Colm Cooper spills the beans on Kerry bedroom antics

Colm Cooper has given plenty of defenders sleepless nights before championship matches in Croke Park but the Kerry star had his own difficulties getting rest ahead of the big days.

Chatting with Martin King and Lucy Kennedy on TV3’s Late Lunch Live today, Cooper mentioned the time he returned from a Kerry team meeting before a big match at GAA headquarters to find his bed had disappeared from his hotel room.

As usual when these kind of things happen on Kingdom duty, Cooper at once narrowed down the culprits to a select band of brothers.

“Strangely enough, I had an idea who had taken it. We had three O’Se brothers. It could have been any of them. We didn’t manage to get CCTV footage to find out which one.

Cooper eventually located his bed in a hotel store room but insisted the pranks played on Kerry duty helped relax the camp.

The Killarney man has won four All-Ireland finals at Croke Park but says his love affair with the venue began in 1992 when he travelled as mascot to see his club Dr Crokes win the All-Ireland club title.

Cooper was just four but vowed to be back.

“I said to myself, I have to get back to this stadium. That’s where my love of Croke Park began for me.”

Things haven't always gone his way at the ground. When Kerry lost the 2011 final to Dublin, the “unlucky 13’ hoodoo was widely blamed.

Nobody wearing the number 13 shirt has captained his county to the title and Gooch added to that statistic. But he claims the curse hadn't crossed his mind beforehand.

“I didn’t even know it going into the game, Maybe people were trying to keep it from me in case it game me the jitters. Mikey Sheehy (another 13), one of my idols, had been captain as well and he lost the final. I'm sure it’s going to happen some day

“It’s one of those superstitions people talk about in Kerry.”

Cooper named Mayo’s Keith Higgins and Cork’s Anthony Lynch as his toughest opponents, as well as his teammate Marc O Se, his stiffest training ground challenge.

And he maintained the sweetest moment of his career remains the 2004 final, his first title win in the Kerry jersey.

Pressed by Lucy Kennedy on the hot topic of the moment, the demands endured by inter-county players, Cooper admitted he marvelled at the efforts put in by teammates with families or their own businesses to run.

“I’m single and I don’t have any side distractions. I’m not sure how those guys do it. It can be difficult to get out. You’re doing something five or six days a week. It’s difficult to socialise.

“Alcohol is off the table… My last summer holiday was when I was 17 years old.”

“But you do it because you enjoy it. You love it.”