Gooch is a man for the ages, says Micko

COLM COOPER is the best forward of his generation and would make any team from any era, according to Mick O’Dwyer.

The Waterville legend was in Dublin yesterday to see one of his Wicklow players, Tony Hannon, presented with the Vodafone Footballer of the Month award for his contribution to Wicklow’s fantastic success in the All-Ireland Qualifiers in July.

“He’s (Cooper) been around for seven years and in my opinion he’s been the best forward that I have seen in that period. He’s a class act and he’d get on a Kerry team in any period.”

Imagine Pat Spillane, Mikey Sheehy, ‘Bomber’ Liston, John Egan, ‘Ogie’ Moran, Ger Power and ‘Gooch’ Cooper vying for six places. They say managers dream of competition for places but having to decide which of those to leave out would surely cause many sleepless nights? Even O’Dwyer. Who would the great man bench? The query elicits a chuckle of relief that the call does not have to be made.

“I generally don’t change my team” he laughed. “I generally play 15 for the whole game which I did in four championship games (this year); an unusual thing to do. I wouldn’t like to drop any of them.

“(But) if you have a player like the ‘Gooch’ on any team... he turned it on the last day. They were all saying he was this and he was that, that he was finished. That man will never be finished because he’s a class act.”

Kerry’s defeat of Dublin on Monday came as no surprise to the Waterville maestro, who was amongst the few in the build-up who chose to ignore the form and tip his native county.

“I was pretty convinced. Croke Park is the place for Kerry. They don’t produce their best until they get there. Any other team in the championship better beware. I think (Mike) McCarthy is playing outstandingly well at centre-back. He’s been playing great club football the last couple of years. (Tommy) Griffin at full-back is playing bloody well. I think generally all around the team has plenty of talent and they have plenty of reserve talent and they’ll take plenty of beating.”

While O’Dwyer expected Kerry to turn on the style, he never envisaged Dublin’s dreadful collapse.

“Everybody in the country was amazed. They had played well in Leinster. That wasn’t the true form of that Dublin team, they are a reasonable team. They just didn’t perform the last day. They were beaten for pace, there was no heart in the team, there was no fire in the team; they just froze on the day.”

Kerry have All-Ireland glory firmly in their sights now but talk of what would be a redemptive victory over Tyrone is premature though. The remaining counties all have a chance says O’Dwyer, who has been particularly impressed with Conor Counihan’s.

“Tyrone will have to beat Cork first and that won’t be too easy. Cork gave an exhibition against Donegal. It’s going to be a great All-Ireland final whoever is in it and we can’t forget that Mayo are still around and so are Meath. Meath are a tough gang. They’ve come from nowhere before.”