Cooper says considerable work is needed on the defence

FEW Kerry men are as well placed to cast a critical and analytical eye over Kerry’s prospects in the Championship as Colm Cooper.

The five-time All-Ireland winner isn’t that long retired from inter-county football to not be still very aware of the collective mindset within the squad, but he’s out of it along enough - and doing plenty of media work - to have honed his off-field skills to be able to see the wood for the trees.

“Kerry lost to Mayo last year and there was kind of a rallying cry at home to introduce young blood, which (Fitzmaurice) has done. Bearing in mind (Kerry’s) first championship game is this weekend I think potentially you could have five new starters this weekend. So that’s going to take time but time in Kerry and transition doesn’t really come into the vocabulary. They’ll still expect to be in here in August and please God in September. That’s what they’ll be judged on.

“How would I assess their form? Mixed. They started the league very well, great win against Donegal in Killarney, went up to Mayo beat them in Castlebar, which traditionally hasn’t been a great hunting ground for Kerry. I said this is shaping up very nicely. People even got a bit ambitious then, saying they could be in a league final, but it kind of petered out towards the end of the league.

“You had to play the young players (and) when you play young players you’re going to get inconsistent performances. My hope is they can find, certainly by the time the Super 8s come around and that they’re in there and they’ve an idea of their best 20 players. I’m still not sure they know them at the moment because of all the young players coming through.

“So I think this weekend - and hopefully if they get to the Munster final - there might even be a bit of chopping and changing in there - but I think the aim, and this would be the same for a lot of teams, is to get into the Super 8 and know exactly who their best 20 players are anyway. That’s where Kerry are looking to be I think.”

Over his own 15-year inter-county career Cooper saw many a new, young player come into the team and on Sunday he’s expecting to see several players make their Championship debuts, either as starters or substitutes.

“Yeah, (David Clifford and Sean O’Shea) are two. Possibly Jason Foley. Ronan Shanahan played the league, we don’t know if he’s going to start. Gavin White will be in with a shout if he’s fit. Tom (O’Sullivan) played last year but him and Briain Ó Beaglaoich are very young, he’s played championship but maybe only once or twice. So of those gang, I think there’s probably eight young guys going there and I think five of them might start.”

Of that cohort, and others, did he see sufficient progress by those new players in the League to give him strong grounds for optimism?

“I could see progress, yeah. It’s very difficult because Division One is very, very competitive. You don’t get anything soft. I think it’s been a big learning curve for them.

“My biggest concern is about them defensively. I still think they need to find those players and find a settled (team), either individually or from a system place. I think they conceded far too much in the League and I think there was an acceptance of that. That’s the big issue.

“Every inter-county team, we don’t know what they’re doing in training. So we might have a better idea after Sunday how they’re going to remedy that. We just have to see how it progresses during the summer.

“If you’re playing corner back inside on some quick players, it’s a lonely place to be a lot of the time. So that’s what I’m saying, Kerry could potentially look at a system that might not allow that much space but they’re coughing up too much space. If you were a Dean Rock or an Andy Moran or whoever it might be, you wouldn’t fear the Kerry defence on what you’ve seen so far. Now, as I say, they might remedy that and show something different over the next few weeks but considerable amount of work to do there I think.”

Cooper was never on a Kerry team that lost a Munster Championship game to any team other than Cork, and it will would be a huge shock if Clare can earn a first win over Kerry since 1992. Nevertheless, he issues the obligatory word of caution.

“I was at the Kerry Clare match last year and Clare gave them plenty of it. They hit the crossbar at the start of the second half and if that had gone in things could have been much trickier.

“Now, Clare coming to Killarney, it’s a big ask for them to turn Kerry over. I’m not sure that’ll happen but I think it’ll be fine and competitive again and Eamonn Fitzmaurice will want a performance. But most importantly win the match and get to another Munster final and get as much time into the young players as possible, I think that’s the big aim this weekend.”