Is now a journalist for the hull daily mail and taking a year out from rugby league but to be honest would you want him at your club??

Social club maybe, not rugby league club..

He still has one of the best passing abilities in the game though.

haha , given the stuuff printed in teh HDM at his time of defection this has to be one of lifes great ironies!

What a waste of RL talent he turned out to be.

Is his right to left passing really that good?

I’ve witnessed some beauties of his in my time watch rugby league. As JB said, it’s a waste of a good talent.

If only he could pass a pub he might still have a playing career

Thats my opinion entirely. In hindsight the move to Hull KR proved to be a total disaster for him, on the field. He just looked so over weight and lost to me, when I saw him play against Wigan. I mean you have to rememeber that Hull had recently won the Challenge Cup and reached the Grand Final when he decided to go. As good as Hull KR have done since they came up, they have not reached those kind of levels.

A player limited by his coaches orders, a coach who has done wonders with the club on the whole but was not a fan of the long cut out passing and in general the way Cooke plays the game. Why under Kear at Wakey it did not work I am not so sure but maybe he was just too far out of his comfort zone after being at one club since his childhood.

I say all the best to a player that has graced the game with some very magical moments and wish him all the luck with his future career.

He wishes. Doubt he'll ever play the game again at professional level.

Yet







Agreed.

LOL!! One of the funniest comments ive read on here in ages!

Can't agree with that. He was a player limited by his own ego/unwillingness to adapt. The fact that you think he was "limited by his coach" because he didn't want one aspect in his game shows how limited Cooke really was. A true professional would have adapted and enhanced other areas of his game instead of sulking and drinking and just generally not being bothered.
Compare and contrast Cooke to Scott Murrell for instance. Scott Murrell started off as a smallish half back, but finding his way blocked initially by McGuire & Burrow and then by Cooke/Webster/Dobson he adapted his game, bulked up and has become a useful hooker/loose forward. Not the same talent as Cooke had but I know who I'd have in my team.


Has he? There were a few excellent long passes behind a dominant and excellent Hull FC pack, after that I'm really struggling.
I say what a complete and utter disappointment and waste of talent he was.

Totally agree a waste of talent but he did show it when he wanted to and to be fair I think he and Morgan never got on and wasn't allowed to play how he wanted to in my own opinion he was a hudgel purchase that never realy worked all though thanks to Cooke he helped us stay in super league which Iam extremely proud of I think if he hadn't of been here widnes would be were we are now I know everything in his private life wasn't great and he shouldn't of done what he did but he is a hell of a nice bloke when u speak to him and I do feel sorry for him after all the abuse him and his family got when he signed for rovers would be nice to see him in the championship tearing it apart

It wasn't just the long passes that he didnt like, he was asked to play on the wrong side of the pitch passing left to right which although still better than a lot of players it wasn't his strongest passing side.

Paul was tied in to game plans that meant everything went through Dobson, when he questioned his involvement in games he was shot down and pushed out.

As said he is a nice person to talk to if you are not up in his face, people who've had problems with him are generally the ones that were after trouble in the first place.

people who've had problems with him are generally the ones that were after trouble in the first place.

All though if true was stanly asking to be called a nig@@r by him. if it's true what I heard but hope it's not because that type of thing shouldn't happen in today's.world and my opinion of Paul Cooke will certainly take a nose dive

Having a ghost written column hardly makes him a journalist.

I heard those rumours too but found it hard to believe he would do this especially as it apparently happened in training and not while drunk.

Surely with Paul Cooke those two things weren't mutually exclusive.

You have to be picky don't you

Don`t think I have known so many postings about one player,it was mayhem on both Hull forums for a while,now he has leaked on to here!
This guy will just not lie down.

So that should make him a legend in his own right then lol

fighting with newton in training also i hear

Couldn't agree with that more tbh.

He was a Hudgell purchase, purely to get one over on FC. Morgan wasn't stupid and knew he could help them stay up, however, he was never in Morgan's long term plans. Why he was never utilised in his more acustomed role i will never know.
No offence to Dobson as he's probably the most consistent 7 in the league (although there's no real competition) but Cooke led us to the Challenge cup and a Grand Final appearance, Dobson's got them nowhere near that.

Yeah, but only because Cooke dared to question the Aussie clique.

Working for the HDM is a waste of good talent even for a journalist.