St George Illawarra Dragons second-rower Mike Cooper is relishing the opportunities and challenges on offer to him at the Red V.
The Warrington Academy junior arrived at the Red-and-Whites during the off-season and has featured in all eight fixtures for the Club to date.
Cooper, 25, has additionally heaped praise on the number of teammates selected for respective representative honours this week and is looking forward to watching them in action.
“It has been a tough first eight rounds and I will definitely be using the longer break to improve on areas I have identified need work,” said Cooper.
“We have done some video work this week and we’ll address our performance and put in the hard yards and come back ready for the next game against Canterbury.
“It has been tough and physically it’s a lot harder than what I expected.
“The body is adjusting each week to the work but I’m really enjoying the NRL and enjoying my footy.
“I’m playing with a great set of lads here so it’s been very easy to fit in.
“We have a good bit of banter between ourselves, and they give me a bit of stick, but I’m so happy to be here at such a great club and so proud to be a Dragon.
“I think Mitch Rein has been outstanding this season and now he gets his chance to show what he can do.
“I spoke to him before and he said he never played rep as a junior and he’s very proud to pull on the jersey.
“Brett definitely deserves the Australian selection, he’s a quality player, all our backs are quality players and they deserve the recognition.”
