Kerry must face into league without Gooch

Eamonn Fitzmaurice has admitted Kerry are likely to be without captain Colm Cooper for the entire National League — but says the way the attacker is minding himself nowadays, he could play inter-county football for another five years.

Kerry will be minus a number of established players for their glamour League opener at Croke Park against Dublin, including the Dr Crokes contingent preparing for their February 15th All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final against Castlebar.

But Fitzmaurice has more or less written 30-year-old Cooper out of his League plans anyway to ensure he gets the best from his talisman come the summer.

“If Dr Crokes go to the (All-Ireland final in the) middle of March, Colm won’t play League football, no matter how far we go, it’s as simple as that. If they’re beaten in February we’ll reassess, but I think he’ll need a break. ”

Gooch turned 30 last June and his inter-county boss believes he is looking after himself a lot more carefully now than he might have done a few years ago.

“He’s really looking after himself, and so he will play on. He is a lot more careful and disciplined than he would have been four or five years ago,” said Fitzmaurice.

“If he has the appetite, he can play or for three or four more years, at least. People have to remember that Colm was thrown into the deep end with Kerry at 18 years of age in 2002.

These things take a while before you realise what precisely you should be doing to take care of yourself.”

Fitzmaurice believes Kerry’s star turn has a good balance in his life now: “Everywhere he goes now in Ireland, he’s recognisable, but he knows how to balance that now. He was in Miami recently for a trip, where he was totally anonymous. You can disappear there.”

Kerry again experimented with Paul Galvin at centre-back in a challenge game against Dr Crokes on Sunday, but Fitzmaurice said the former Footballer of the Year will have to earn his jersey like everyone else:

“No-one is guaranteed anything, certainly not a starting place. If the form is there, you’ll get your spot. But I’d say the older lads would love if some of the younger players put them under pressure and took their spot, and made them fight to win it back.”

Kerry are further down the road physically than they were 12 months ago, which saw them lose their first four NFL games. This year, the Kingdom plan to start the campaign on the front foot.

“By the time end of March comes, you’ve nearly 60% of your games played for the year. You have to hit the ground running, which we didn’t do last year.”