So prodigious was Colm Cooper’s talent as a teenager that he usurped more established players, writes Kieran Shannon.

Management loses games, players win them (Great GAA truisms, No 53 in a series). On the bad days, the ditch carps and criticises and moans about the sideline. Lambasts may be the association term. Clueless clowns. On Lewis Road in Killarney, you might catch a carp or two on the odd occasion Dr Crokes lose a game, but it’ll be a brave ditch hurler all the same. Or a fool.

St Brendan’s, Killarney 2-18 Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne 0-9: A dominant second-half performance from St Brendan’s – in which the favourites outscored their opponents 2-10 to 0-2 – eased the Killarney outfit into the penultimate round of the Corn Uí Mhuirí.

Dr Crokes 2-16 Kenmare District 1-12: They’re back. The famine on Lewis Road, although brief, is no more. 

As one foxy-headed supremo bowed out from the inter-county fray this week, another is about to make his eagerly-awaited return. 

Jim McGuinness admits Donegal must consider the possibility Colm Cooper will feature in Sunday week’s All-Ireland final.

Kilkenny, who play Offaly in the Leinster SHC at Nowlan Park tomorrow (7pm), have made three changes from the league final win over Tipperary.

The Munster Council will quiz the Dr Crokes club over an insulting tweet posted on the Killarney side’s official Twitter account on Sunday.

Dr Crokes joint manager Vince Casey has called for player welfare to be placed above any game, or result, after a concussed Kieran O’Leary was substituted at half-time in Sunday’s clash with Castlehaven.

Dr Crokes 4-16 Austin Stacks 0-12

Ballymun Kickhams (Dublin) 1-10 Dr Crokes (Kerry) 0-9

Tomás Ó Sé returns to the Kerry side for Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 clash with Dublin at Fitzgerald Stadium.

Allianz FL Division 1

The last of the round-robin games in Corn Uí Mhuirí (Munster Colleges SFC) take place today with the four quarter-final places up for grabs.

Colm Cooper has had to opt out of this week’s GAA-GPA Opel All Stars trip to New York due to Dr Crokes’ Munster Club SFC semi-final against Clonmel Commercials this Sunday.

Dr Crokes’ three-in-a-row championship bid received a timely boost this week with the arrival of Donie Buckley, pictured, to help prepare the side for their meeting with East Kerry in a fortnight and for as long as Crokes remain in the championship.

An injury to captain Colm Cooper was not the news Kerry manager O’Connor manager wanted to hear with the Championship campaign looming.

Colm Cooper makes his first appearance of the year for Kerry as he captains the side against Mayo in Sunday’s Division 1 game in Fitzgerald Stadium.

Colm Cooper makes his first appearance of the year for Kerry as he captains the side against Mayo in Sunday’s Division 1 game in Fitzgerald Stadium.

Kerry boss Jack O’Connor has reshuffled his team for tomorrow’s visit of Laois to Killarney with seven personnel changes from last weekend’s win over Cork.

Eoin Brosnan has his sights set on national league glory following his first run out of the year with Kerry on Sunday.

TRY telling Luke Quinn time heals all wounds.

MID KERRY forward Gavan O’Grady is putting college friendships on ice for Sunday’s Kerry senior football decider.

COLM COOPER emerged unscathed from his first full training session since Kerry’s All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin as he attempts to regain full fitness and shake off an ankle problem ahead of Dr Crokes’ county final meeting with Mid Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday week.

ANOTHER week, another nerve-shredding encounter for Dr Crokes.

WHERE would two former Dr Crokes Killarney players lining out for London watch the draw for the second round of the All-Ireland qualifiers?

KERRY’s senior football championships, which kick off tonight, has been hit by a massive player drain, with up to 100 footballers set to miss this year’s championship.

EOIN BROSNAN returns to the Kerry fold at training tonight,completing a remarkable turnaround for the disillusioned attacker who walked away from inter-countyfootball less than two years ago at 28.

Any search for the vital ingredients to make a successful club starts with tomorrow’s Munster Club SFC finalists. Tony Leen examines Dr Crokes’ recipe for success as they prepare to meet the ace of clubs

OH, Eddie Kirwan has to hand it to Eoin Brosnan. Almost got him, he did.

EOIN BROSNAN offers a revealing insight into Dr Crokes’ Munster Club SFC final opponents, Nemo Rangers, by way of club colleague and former Kerry coach, Pat O’Shea.

THEIR pursuit over the last decade has been frustrating and fruitless but yesterday brought atonement for Dr Crokes in the form of their seventh Kerry football title.

THIS clash of the titans may have failed to deliver on the pre-match hype, but few in Killarney will be complaining after Dr Crokes defeated West Kerry in Saturday’s Kerry SFC quarter-final at Austin Stack Park (1-8 to 0-5).

REFEREES were not instructed to adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ approach during the first round of the National Football League according to their spokesman, Fr. Seamus Gardiner.

UPWARDS of 15,000 Kerry fans will be in Croke Park on Sunday to cheer on their heroes in the eagerly-awaited All-Ireland football semi-final against Cork.

Kerry 2-15 Mayo 0-18

KERRY may opt for Eamonn Fitzmaurice in the troublesome full-back berth for their home Munster SFC semi-final against Tipperary on June 15 — a game for which top forward Colm Cooper could be a doubtful starter due to a groin problem.