He made his senior VFL debut with the Fitzroy Football Club in 1984 and was a fringe player, playing 26 games over four seasons.
[1] Cooper is best known for his painting career, and became internationally known for his large-scale historical "dream scene" sporting portraits, featuring a team's star players from throughout different eras, all depicted in their prime of their careers, interacting with each other in a single locker room or on one field.
[2] In 2008, he completed an uncommissioned dream scene of Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, which the club hung in its foyer and then, in 2011, eventually purchased outright.
[3] In the mid 2010s, he was commissioned by several European clubs, including Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Sheffield Wednesday and Hull Kingston Rovers to paint dream scenes.
[4] Cooper is known for including subtle nods to the club's historical events and folklore in the finest background details of his dream scenes.