Quade Cooper should lap up "the greatest gig in the world", two of his former teammates say, as the discarded Reds and Wallabies playmaker prepares to pocket $650,000 to run around the suburban fields of club rugby in Brisbane this season.

Berrick Barnes and Digby Ioane, in Australia as part of the Panasonic Wild Knights contingent for the Global Rugby Tens at Suncorp Stadium, said Cooper should enjoy getting back to the grassroots on the Reds and Rugby Australia's dime after new Queensland coach Brad Thorn told him he wasn't wanted at Ballymore.

In the wilderness: Reds five-eighth Quade Cooper has been demoted to club rugby. Credit:Melissa Adams

Cooper has two years left on his Reds contract and, at this point, doesn't look like he's going anywhere after being told to go and find a new gig. That he may be content to play Premier Rugby instead would make him the most expensive club player in any code.

In his downtime, he's become the fittest non-Super Rugby player in Australia, sculpting his body at a boxing gym in Brisbane's north and preparing to ply his wares at Sunnybank and Bardon, instead of Eden Park and Cape Town.