Kingdom not over the hill, insists Cooper

FOR years, Armagh had to fend off criticism they were an ageing side.

Now it seems it’s Kerry turn although captain Colm Cooper isn’t necessarily arguing against suggestions his outfit are a mature one.

In fact, he thinks the adjective is a ‘nice word’ but it’s hard to argue against the facts. Against Down on Sunday, Jack O’Connor fielded six players aged 30 or over and another couple in Cooper and Declan O’Sullivan who are going into their 10th and ninth season of inter-county football respectively.

Nobody retired on O’Connor at the end of last season either and veteran defender-cum-midfielder Tommy Griffin is shortly expected to return to the panel.

Cooper admitted: “It’s a fair enough comment (Kerry are ageing) because I’m around since 2002, Tomás (Ó Sé) is around since 1997 or ‘98 so there are plenty of miles on the clock. But we feel there is enough there to be challenging for an All-Ireland. We’ll set out in the championship and see where it brings us. We’ve introduced a few new players so that mixes up everything. I feel we have enough to compete.”

It’s Cooper belief Kerry are being categorised as ageing because they have been together for so long.

The Dr Crokes man is “mad for road” and can’t wait for the Munster quarter-final against Tipperary on May 22.

But getting back to the team that faced Down on Sunday ... eight of them started in the 2004 All-Ireland final.

“If you go through the 27 (in the panel) it’s more miles on the clock than anything else and obviously that can take its toll. But I wouldn’t go writing guys off and say there isn’t a few more years left in them. Obviously, there are guys like Tomás who are a little bit older. He won’t like me saying that but by and large our guys aren’t very old. Marc Ó Sé and Brossie (Eoin Brosnan) are in their early 30s but by and large after that... myself and Star (Kieran Donaghy) are 27, Declan O’Sullivan is 26. Yes they’ve a lot of miles on the clock but I don’t think we’ll be too far away.”

There was nothing heavy in Kerry’s legs as they finished out their Division 1 campaign with four wins on the bounce.

They conceded just 89 points in total over the seven games — 19 points less than the next best defence (Down).

Their report card would read highly satisfactory. “The two games we lost, we did so by a point to the finalists in games we could have won in Croke Park and Tralee. We feel we’re not too far off it. The young players are bedding in nicely before the championship. David Moran’s news is hugely disappointing but we are where we are and hopefully these couple of days away (in Portugal next week) will prepare us for the championship.”

But for those in Kerry of the piseóg leaning position, all three All-Ireland titles won under O’Connor were preceded by league crowns in the same year. A reason to fear of what lies ahead?

“We’ve all won leagues and there are a lot of guys that came through this year who did quite well,” said Cooper. “I don’t know exactly how many players we used but I’d say it was over 30 players. If you said that to Jack O’Connor and his management team that you’d be challenging for a league final position into the last game and using over 30 players they’d take it.”

What with the U21 side losing so comprehensively to Cork in last week’s Munster final and the presence of so many 30-somethings in the senior panel, there will be a tendency to say Kerry are worried about what’s coming behind this golden generation.

Cooper, though, isn’t so concerned. “They got a fierce hiding from Cork but I don’t think they’re as bad as the score-line suggested,” he explained.

“I wouldn’t dismiss them, they’ve a couple of players there who have (senior) inter-county potential. It’s probably set alarm bells ringing in Kerry which is probably no harm either. It’s a good wake-up call but we’ve a bit of catching up to do.”