Cooper and Dr Crokes focused on next target

THE LAST thing Colm “Gooch” Cooper will want to be distracted by now is talk of retaining the Kerry football captaincy for a third successive year, even though that’s one of the immediate spin-offs of winning a third successive county title with his club Dr Crokes.

In the end Sunday’s showdown against Dingle proved largely one-sided, as Dr Crokes took charge from early on, established a strong advantage, and won by 11 points, 2-13 to 0-8.

They won’t be resting on that for long, however, as they’re straight into the Munster club championship this Sunday, against Clare champions Kilmurry-Ibrickane, who pressed them hard in last year’s provincial semi-final, forcing the Kerry champions to come from two points and a man down in the last 10 minutes to secure a three-point victory.

As is their right, Dr Crokes get to nominate the Kerry captaincy, and opted for Cooper for the last two seasons – a role he has warmed to, although some might say hasn’t exactly warmed to him.

He came very close to All-Ireland glory in his first year as captain, only for Dublin to foil Kerry at the very end, and then this year lost out to eventual champions Donegal, in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

It could be early next year, however, before Dr Crokes decide who to award the 2013 county captaincy, assuming Cooper, who delivered another man-of-the-match performance on Sunday, is still interested.

What they’re focused on for now is maximising the momentum of becoming the first Kerry club since John Mitchels to win three county titles in successive (Mitchels actually won five in succession, between 1959-’63) and they certainly won’t be taking Kilmurry-Ibrickane for granted, especially as they must travel to Clare territory, in Quilty, this Sunday.

Yet the captaincy issue is set to form a backdrop to their progress, however long that may be, with at least one other ready-made contender in current club captain Kieran O’Leary. Centre back Eoin Brosnan, even though he has yet to state his intercounty intentions for 2013, might be another option.

Although he has been in and out of the Kerry starting 15 for the last two seasons, O’Leary looks set to feature prominently under new manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice, and awarding him the Kerry captaincy may well underline the fresh start that Fitzmaurice will inevitably undertake.

Speaking after Sunday’s victory, O’Leary too was understandably focusing on the task at hand, even though his performance and sense of maturity won’t have gone unnoticed by Fitzmaurice.

“It was a great honour to lead the lads but you must remember we lost a lot of county finals before we won one,” he said. “We got the start we required this time, because we had been starting poorly over the past number of games, against the Stacks and Laune Rangers and we knew Dingle had been starting very well, and scoring a lot of goals, and luckily today it worked for us.”

Indeed Crokes hit 2-4 in opening 10 minutes though they failed to add to their tally for another 18 minutes: “I think it was more that Dingle stepped up their game a good bit, and we found it hard to get on the ball,” said O’Leary. “We missed a third goal and we had a few more wides that another day might go over, so I would not be too worried.

“But we were lucky to beat Kilmurry-Ibrickane at home last year, so we will be turning our focus on them and preparing well this week.

“We are not going to take them lightly, especially with John Kennedy in charge and its going to be a tough battle.”

Sunday’s victory also marked a winning start to new Dr Crokes manager Noel O’Leary, an uncle of Kieran.

Fitzmaurice extended his own playing career by kicking the equalising score for Finuge in the intermediate final against Spa. The new Kerry manager has vowed to end his career once that campaign ends, but it goes on, for now, with the replay down for this Sunday.