Gooch still angered by Wexford ref’s call, ten years later

COLM ‘GOOCH’ Cooper may have left the inter-county scene, but he is still up to his old tricks. Eir Sport have started televising club games from around Ireland every Saturday, and this classy forward gave viewers a real treat in the Kerry Senior football semi-final recently.

Dr. Crokes won a free against West Kerry that the referee moved into a more central position due to dissent and, before the backs could react, ‘Gooch’ raced over to the required spot and calmly dispatched the ball to the net past a stranded netminder.

It was a typical piece of class from the man who turned goal-getting into an art form, passing the ball into the net with such grace in contrast to the forwards who make heroes out of goalkeepers by blasting shots into their path.

‘Gooch’ is certainly the man of the moment as his testimonial dinner later this month has led to heated debate all over the country.

Whatever one’s view on that issue, it strikes me as hypocritical that those leading the charge against it have all done very well financially out of the G.A.A., either directly or indirectly.

Anyway, they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, and I’m sure the column inches devoted to the topic won’t do the sales of ‘Gooch - The Autobiography’ any harm.

There won’t be a sporting household in Kerry without a copy for starters, but what about the rest of the country?

The use of bad language doesn’t upset me as a general rule, but I was still taken aback by the prolific appearance of the ‘f’ word in this book.

Most of the points being made didn’t need to be embellished in the first place, and to use crass language with such regularity was an unnecessary impediment to what is generally an interesting read in my opinion.

‘Gooch’ has that same boyish face that first graced the Senior inter-county scene in 2002, and he certainly looks considerably younger than his 34 years.

And perhaps that was one of the reasons why, with the assistance of ghost writer Vincent Hogan, he deployed so many expletives when there really was no need.

Was he trying to shake that tag of innocence that a lot of people around the country would associate with Cooper? Possibly, but it didn’t have to be done in such a coarse manner.

Our paths haven’t crossed with Kerry in the football championship since our four-in-a-row era, so it’s hardly surprising that just one Wexford man gets a direct mention in the book.

And it’s not a favourable one either, as ‘Gooch’ is critical of the refereeing performance given by Ballyhogue’s Syl Doyle in the drawn All-Ireland Club final of 2007, with Dr. Crokes going on to lose the replay to Crossmaglen Rangers.

‘We were a point up in Croke Park with the game almost up when from my vantage point, Oisín McConville seemed to take about a dozen steps, pivoting around his marker to level things. Doyle allowed the score to stand which, to me, was a bad call,’ he writes.

‘Crossmaglen beat us fair and square in the replay, but if ever a day proved to me that referees’ decisions matter, 17 March 2007 was that day.’

Leaving his on-field exploits aside, the book explores Cooper’s reaction to three traumatic episodes in his life with touching depth: the sudden deaths of his father from a heart attack, and a good friend in a drowning accident, followed by the passing of his mother in 2014 after a relatively short illness.

It’s an entertaining read on the whole from a gifted sportsman. ALAN AHERNE

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