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Seeking a ’chink of light’

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Colm Cooper doesn’t need to be reminded Kerry’s last passage through the qualifiers was a rough one.

By John Fogarty
For the team it was tough, but it was a rockier for him and Tomás Ó Sé after the pair were dropped for the match against Antrim due to a breach of discipline.

In hindsight, there wasn’t much to it but then this was Kerry and, at the time, they were struggling. Cue headlines.

“The biggest thing was the team just weren’t playing well,” recalled Cooper. “I just felt we didn’t have any fluency. Anything we tried it didn’t work.

“The fact that myself and Tomás then stepped offside there was an issue made out of that. It wasn’t that big of an issue at the time but the fact that Kerry were going bad made it one.

“That was used as something to beat us with as well but certainly this year there have been no problems. We weren’t playing well back then and that might be the case again this year.”

Cooper was initially stung by the attention it brought. Winning a fourth All-Ireland title eased the sore but he learned to let the anger go.

“I know how the media works. I’ve been dealing with it for a good number of years now.

“Look, when teams are going well you don’t hear too much mumbling from camps. It’s only when teams go off the rails a bit and go into the qualifiers that these things come to light.

“I take things with a pinch of salt. You read and hear things in newspapers and radio every day but you just get on with things.

“Your job is to play football and train as hard as you can and that’s what I’ve conditioned myself to do. You just get on with it. This is my 11th year playing football and I know how the system works more or less.”

Like their three previous qualifier experiences (2002, ’06 and ’09), Cooper and Kerry have been kicked towards the backdoor by Cork. He’s heard a lot being said about the team being over-the-hill. He knows such chatter can only be silenced out on the field.

“That question is going to be asked. There are lots of us who have, if you want, plenty of miles on the clock and we’ve been involved in a lot of big high pressurised games and people might feel that’s going to takes its toll. That you’ve gone to the well so many times and there’s nothing left.

“That’s okay and fine but I can see from guys in training and in club games that there is still plenty of energy in the team.

“It’s only natural after a defeat like that against your biggest rivals that people look at it in a way.

“It’s a bit extreme to say the team are finished but people are questioning whether the team is slowing down. I’ve certainly seen enough to believe there’s a kick in the team anyway.

“Some of it can be nonsense talk about team morale but if anybody comes in to watch us training they can see it’s not the case.”

What Kerry are looking for, Cooper says, is a “chink of light”. It came to them in Croke Park when they faced Dublin in 2009 but he’d prefer to see it a lot earlier this time around. Having a 100% qualifier record helps if only to convince players what’s ahead of them is surmountable.

“The only encouragement is that it shows you can get things back on track. We’ve managed to do it before and in times past we’ve had to change our training technique or our intensity or how we’re preparing.

“We’ve had to put in a lot of work and without that you’re not going to achieve those things.”

Westmeath aren’t being overlooked but it’s natural for a team of Kerry’s ilk to be thinking of the bigger picture.

“If we go back on the same things we’ve been doing we’ll be going out in the qualifiers before we know it,” he stressed.

“We feel that we’ve a good squad and that’ll be really tested over four weeks where you might have injuries, suspensions and things like that.

“You have to find your way through these things and ultimately guys know it’s the last hurrah — if they lose they’re gone and there’s no back door.

“Guys will hopefully lift their game and bring it up a gear or two. We’re working very hard on a couple of things and if they get those areas right we’ll be going well.”

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