Can Banner men lower the Crokes?

MICHEÁL Burns feels guilty when he looks at Colm Cooper.

The ‘Gooch’ has had to make do with a substitute role in recent championship outings for Dr Crokes, but the 35-year-old has continued to put his best foot forward.

Perhaps other men with as much silverware on the mantelpiece — five All-Irelands, nine Munsters, four Leagues, and eight All-Stars — might create a stir if they were not starting, but not Cooper.

The Killarney side will face Miltown-Malbay of Clare at the Gaelic Grounds on November 25th, with their star man likely on the bench once more as they look to regain their AIB Munster crown.

“(Colm) got sick before the Kerins O’Rahilly’s game and Tony Brosnan came in and kicked outrageous scores,” says Burns, at the launch of the AIB GAA Munster Senior Football Club Championship Final.

“In 2017, I wasn’t getting my place and maybe I wasn’t too happy about it. Seeing the way Colm has reacted to this now is making me feel bad about the way I was at times during that campaign. He’s driving everything, he’s completely about the team.

“Obviously, he’s probably not happy about not starting, but he won’t let it affect any decision he makes. The man is a genius, he’s on a different level. Even the body might be slowing down a bit, but he just sees everything… I don’t know what it is that sets him apart, but it’s all the small details, the little movements. I’d say when he gets the ball, time just slows down or something; everything is on the money.”

Burns has had a busy couple of years, one that began with looking for a place on his club team, to getting a call-up with the county in 2018. After winning the AIB All-Ireland club title as a 39th-minute sub in 2017, he has achieved both of those aims.

Crokes are looking to win a fifth AIB Munster title this decade alone, which would be an incredible achievement considering only they and Nemo Rangers have won more than four throughout the history of this competition. The Cork side beat them in the final last year with five points to spare, and it was a defeat that cut deeply.

“That defeat to Nemo stung badly, we got a lot of criticism for that, for not performing on the day and maybe taking them for granted, which we didn’t in the

slightest,” says Burns. “We prepared for that game as hard as we would for any, but they were just better than us on the day.

“The game hurt because we were on the road again (in the championship) and trying to get back to Croke Park. This year again you can see now that (manager) Pat O’Shea has stepped it up another level.

“The core group of this Crokes team: the likes of Kieran O’Leary, Brian Looney, Luke Quinn, John Payne, ‘Smiler’ (Mike Moloney), for fellas who have seven or eight county medals, the drive they’re showing is such an example to younger players.

“To see that they’ve won so much, and they still want more and more and more, it really would keep you going. It makes you want to push on and win as much as you can while you’re playing. Your playing days don’t last too long.”

The dynamic forward is fully focused on his club commitments just now but making a push with Kerry in 2019 is also on his radar. After achieving great success with the county minors, Peter Keane has been appointed as Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s successor for the senior role. Burns recalls the Cahirciveen man being involved as a minor selector in 2013, but “wouldn’t know him too well.”

The Kingdom won Munster last season but came up short in the Super 8s: losing to Galway, then snatching a draw away to Monaghan, before winning against Kildare. From the outside looking in, Kerry seem to be lagging behind top sides such as Dublin.

“I think losing to Galway put pressure on us and put a lot of focus on us,” Burns explains. “We’re a young team and things didn’t go our way, but we’re not that far off... Dublin are the team that everyone is trying to catch. It’ll happen for us if we keep pushing.”

Burns may be a Dr Crokes mainstay by now but his father Micheál was originally a Sneem man. They have the same first name, but the younger is referred to as ‘MJ’ by his clubmates, while the more senior man goes by ‘Mickey Joe’. As is so often the case, the father was a huge influence on his son’s progression in the game.

“He would actually be a South Kerry, down in Peter Keane’s neck of the woods,” says MJ. “He would have managed his own club, Sneem. I remember when I was growing up watching them when he was the manager. They were after going up to Division 1 and they were playing against Crokes, which was a massive occasion in the small village to have them coming.

“I’d say Gooch was only in his teens at the time and I think he got five goals, and absolutely sickened them all! My father would have been massive influence on me, and not that he put on any pressure, but it was pure encouragement.”

The man is a genius. He’s on a different level.. he just sees everything. – Micheál Burns