{"id":339674,"date":"2023-10-19T01:23:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T01:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=339674"},"modified":"2023-10-19T02:01:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T02:01:05","slug":"lets-him-down-cooper-pitches-lomax-mentor-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=339674","title":{"rendered":"'Let's him down': Cooper pitches Lomax 'mentor' role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragons<\/a> legend Matt Cooper believes Zac Lomax<\/a> could be a contender for State of Origin<\/a> selection if the circumstances were right.<\/p>\n

In August, Cooper revealed he was in talks with incoming head coach Shane Flanagan<\/a> to join the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, there was no space for the NRL legend<\/a> who told Wide World of Sports this month an opening may yet be forthcoming in 2025.<\/p>\n

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Should Cooper wind up back at the club in a coaching capacity, he wants to work with 24-year-old Lomax with a view towards being selected for Origin by NSW.<\/p>\n

\"Zac<\/p>\n

"He's a great player, he's got great skill \u2013 I feel like his defence does let him down," Cooper told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"I just feel like he would really benefit from having a mentor like myself at the club to give him the advice that he needs to take his game to the next level.<\/p>\n

"Two years ago they were talking about him playing Origin and now, this season, he got dropped for a couple of games. It just seemed like he wasn't happy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"That really excites me, I feel like I could really improve his game and if he gets it right he could be an Origin player."<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Cooper will have to wait until at least 2025 to have that opportunity.<\/p>\n

Budget constraints and a full support staff roster meant there were no openings for him next year as he bids to make a stunning return to the club he had an ugly split with.<\/p>\n

"I think there's about three or four assistants or coaching staff who have got one year on their contract. Flan obviously would like to get me in there, but next year there's just no room for me," Cooper explained.<\/p>\n

"With the budget, there are too many coaches there so hopefully the year after I think once Flan sees how the rest of the coaching staff perform, he might make some cuts and hopefully, if he makes a cut I'll get a chance to get in there."<\/p>\n

\"Lomax<\/p>\n

Cooper sees the defence as a particular weakness for the Dragons, something he believes he could be an asset in rectifying.<\/p>\n

"I spoke to him (Flanagan) about it and I told him that I would love to come in and help the outside backs defensively because I think that's an area where the Dragons are lacking," Cooper explained.<\/p>\n

"They've got a great backline but 90 per cent of the tries have been scored against us in the corner. So I feel like my background in defence, I feel like I could really help them out, give them just the advice, the tools, everything they need to defend the way they should to stop those tries."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dragons legend Matt Cooper believes Zac Lomax could be a contender for State of Origin selection if the circumstances were right. In August, Cooper revealed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":339676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339679,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339674\/revisions\/339679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/339676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}