Cooper can't be expected to go it alone

Munster Final: If Kerry are to go all the way this year their forwards will need to get out of the doldrums, writes Seán Moran.

It was a regular refrain during the NFL, but after the league match in Omagh against All-Ireland champions, Tyrone, Kerry manager Jack O'Connor's unease with his one-man attack was at its most palpable. Colm Cooper had scored 1-5 of the team's 1-12 and only one other forward had scored from play all afternoon.

"Colm was fantastic again today," said O'Connor, "but we're going to have to get more players playing to something approaching his standard. We need to take a bit of heat off him scoringwise. That's the big thing."

Over three months later, going into tomorrow's Bank of Ireland Munster football final, the problem for Kerry is no nearer to being solved, and unless there's a radical improvement this weekend the county will begin to fret seriously about their All-Ireland prospects. In ways the outlook is bleaker because not alone has no forward moved onto Cooper's shoulder to share the scoring burden but the man himself - footballer of the year on the basis of the league - appears to have lost form.

During Kerry's run-in to the final, Cooper hasn't managed to score from play in two matches, against Waterford and Tipperary. Concerns about his slump are unsettling, but within the county the belief is that whatever about his indifferent current form, no player's class could be more permanent. Yet the back-up still isn't visible.

On the first point there is a strong feeling that Cooper may have turned the corner. He was impressive in recent matches, a challenge against Galway and with Dr Crokes in the Kerry championship against Kenmare when, in the words of one Crokes clubman, "for the first time in three months he played with a smile on his face".

The reference is to the sudden death of his father, Mike, in late March. Cooper is the youngest in his family and was the only one still living at home with his parents. He was hard hit but that didn't dilute his importance, and less than a week after the bereavement he had to come off the bench to turn around a league match against Dublin.

This dependency narrows options and can lead to all ball being directed at Cooper, who is expected to win it high up as well as on the floor. He's not as small as is sometimes thought and has a great jump, but at 5ft 11in (180cm) he's no certainty under dropping ball.

Cooper hasn't been helped either by Eoin Brosnan's struggling form. They are clubmates in Crokes and combine well on the field, the latter's ability to run at and open up defences useful for creating space.

In terms of physical ability the team has been weakened by the retirements over the past two years of John Crowley, Dara Ó Cinnéide and Liam Hassett, but that's not to say that their departures were premature. Last September's All-Ireland final was an unforgiving diagnostic of Kerry's deficiencies in terms of pace and sustained intensity. The problem is identifying the successors to the retired players.

That was the thinking behind the experiment of playing former centre back Eamonn Fitzmaurice on the attacking 40. His bulk and ball-winning made him a good target man and his distribution wasn't bad even if the scoring threat was limited. But, as the grounds hardened, lack of pace became an issue in an area where the traffic can move like the M50 at midnight.

In one area, Ó Cinnéide's successor is obvious. Bryan Sheehan's place kicking is assured and accurate from virtually anywhere within 45 metres, but maximising his value in general play is proving difficult. He's a strong young player but lacks pace, and there is speculation he will be relocated to the wing tomorrow with Declan O'Sullivan moving in.

O'Sullivan is in many ways the key personality when discussing how the Kerry attack can be best configured, and the possibilities range from straightforward, inside line shooter to roaming, deep-lying ball winner, the option the player himself seems to prefer.

He is an excellent finisher and made his name as a youngster playing full forward with the minors as well at Coláiste na Sceilge, with whom he won three Munster titles. O'Sullivan participated in a memorable scoring duel with Micheál Meehan of St Jarlath's of Tuam when the schools met in a replayed Hogan Cup semi-final in 2002, the Galway side narrowly successful en route to winning the All-Ireland.

But since O'Sullivan's accession to the senior county team he has tended to play very deep. At one stage of the infamous 2003 All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone in his first year, O'Sullivan, despite lining out at full forward, took a ball off his own line in the second half.

The argument against the roving role is that the team is short of scoring forwards and, whereas there are plenty of willing, athletic ball winners - a type exemplified by Paul Galvin and to an extent Brosnan - quality finishers are in short supply.

When playing at full forward O'Sullivan has to beat only one opponent to be in the opposition's red zone. He can't be expected to beat the sort of numbers that inhabit the middle third of a modern football match.

He's not a classical centre forward in that he prefers to move with the ball rather than unleash his inside forwards, but sometimes his abilities as an orchestrator can be undervalued.

In last year's All-Ireland final he was named at full forward but played almost as an auxiliary centrefielder, and in the first eight minutes he turned four possessions into four scoring opportunities: he was fouled in the second minute by Brian Dooher, the resulting free setting up Cooper for a point; a minute later he gave a scoring pass to Brosnan; his winning of a sixth-minute kick-out was the starting point for Ó Cinnéide's goal; and two minutes later he placed Brosnan, whose shot went wide.

Inevitably as Tyrone's grip on the match intensified and the tempo rose, O'Sullivan had less and less time and space to create at that rate, and it was significant to see him "swarmed" in the 48th and 58th minutes, by which stage Kerry had managed just three scoring chances in the second half compared to 10 for Tyrone.

If O'Sullivan is to be allowed free rein out the field Kerry need new strike forwards to accommodate that. Tomorrow sees last year's minor Paul O'Connor make his senior championship debut, and the hope is he can impact in the full-forward line, but such swift graduations are easier said than done - as could be confirmed by the previous year's star minor Darren O'Sullivan, whose electric pace and elusive running marked him out as a likely senior.

He was even given a few minutes of game time in last September's All-Ireland, being fouled for a pointed free and slipping just as he was rounding Chris Lawn in his two possessions. Jack O'Connor remarked after the NFL final win over Galway that O'Sullivan's pace and orthodox corner positioning had given the attack an important width. But O'Sullivan still hasn't nailed down a starting spot.

Then there is the ghost on the bench. Had anyone been told six years ago when he was the star forward in Kerry's 32nd All-Ireland win or even four years ago that Michael Russell, 28 this year, would be languishing on the bench they would have assumed he was recovering from injury. Instead the loss of a cupful of pace and a barrel of self-confidence have completely undermined the Laune Rangers forward, and short of a miraculous turnaround his role isn't expected to expand in the crucial weeks ahead.

Few expect Cork to be short-term beneficiaries of these problems, but this All-Ireland race is wide open and, with Armagh stuttering and Tyrone looking like a field hospital, it's a great chance for Kerry.

Except you can't win it without a functioning attack.