NRL great Marcus Bai furious at son Cooper for turning back on Melbourne Storm

Cooper Bai’s father, Marcus, has revealed he is “pissed off” with his son for backflipping on his decision to join the Melbourne Storm - the club where he won a premiership more than two decades ago.

Instead, during the 10-day cooling-off period, his the 19-year-old son inked an extension at the Gold Coast through to the end of 2027.

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Titans coach Josh Hannay managed to change the young Papua New Guinea prodigy’s mind.

But it was a decision that blindsided his father, Marcus, and left him seeing red.

On February 5, Marcus stepped off a plane from Papua New Guinea and was ready to congratulate his son on his move to team up with Craig Bellamy. Instead, he was informed that his teen son would be staying at the Titans, a decision that he still has yet to come to terms with.

“I’m very cranky about this, and I’m pissed off with his management team as well,” Bai told The Courier Mail.

“People might say that’s his decision, but it’s a wrong decision to make.

“I don’t know what he saw (in the Titans), to be honest. I’m not happy about it at all.

“The Titans might say he made the right choice. But to me, as an ex-player and his father, he didn’t make the right choice at all. It’s very wrong.”

Bai is working hard to try and crack the starting team for the Titans, with Hannay hoping he can stay at the club and build a legacy as a Gold Coast player.

“In that 10-day cooling-off period, I sat down with Cooper and his manager,” Hannay revealed.

“We didn’t so much talk about footy. I shared some life experiences with him and spoke to Cooper about the opportunity he has here as a Gold Coast boy and building something special here, rather than going somewhere else and contributing to what someone else has created.

“Cooper has the opportunity here to be a local lad and the face of having success here. That opportunity is priceless, you can’t put a value on that. I said, ‘If you walked away from here and we take off, you would regret it for the rest of your life’. It wasn’t an Xs and Os sales pitch, it was just the opportunity to build a legacy here. He went away and thought about it. It really resonated with him.

“He is enjoying the culture here and he feels like his football is going to improve which is an important factor at his age. He wanted to see where his football would best develop and it’s a real mark for the program that Cooper wanted to be part of our future.”

However, according to The Courier Mail, the club is concerned for his well-being, given that he is not on speaking terms with his father, Marcus, as he remains furious that he backflipped on the decision they made together.

“When I came back home on February the fifth, he changed his mind,” Marcus said.

“As a Melanesian father, I am the head of the family. In our culture, we make plans for the family, we execute it, and we make sure that it’s the right decision for the family.

“I don’t know what the Titans did to him, but suddenly, some people go in there and tell him their plans and there’s something exciting coming at the Titans.

“I said to Cooper, ‘What is exciting here? I’ve been here on the Gold Coast for 20 years, what have they won?’ But Cooper wants to do it his own way and I’ll sit back and see whether his decision is right or wrong.

“If the Titans struggle this year and it affects his performance, the coaches could say, ‘Hey, we don’t want you anymore. We offered you this before, but you didn’t want to come’. That’s why I’m cranky with him.”

Marcus Bai is a Storm legend, winning a premiership with Melbourne in 1999 and pulling on the jersey 144 times for the club.

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