooper’s talk of a toxic environment within the team. About the only toxicity they’re aware of is that flowing from apparent double standards and the fact that, in their view, a string of incidents, some trivial others a lot serious, are allowed to pass without there being any serious consequences. Even now, they’re dumbfounded at the ARU staying silent in the fact of Cooper’s dramatic attack.”

In October 2012, Cooper apologised for his “toxic environment” statement and paid a $40,000 fine.

There is some heartening support for Thorn from the new CEO of Rugby Australia, Raelene Castle. Her comments on Cooper’s contract suggest that, finally, someone in Rugby Australia understands that money can’t be thrown at players who do not deliver, on and off the field:

“The interesting thing about player contracting is that it’s not a perfect science and knowing whether to contract players for three or four years or one year or two years. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes like the Quade situation, you get into a situation where you go, ‘Gee, if I had the benefit of hindsight I might have contracted for a shorter period of time.'”



This is a splendid statement by Castle. It points to a realisation that Thorn was right to take the toughest approach possible to ensure that the ‘no I in team’ principle is the best and really the only foundation to rebuild the shattered Reds fortress.

Brad Thorn and Raelene Castle are on the right track with their tough-love approach to Australia’s Super Rugby and Wallabies players.