Cooper set for role protecting his mate
QUEENSLAND have vowed to protect Johnathan Thurston from an expected Blues onslaught, planning to play Gavin Cooper for 80 minutes in just his second Origin match to shield his Cowboys teammate.
Thurston missed the series opener with a shoulder injury but returns for Game Two in a game Queensland must win to keep the series alive.
The talismanic half will be a Blues target but Cooper will do his best to keep the NSW forwards away.
“That’s my job every week,” Cooper said.
“The same thing happened in his first game back against Parramatta – more stuff happened when we had the ball – but he’s a pretty smart player.
“He’s done well, I don’t want to say hiding himself, but he knows how to get through a game of footy and has done for a long time now.”
Thurston threw a scare through the Queensland camp yesterday, going down twice during an intense opposed training session at Sanctuary Cove.
“It always does (give you a scare) when one of your star players goes down, whether it happened here or at the Cowboys it would have been the same,” Cooper said.
“But he hopped up and finished the session which was very encouraging, so he’ll be fine. It was pretty intense actually some of the stuff we did (at training) and I think that’s what we have to do.
“We’ve spoken about all the areas we have to be better than what the team was in Game One and I think there were a lot of steps forward in the intensity and all the good work that we put in.”
It may be his regular job but Cooper knows he faces “another step up in intensity” playing Thurston’s protector at Origin level.
“When I played last year, I only got on after the first 20 minutes, 30 minutes, so I missed the really high intensity, real bruising footy that was on,” Cooper said of his Maroons debut last season.
“That’s something that I’ll have to really get through. It’ll be a change in intensity and I’ll be doing my best to help out where I can.”
Queensland are planning to play Cooper for 80 minutes in another sign Josh Papalii will play in the middle in a five-man rotation with Dylan Napa, Jarrod Wallace, Josh McGuire and Tim Glasby.
“I think the old legs have got it in them,” Cooper said of playing out the match.
“I spoke to Kevvie about it and as long as we’re going well, that’s what I’m out there to do. It was intense watching that first game.
“I was at home on my couch and I was getting a bit tired watching it, the ball was in play for so long, I don’t think anyone made an error until late in the first half.
“Tip your hat to both teams the way they played in that first half and if that happens again, that’s all well and good.”