Brett Cooper (born 11 August 1959) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played with Collingwood in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). Cooper established himself at Preston in the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFA) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and he won Preston's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award in 1981. He joined Collingwood in 1983, although he would occasionally miss games due to his army commitments. Collingwood's secretary,

John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...

, described Cooper as a "mini

Rene Kink Rene Kink (born 22 November 1956) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with the Collingwood Football Club, Essendon Football Club and St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Kink played in a variety of posi ...

". After appearing in three reserves fixtures, Cooper played in Collingwood's round 12 win over

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

VFL Park Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football Lea ...

;AFL Tables: Brett Cooper
/ref> it was the only VFL game of his career, and he had 10 disposals and kicked a behind. During this time, Cooper struggled with heroin addiction. He first became addicted in 1979 before getting clean, but he became addicted again in late 1983. In 1984, he was sentenced to one year in prison for burglaries committed to support his habit. He got clean again while in prison, and returned to play VFA football. He played with Preston in 1986, was cleared to Box Hill at the start of 1987, and was cleared to Brunswick in July 1988.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Brett 1959 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Collingwood Football Club players Preston Football Club (VFA) players Box Hill Football Club players Brunswick Football Club players Criminals from Melbourne Living people