Back after an injury-plagued 2012, Quade Cooper is looking forward to a new season with Queensland Reds. Picture: Ric Frearson Source: The Courier-Mail
THE hecklers are already queueing up in Canberra to make Quade Cooper's season lift-off as hostile as possible after the "up yours" salute he left them with last year.
If Wallabies coach Robbie Deans wanted an early cauldron to fully test both the physical and mental armour of the enigmatic figure, he has surely got it tomorrow night.
The rejuvenated flyhalf will be a target for both the feisty ACT Brumbies defence and the crowd as he sets about trying to rebuild his image and the public's confidence in his game.
The rugby field is every bit a boxing ring in which he must prove himself by ducking, weaving, scraping in defence and landing a knockout 'punch'.
Too many think he has showed a glass jaw against the All Blacks.
Australian rugby also needs to be convinced Cooper is the playmaker to take control against the British and Irish Lions and the fury they will try to bully the Wallabies with in June and July.
The depth of public venom can still be surprising.
A Brisbane rugby identity yesterday emailed: "If that dud plays a starring role in any Wallabies game this year, I'll come down to your office in the nude with a bottle of Grange".
I have a wine glass and blindfold waiting expectantly in my drawer.
Vocal ticketholders to the Anti-Quade Club liberally flecked the terraces at Canberra Stadium last May when they gave it to him from the moment he slipped in front of them during pre-game warm-ups.
He could not resist the get-square when the chance came after the Brumbies hooked a penalty goal attempt on fulltime that would have stolen the game.
Cooper dotted down, flung the ball to the crowd and gave them a finger gesture to show which team was No.1.
Cooper remembers the hard-fought 13-12 victory in Canberra, the spur-of-the-moment gesture and, most importantly, how different he now feels with his major knee injury so far behind him.
"The thing with the crowd wasn't to rub it in," Cooper said this week.
"Emotions do run high and they come out sometimes, like with throwing the ball into the crowd.
"I like an atmosphere to a game. It's what brings out your best.
"I'm not too bothered about a section of fans against me in Canberra. I just know it's always a tough place to win and will be again."
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What should hearten Reds fans is that Cooper seems transformed from the player who was either uncertain or under siege for slabs of last year.
His whole mood is more embracing again as if he knows himself that there is mending to do.
He has played only 60 minutes of trial time but his first steps of 2012 and 2013 have been world's apart.
I have never seen Cooper's pass timing so off as it was at training before his Super Rugby comeback last May, when he was also hesitant about taking the ball to the line.
In his one Toowoomba trial this month, the footwork was sharp, he relished a dart, the passes were finding holes for runners and he was loving it.
All that after a sparring session in the morning.
He did a pre-fight press conference to promote his first foray as a boxer then scooted across town to don a custom-made jacket at a Reds promotion of their link with fashion label, The Cloakroom.
He had been excused from the Reds promo but turned up anyway.
"The discipline in life of managing a hectic timetable is a good skill to have," Reds director of coaching Ewen McKenzie said.
The true benefit of Cooper's commitment to boxing has been missed by most.
The off-season has always been his enemy because idle time has always equalled booze-related dramas over summer. For the past few months a busy double-life has filled his focus for the better.
Cooper is 25 in April.
He has 38 Tests, 72 games for Queensland and six seasons of top level rugby behind him, so he should be entering his rugby prime.
No Will Genia to feed him long, bullet passes will put him a step or two closer to defenders eager to charge at him like a blood-curdling scene from Braveheart.
For the Reds to be rated no higher than sixth favourite with betting agencies is one pointer that losing Genia's game-breaking skill is seen as more significant than what is gained with Cooper at full steam again.
McKenzie is comfortable with where his game-winning playmaker is at. "The knee is no longer a distraction for Quade. He's well past that," McKenzie said.
"We're not expecting him to be mistake-free but the benefit of his vision and game-calling has always meant he is very good at delivering our game plans."
Cooper now has a fuller perspective on just where his fitness was last year post-knee surgery and the sharper figure he cuts today.
"You always think you are on top of your game when you just come back (from a big injury). I look back and I can tell the difference now," he said.
"I thought I was 100 per cent and I wasn't. When you're running you feel the speed is back but I know now there's no way I would have been as fast as I am now."
Cooper still won five from five in his comeback games for the Reds in 2012. Not bad for going at 90 per cent.
During his vintage 2011 at the Reds, Cooper was such a magnetic schemer he even hoodwinked cameramen. Twice, Fox Sports cameras bought his dummies and zoomed infield by mistake in the classic sideline escapade that produced the Ben Tapuai try in the semi-final.
In cricket terms, he was the batsman playing a reverse sweep and a ramp shot off successive balls.
That flair can gush out later.
Tomorrow night is all about the basics - the sure passing, the communication with his backs and the game managing to get the job done.
The silence of the hecklers will again be sweet music.
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