Kerry not obsessed with Dublin, insists Shane Enright

Kerry defender Shane Enright rejected the assertion that he and his colleagues are obsessed about reeling in Dublin, whom they’ve beaten just twice now in their last 13 league and Championship encounters.

Kerry’s league form has been patchy though they still squeezed through to a glamour league final against their old rivals next Sunday in Croke Park. And the Tarbert man doesn’t believe there is a significant difference in quality between the sides.

“I don’t think (we’re obsessed), we’re just concentrating on Sunday on its own merits.

“It’s an Allianz League final and it’s 75 minutes. If we perform for the 75 minutes we’ve got a great chance and we’re not going to think about the games gone by, we can do nothing about them now.”

“I don’t think it’s that big,” he said, of the gap between the sides. “Obviously they’ve very strong but the league final last year was very close until Aidan O’Mahony got sent off and they pulled away with the extra man.

“When they’ve 15 it’s hard enough. We were close enough to them in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final but again they pulled away. For us, as I said, it’s about being able to perform for 75 minutes so that’s what we’re working on.”

Enright admitted it’s been a stop-start league campaign for him personally, picking up a concussion in the opening game against Donegal before making three further starts and sitting out their last two games.

And he insists Colm Cooper could have continued to be a 70-minute player for the Kingdom if he’d held off on retirement.

Cooper was a virtual ever present in Kerry line-ups until his cruciate knee ligament setback in 2014, though still started seven of their 10 championship games when he returned for 2015 and 2016.

The 33-year-old’s last great act was to lead Dr Crokes to AIB All-Ireland club title success on St Patrick’s Day, scoring the game’s decisive goal and pulling the strings late on to see out the win.

Speaking just hours ahead of Cooper’s retirement announcement on Tuesday, former colleague Enright said the Killarney man still had the ability to be a key influence at the highest level.

“He’s been, I think, the best player of his generation, simple as that,” said Enright.

“You saw what he did with Dr Crokes in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the club final. He ruled the game, dominated it, he wanted the ball and orchestrated the whole thing at the end of the match to just keep the ball.

“His experience alone is vital and with the players coming through to the squad at the moment, he’d pass on great information to them. I think there’s still 70 minutes in him because he looks very, very fit.”

Asked if Cooper could still have been a key player in the big games at Croke Park for Kerry, Enright nodded enthusiastically.

“Of course he could be, with the football brain he has he thinks a half second quicker than everyone else. With ball in hand he’s still unbelievable, he’s got the best vision I have ever seen. He’s the best kick passer of a ball too and he’d be a great man to have on the 40 putting ball into the boys in the inside forwards.”