As the kick-off to another NRL premiership season approaches, with all its attendant hope and hype, an off-season tinged with sadness ends.
An unusually high number of my football mates died over the period, to the extent two of them had funerals on the same day: Paul Broughton, 91, a former player, coach and innovative administrator, and Bob Cooper, a 68-year-old former Western Suburbs player, both on December 15.
Having already told Paul’s wife, Bev, I would speak at his funeral on the Gold Coast, meant I could not be in Sydney to farewell Bob whom I coached at the Magpies.
The Titans honoured Paul with the attendance of eight winners of the Paul Broughton Medal, an annual award to the club’s best and fairest player in recognition of his pivotal role in the establishment of an NRL team on the Gold Coast.
Paul’s passing received honourable treatment in the media, but Bob was dismissed with a brief mention he played for NSW in the first State of Origin match and his 15-month suspension was the equal longest in rugby league history.
Yet, he set many records and it wasn’t the suspension he referred to in our final text exchange when he said, “I’ll be in the history books for some time.”
Bob Cooper hits the ball up for Western Suburbs against North Sydney in 1981.Credit:Fairfax Media
Over 30 years earlier, on December 15, 1991, the Full Federal Court found in favour of the Commissioner of Taxation in a judgment which, had it gone Bob’s way, may have resulted in footballers gaining a tax deduction for all the beer and steak they consumed. The court decision wasn’t unanimous, with the dissenting judge identifying some interesting analogies.
The case began in October 1979 when, in a written post-season review, I noted Bob had lost two stone over the season. I suggested he eat 3kg of steak, 1kg of potatoes, three loaves of bread and drink a minimum of one dozen cans of beer a week to maintain weight. Bob’s brother, an accountant, included this expense in Bob’s tax returns for 1980 to 1982. The Taxation Department rejected the claim, but a Taxation Board of Review allowed the deduction. The Taxation Commissioner then challenged this in the NSW Supreme Court and Justice Hunt found in favour of Bob.
The Commissioner of Taxation, possibly aware that Dallas Donnelly drank a dozen cans a night, didn’t want a precedent and successfully appealed to the Full Federal Court.
It was a close decision, with one judge pointing out lawyers gained deductions for subscribing to legal journals, so why shouldn’t footballers include the expense of developing beer bellies if it helps then break the defensive line.
Bob Cooper’s battle with the Taxation Department went all the way to the Full Federal Court.Credit:Fairfax Media
(Somewhere along the legal chain the observation was made that Roy Masters might be a reasonable coach, but he is a very ordinary dietician.)
The taxman, happy with the verdict, did not pursue costs from Bob who had long retired after being banished following a July 1982 match against the Steelers. The match was only 90 seconds old when an all-in brawl erupted and Bob broke the jaw of one player, Greg Cook, smashed the facial bones of another, Lee Pomfret and concussed a third, Scott Greenland.
The circumstances partly explain but do not excuse his action. He was pent-up following a very late call-up by coach Terry Fearnley who did not rate him. The Steelers baited him at the pre-game warm-up and he had raced in to protect a teammate who copped an elbow to the face. He remained penitent for years. On his deathbed he told me, “I saw one of the players I hit at a function on the snowfields and approached him but he turned his back on me.”
Lee Pomfret, who was hit by Bob Cooper, at the hearing in 1982 that resulted in the 15-month suspensionCredit:Fairfax Media
Later, Bob’s sledgehammer right hand did save him from possible death. Hitchhiking from a railway station to his Port Hacking home, a motorist picked him up and after a short distance, produced a gun while rounding a bend. Bob responded with a mighty punch which caused the car to veer into the bush. He did not wait to check the health of the driver. I wrote about it and a detective followed up by interviewing Bob. “It was dark and I didn’t get a good look at the driver, but the cops thought it might have been Ivan Milat,” Bob said in reference to the Belanglo State Forest murderer.
Bob also deserves a place in the history books as the first rugby league player to anticipate the green revolution. He saw the mounting protests of the environmentalists and, along with a partner, invested in the liquid waste business, vowing that only a small percentage go back to the soil.
As he lay dying from colon cancer in Sutherland Hospital, he told me, “(Wife) Colleen and my kids are going to be OK financially and I’m OK with this cancer if I get six months.” As it transpired, he only had six weeks.
I have enduring memories of him relevant to the eve of an NRL season kick-off where the average player salary will be $370,000. I recall his innocent joy at telling his teammates after a game that the $200 winning bonus would go towards a fridge or washing machine he was buying for his life with Colleen. At a time NRL players derive no joy from travel, I remember Bob’s excitement learning of his selection for NSW in 1980 and a plane trip to Brisbane and a Blues tracksuit.
Over 800 friends attended his funeral, spilling out onto the street. They included school friends with whom he went on annual holidays, Magpie mates and business colleagues. While his passing received scant attention in the media, the large attendance at his funeral demonstrated – as so often happens – that the people got it right.
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