Cooper Connolly, Perth Scorchers Hero, joined Scotty & Goss after turning heads with his addition to the Australian white ball tour of the United Kingdom,
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SEN WA Breakfast
Cooper Connolly - Aussie T20 Bolter and Perth Scorchers Hero (16/07/2024)
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Get your first month free when you sign up at greenlight.com/spotify. Welcome to young ConnollyDoo. We can forget that moment, Cooper Connolly in Big Bash 12 Final. With he and the lunch-carrying, bus-taking accountant, Nick Hobson. Yeah, catches the bus to work. I like what a champion. Can I ask you a question before we speak to Cooper? I don't want to hold him for too long because he's an Australian legend now. When we talk about you breaking news and being ahead of the curve, did you do a story in your previous employment at Channel 10 about Cooper Connolly and that he will play for Australia one day? Yeah. How old was he? I reckon he was four to nine. What happened was Rod Corriata, who I reckon Cooper would know the Corriata family. Rod Corriata might be a mate of Cooper's old men. Rod Corriata is our head cameraman. He came to us and drove us mad for months. "You've got to do a story on this kid. He's just... I don't believe... Oh, he's fantastic. He's going to cap on Australia one day. He's a mate. Wow. And we went out to do the story on him. 14. And now, only a few years later, he's now playing for Australia. He's been named in the Australian T20 team for a couple of games over there in the UK. We are the news breaking station. Hey, Coops, congratulations, mate. You're absolutely buzzed up. Well done. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Hey, you've lived up to your reputation. Rod Corriata said you were going to be a star and you've been disappointing to now, but all of a sudden... You're trying to sneak back in Scotland. Yeah, you guys thought it was a wasted story to be honest with you. A minute 30, we'll never get back in getting Cooper. Do you remember those days? Right back then? Oh, yeah. I don't remember those days. Rod used to come down, watch my footy and cricket, and then used to speak to you at cricket and see how it was going and make sure I couldn't go and try and keep pushing through. So, he was always nice to back down. Do you remember the interview with Gosh, and it... What was it with me? What am I meeting? Oh, you sent a minute out. Oh, I thought he's not going to make it. So, I thought I'm not going to do a story of luck. Yeah, I'm not leaving the studio to talk to a 14-year-old. What does it do to a 14-year-old? Does it give you a bit of a big head that, wouldn't you, that you're on the news at 14? Did it TV? To no support, I had no idea what was happening. I was just talking to a camera and saying what happens. Where were you when you got the call, or the message that you had been picked to in the Australian T20 squad? Must have been a great time, and did you sort of sit back and go, "Wow, did that just happen?" Actually, funny enough, I missed the first phone call because I was out for dinner at the pub. He quickly got back on to it, and about 10 minutes later, called him back, and now I got the news that I was going to travel to Scotland in England, and yeah, I was pretty stoked. I couldn't sit still for a period of time. I was buzzing around, pretty shocked, and yeah, it was the moment I'll never forget. Who makes the call? Who is it? George Bailey? Is it Mitch Marsh? Is it Skipper? Does he give you a buzz and say, "Hey, mate, you're coming with me. Get to passport sorted." Tony Donut, a main game, he had the buzz, and I thought it was just to catch up, but yeah, happened to be a different phone call, which is quite nice. So he went back to your table and had 47,000 middies to celebrate, which is brilliant. Hey, so, I mean, obviously, you were spy. You've obviously played, you know, a national underage cricket and the like, and you've been a star, and you've done your stuff for the scorches and white ball cricket and also shield cricket. This is a boy who would dream, is it not to play for Australia in any form of cricket, but we now know how important the white ball games are. So you must be, this must be something that you've wanted to achieve a long time ago. Yeah, I'm summing up always when food play for Australia, any formats, obviously, the manual is still the baggy green, but I think, yeah, as a boy, you always dream of playing for Australia and hopefully I get an opportunity to live out of childhood dream, but yeah, I'm just so thankful for the opportunity that they do to me. You know, off-season. So what happens now? I mean, this tournament's in September, you're going to the Scotland and the UK. So you're playing in Edinburgh, and then you've got a few across the UK, including one at Lord's. This is in September. So is it now snap out of off-season, have you been doing a little bit across your break as well? Yeah, we're back starting now in pre-season, so I'm starting to get everything going again about batting and bowing and all that kind of stuff, but yeah, just try to go over and get some competitive work in as well as some technical stuff, so I'm moving in the right direction. Plenty of Western Australians have been named in it. Of course, in this, you know, it is the start of the World Cup cycle. Cam Green, Tim David, Aaron Hardy, Josh Ingles, Mark Astorn, and so names you're familiar with, of course, so, you know, again, rubbing shoulders with some other players, I know you've probably played against most of them, but who are you looking forward to being onto or with that doesn't play for them? Wow. I'm actually really looking forward to being around Trevor's head, sort of nicely regressive left-hander. I hope that can win a bit. I feel he's done really well over the last two, three years, so I'm pretty excited to learn a few and see what he has. You just signed a contract extension with the Scorchers, so can you give our listeners an insight into whether you or your manager or whoever that may be had been fielding calls from other franchises? Ah, no, no, we were fine, we were locked in here, so no other interest. No, just knock that on the head straight away. Just a headlight. Yeah. And his seven other clubs were keen on us. Yeah, yeah. Was he like, was he this dismissive when he was 14? Yeah, they're talking about the versatility, mate, and obviously what you've done in the middle order for the Scorchers has been really, really good, but a little bit of left-arm spin as well. Are you going, are you working as an all-rounder or is it, you've got a preference? No, I'm definitely working as an all-rounder, trying to get as much as I can in my games, makes me more, yeah, more versatile, as he said, so yeah, try to kick that ball, you know, right, as much as possible. Now, interesting enough, obviously, you love your footy as well. Put your back foot on the AFL, Coach. I'm a coming up supporter. Okay, bad luck about that. I'm a good man. Well, you'll be free. Well, he will not be free in September, they are not done, they will be back in action, and he will be slightly distracted. Because Grand Final Eve is your first game over there in Scotland. Yes. So you can sell those tickets that you bought to the MCG on Grand Final Day. Ha, ha, ha, ha, yeah, I hope the pretty sort of puzzle comes from Thursday, so we can't have that. Okay, it's not over yet. It is over. Yeah, it is over. Flies a miracle worker. Fantastic. Oh, mate, so in simple terms, you're up and about, you can't wait, and September can't come quick enough to get over there with the Australian team, again, it's a boyhood dream for you to play at this level, of course, and you talked about Test cricket, Barry G Green, that's the next one, is it? Yeah, definitely, I think, obviously, it's a dream to go play for Australian Eve format, but yeah, I still want to put the Daggie green on, that would be sort of most of your childhood dream lived out, so that would be sort of, that's the next goal. Yeah, well, you step back. We're pumped for you. Yeah, fresh from making 90 in your shield debut, as well, earlier in the good on your Cooper, I really appreciate your time, continue this rise, mate. You've certainly created a lot of interest in cricket here in WA so far, and now on an Australian scale. Good on you, mate. Well done, congratulations. Thank you. I think so. Here is Cooper Connolly joining us. The next big thing. - He's got cult figure all over. - Yeah, he does. - He's got cult hero. - He certainly does.