Brolly defiant on Cooper

Joe Brolly has stoutly defended his criticism of Colm Cooper and Kerry but rejected suggestions he called the Kingdom captain a choker.

He believes his comments about Cooper and the county were fair as he judges them by higher standards than other players and teams. His remarks about the Dr Crokes player in their All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Crossmaglen earlier this year drew ire in Kerry.

However, he said: “I didn’t say Cooper was a choker. What I said was had a stranger wandered into the All-Ireland club semi-final between Cross and Crokes and saw him, they would say he was a choker.

“There is this simplistic notion that I was disrespectful and overcritical — that is just not right.”

Brolly says he doesn’t assess Cooper by the same criteria he applies to other players as he defines him as an excellent footballer. However, he questions whether he has the ability to rescue Kerry as others did before him.

“I think it is right that I have started to reflect on Colm Cooper these last couple of years. He is a one-off footballer, among the real greats and possibly the greatest footballer of his generation.

“However, the problem with Colm I’ve had is that I wondered over the last wee while where he stands among the best footballers.

“I’m not looking at him as an ordinary footballer. The ordinary footballer plays well sometimes but has his ups and downs and can be marked out of games.

“I’m looking at Colm alongside Sheehy, Egan, Spillane — footballers of that ilk. The point I make is all those guys seemed to find a way to be able to impose themselves on games, no matter what.

“Look at Sheehy’s goal against Cork in ’87, that great act of defiance, when Kerry looked dead and buried. Look at Bomber [Liston] against Monaghan in the 80s and how he turned that around.

“There haven’t been many conspicuous examples of Colm doing something like that when the chips have been down. Maybe it’s his personality, that’s he not that warrior. Seán Cavanagh dug Tyrone out of a hole, he kicked five points from play in the 2008 All-Ireland final against Kerry. When Seán was doing that, you asked yourself where was Kerry’s champion Gooch? Kerry’s champions are Marc and Tomás Ó Sé — they’re the fighting cockerels.”

Such was Crossmaglen’s ease with Cooper in this year’s game in Portlaoise, that Brolly claims they formulated no tactic to negate his influence.

“I know for a fact they didn’t even consider moving somebody onto him specifically to mark him. They left their team as it was.

“They didn’t think Colm would be a problem for them. I thought he could’ve helped when they were seven points down but it was a poor day at the office for him. He also had a poor game in the All-Ireland final last year.”

Brolly also maintains his argument that the current Kerry team aren’t as adaptable as the county team during their wonder era in the 70s and 80s. Having said that, he anticipated they would beat Tyrone on Saturday and feels they could go all the way now.

“It’s an interesting debate. As I said in the piece, this Kerry team are multi-winning All-Ireland winners and fine footballers but the Golden Years teams knew how to win no matter what. This current Kerry team have let other teams get stuck into them.

“I fully expected them to beat Tyrone and I also made the point assuming they would do it that it would set them on the path to another All-Ireland.

“It was exactly the type of game to galvanise them. There was no Seán Cavanagh there, Tyrone’s destroyer-in-chief, but they are a very respectable team.

“It’s been said all around Tyrone that they are very poor but they’ve just been promoted to Division 1 and gave Donegal a tremendous battle even if it was inevitable that Donegal would win.”

Brolly was full of praise for Kerry’s manner of victory over Tyrone on Saturday.

“Kerry really played with a fierce passion and the end result wasn’t down to Tyrone being poor but Kerry making Tyrone out to be that they were poor.

“It was the first time in a long time that Kerry looked like they meant business. I appreciate that motivation might well become a problem when a team like that has been so successful.

“I have seen many days when they’ve gone out there and gone through the motions. They did that against Tipperary and Cork, most definitely.

“You’d have thought the most outstanding piece of business Kerry had to deal with was the Tyrone problem and they were extra motivated and the Kerry fans on Saturday came out of Fitzgerald Stadium joyous.

“It was akin to them winning an All-Ireland rather than a qualifier against a Tyrone team that came out of Division 2 this year.

“Their passion has been reawakened and the fact remains, subject to passion and courage, that Kerry have better footballers than any other team.

“However, because of that, you look at them in a different way to how you analyse other teams. They are Manchester United, not Sunderland and so you don’t look at them the same way you might look at Meath at the moment.”

Pundit knew Kingdom criticism would cause a stir

Joe Brolly admits he knew his Derry Journal column was going to create a stir in Kerry as soon as he wrote it.

Entitled ‘More a Green than Golden generation of The Kingdom’, the 1993 All-Ireland winner opened the piece by stating the current Kerry team “have always failed when it has really been put up to them”.

The RTÉ pundit was also critical of Colm Cooper, especially his performance in last February’s All-Ireland club semi-final for Dr Crokes against Crossmaglen.

“An American tourist would never have believed it if you’d told him The Gooch was one of the greats,” he wrote.

“If however you’d told him he was a choker, he would have agreed, since that is what Colm did against Cross.”

Brolly knew his strong words would elicit a reaction in Kerry.

“I was smiling to myself as I finished it because I had a sneaking suspicion that it might be material for the inside of Kerry’s dressing room door last Saturday night.

“I have enjoyed the response — I have to have my fun as well. Where am I supposed to get my kicks?

“I’ll have to write something for their dressing room door again!”