PAUL Cooke earned notoriety in 2007 when he quit Hull FC and defected to Hull Kingston Rovers, the club he had supported since childhood.

It was a move that inflamed the bitter rivalry which splits the city in two, but these days the talented playmaker shies away from controversy.

He is busy making an impressive name for himself as player-coach of Championship outfit Doncaster, a role he combines with an assistant coach at Doncaster Knights RUFC.

Still only 33, Cooke has ambitions to coach at the highest level in league or union and is happy with his dual-code roles in South Yorkshire.

Cooke succeeded Tony Miller as head coach at the end of the 2013 campaign before guiding Doncaster to a highly-respectable fourth-placed finish last season to earn the Kingstone Press Championship Coach of the Year award.

Cooke said: “The job was kind of thrust upon me and I owe Carl Hall, who was the owner back then, a great deal for getting me back involved in the game.

“There was no real hesitation in taking the job and we are now moving forward as a club with regards to our spend from last season.

“The club are also making noises about investment for the future, which would mean that we could probably compete with the likes of London and Bradford.

“We’re not quite there yet, but we’re trying to lay some foundations to become stable regardless of what investment we get so we can try and eventually reach Super League.”

Doncaster have extended their dual-registration partnership with Hull FC into 2015, an arrangement which saw several established Hull first-teamers play at the Keepmoat Stadium throughout 2014.

Cooke added: “We are not naive enough to think that we don’t need any links with Hull FC or anyone else for that matter.

“We’re taking baby steps on the road to being self-sufficient with a rugby academy and producing our own players.

“We’ve got some local lads who have plied their trade in the youth teams at Sheffield Eagles.

“We feel they will strengthen our links in the community and they are not half bad either.

“The links with Hull are important for now but I think the competition and the game as a whole is going away from the dual-reg system, particularly after round 23 when the leagues split.

“If we played Hull in the Super Eights, they aren’t going to risk their players coming to us and playing well against them.”

Cooke, who once turned down a big-money move to Irish giants Munster when he was at Hull, enjoys assisting Clive Griffiths at Doncaster Knights, who are a full-time club with ambition and were visited by Shaun Edwards this week.

Cooke splits his time between Doncaster and Hull, where his partner Emma and their children live.

He said: “There is a massive gulf in wages between the two codes and Championship rugby union clubs are spending a lot of money on trying to get into the promised land of the Premiership.

“I’ve not nailed my colours to any mast and I'm just enjoying both roles for what they are while taking each day and week as it comes.

“I’ve a desire to be the best I can be, in whichever code that is.

“If I’m honest, I don’t suppose I’m ready for any head coach’s job in Super League or at any Premiership or Championship club in rugby union. But I’m enjoying the best of both worlds right now – coaching full-time in the day with the Knights and then training three evenings a week with the rugby league club.

“We’re quite a tight-knit group as a family and it works for me, Emma and the kids.”

Cooke will continue playing next season as Doncaster seek to upset the odds and finish in the top four.

He added: “You’ve got to remember it’s my head on the block as player-coach and I’m not naive enough to think I’m bulletproof.

“We’re realistic with our aims and objectives as a club and we’ll keep them in-house.

“We’re certainly not adverse to upsetting the odds, especially at home, and if we’re still in the game in the last ten or twenty minutes then we always believe we can win it.

“We’ll certainly give teams a fright and they will know they have been in a game when they play us, that’s for sure.”