The PNG Chiefs logo brings together elements representative of the country ahead of its NRL debut in 2028.<\/p>\n
But Cooper’s journey hasn’t always been smooth, and last year he invoked the ire of his legendary Kumul father when he turned down a deal with Melbourne Storm to remain at the Titans.<\/p>\n
“He promised one thing \u2026 and then he went and did the other thing, and I was cranky with him,” Marcus told AAP.<\/p>\n
“I said you’ve got to be fair and square, that’s not how you treat the clubs and people.<\/p>\n
“It’s not good for us as a family, I was really pissed off with him for that, and I was really angry at him.<\/p>\n
“Now [with the chance to join the Chiefs], I said go and have a look and you and your girlfriend sit down and [think through] before making a decision.”<\/p>\n
![\"Marcus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0dd3dd45f8a3b725d65ad14803cefc86.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Cooper Bai angered his father Marcus (pictured) by going back on his word with regards to signing for the Storm. (Getty Images: Shannon Morris)<\/p>\n
Marcus said Cooper had shown maturity by speaking to the Gold Coast to ask permission to visit the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
Cooper was due to visit PNG on a family holiday after he was ruled out of the Kumuls’ World Cup campaign with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
“He’s only young. He’s still finding his feet, and if he comes here there will be a lot of pressure on him,” Marcus said.<\/p>\n
“The crowd here are tough, they tell you straight up [if they’re not happy].”<\/p>\n
The chance for Cooper to join the Chiefs would represent a full circle moment for the Bai family.<\/p>\n
Marcus left Papua New Guinea in the 1990s to pursue a career as a professional rugby league player, going on to win titles in the NRL and Super League.<\/p>\n
He would likely stand down from the Chiefs board if Cooper was to sign a deal to join the club for its inaugural season in 2028.<\/p>\n
“I’m proud of his achievements, it is hard to do what he’s done and to be able to have an interest from many clubs, it’s pleasing for me as a father,” Marcus Bai said.<\/p>\n
AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Bai has explained how he and son Cooper moved past the rift that fractured their family, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,77964,4612,126993,4466,158,234580,159,85],"class_list":["post-936415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cooper-bai","tag-gold-coast-titans","tag-marcus-bai","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-nrl","tag-png-chiefs","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}