Jason Cooper was selected from the crowd during a Raiders game against the Brisbane Broncos on the afternoon of August 6, 2006, to take part in a competition as part of the half-time entertainment that involved catching footballs in a milk crate.

Pitted against another spectator, the object of the game was to catch as many of the five footballs that Raiders player Bronx Goodwin kicked from behind a makeshift partition. Canberra Milk was a club sponsor at the time.

During one attempt, Mr Cooper dived with the crate to catch a ball, landing awkwardly and hitting his head ''violently'' on the ground or crate. He was rendered unconscious and had to be stretchered from the field.

In a statement of claim lodged with the ACT Supreme Court earlier this year, Mr Cooper said the incident resulted in spinal injuries that had prevented him from working as a tiler since. He has also suffered depression.

Mr Cooper alleges a Raiders representative initially offered to pay his medical expenses, but reneged and instead offered him six tickets to a Raiders home game as compensation.

Mr Cooper refused the offer, and now seeks unspecified damages, alleging his injuries were a direct result of a breach of duty of care owed to him by the club.

The claim alleges that he received no instruction about how to play the game safely, and the incentive of a Canberra Milk prize pack for the winner encouraged diving.

''The [Raiders] owed the plaintiff a duty to properly and fully explain the risks of participating in the competition and in particular to warn [him] against the risk of diving with a milk crate in his hands in an attempt to catch any football,'' the claim states.

The Raiders are yet to file a defence, and the case is listed for a directions hearing in the Supreme Court this morning.