Reuben Cooper (born 14 August 1951) is a former

Australian rules footballer 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 ...

. He is notable for playing for the

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

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 - now AFL).

Biography

Cooper, an

indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

was born into a footballing family, his father Ron who played football with the Buffaloes in the NTFL. His great grandfather Joseph ("Joe") is said to have owned Melville Island and married a

Iwaidja The Iwaidja are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. Name Norman Tindale states that the name is based on their word for 'no' (''ii''). Language Iwaidja is one of the Iwaidjan languages of the Cobourg Peninsula, all of whi ...

woman and sent Reuben's grandfather, Reuben Cooper Snr to

St Peter's College, Adelaide , other_name = The Collegiate School of St Peter , seal_image = St Peter's College, Adelaide Logo.svg , seal_size = 150 , image = SPSC chapel and memorial hall.jpg , image_size ...

after which he returned to introduced the sport to Darwin in 1915, Reuben Snr was the first "coloured" player to play in the Darwin league and his wife.ABORIGINAL HISTORY 1992 pg 17. Editors: John Mulvaney, Peter Grimshaw.

Playing career

In 1968 Cooper moved to Melbourne to play for

but was unable to play for the ''Swans'' immediately due to Northern Territory transfer rules. He spent the 1968 season playing suburban football in Melbourne. He made his league debut during the

1969 VFL season The 1969 VFL season was the 73rd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 5 April until 27 September, and comprised a 20 ...

as a seventeen-year-old, becoming the first player from the Northern Territory to play in the VFL. After returning to Darwin, he played for

Darwin Football Club The Darwin Football Club, nicknamed, Buffaloes, is an Australian rules football club, playing in the Northern Territory Football League. It is the third oldest football club in the Northern Territory. Darwin has won the second most premierships ...

in the

Northern Territory Football League The Northern Territory Football League (NTFL) is an Australian rules football semi-professional league operating in Darwin in the Northern Territory. The league is one of few (and the highest level) Australian Rules competitions played during ...

(NTFL). He was best on ground in the ''Buffaloes 1970/71 grand final-winning team.

Coaching career

Cooper was coach of NTFL club

Nightcliff Nightcliff is a northern suburb of the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. History Although the origin of the name Nightcliff has always been surrounded by conjecture and controversy, the naming can be tracked back to 8 September ...

for the 1986/87 season.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Reuben 1951 births Sydney Swans players Darwin Football Club players Australian rules footballers from the Northern Territory Indigenous Australian players of Australian rules football Living people