LEINSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL: Tom Humphriesprofiles the Kerry champions and the man that epitomises their progressiveness, forward Colm Cooper

UP ON Lewis Road they have built a residence to suit a dynasty.

Three pristine pitches receding off into the distance and a labyrinthine club house and stand running down the side of the main pitch. Dipped floodlights. Neat parking. Terracing. The club house is decked out in such a way that begs us to update and redefine the phrase "state of the art".

Dr Crokes of Killarney are returning to the national spotlight as one of the great franchises of the game. The leading club in the leading county in the game.

A development like that on Lewis Road would normally sap the energy from a club for a decade or so, but while the concrete has been pouring and the bricks have been laid the club has moved on with an almost evangelical zeal, a pragmatic acceptance that the teams which spring from such facilities have to do the facilities and the people who built them justice.

So nobody in the club is complaining these are busy times.

Last weekend, they played for the fifth week in a row, winning the East Kerry championship for the fifth time in a row.

They beat Rathmore, who came with a formidable challenge and a defence which held Crokes scoreless for 28 minutes. It took until the fifth minute of injury-time for Crokes to find the winner, but then again, that's what winners do.

By last weekend, of course, the county championship proper was already over and had been digested. Especially pleasurable it was too, not just for the fact of beating their Tralee rivals Austin Stacks in the final, but for a semi- final victory over South Kerry.

Crokes had been beaten in the finals of 2005, '06 and '09 by the divisional outfit and while South Kerry weren't allowed to proceed into Munster the defeats still stung, especially last year's, which was by the width of a point.

This time they set about South Kerry with the pent up anger and frustration of villagers who had been pillaged one time too often.

They went 2-10 to 0-3 ahead in the first half before drawing breath. South Kerry came back strong, but this time Crokes had enough to repel them.

It seems like another lifetime now, the story of 1992 and Crokes going all the way to the national title on Paddy's Day. . . Their russet-topped little mascot barred at the gateway to the pitch in Croke Park by some jobsworth of a maor. . . If the kid doesn't go on the field, the team doesn't either. Call it mister maor . . .

So Colm "The Gooch" Cooper, eight years old and wide-eyed, hits Croke Park and warms up goalie Peter O'Leary for an All-Ireland final. There are lots of people with similar stories. Lots of boys who mascotted through grace or politics or favour, but never one who went on to become the greatest forward of their generation.

And there it ended pretty much. There was a county title in 2000, won with five Cooper brothers on the pitch, a day for club and family to cherish, but it wasn't decorated with Munster success. In 2006 they escaped Kerry because South Kerry weren't allowed to do so.

As a team they were hideously young. The Gooch, still just 23, was surrounded by teenagers and looked like a gnarled veteran.

They tested the waters, not knowing quite what they had going for them until they met the barometer by which any club team can measure itself. They played Nemo Rangers and got out with six points to spare. Arguably Crokes' best performance since 1992. The Gooch had 1-4, the sort of numbers we've come to expect.

They beat Nemo, went on to win Munster, but fell to the experience of Crossmaglen on St Patrick's Day. They were blithely digested by an older outfit. End of story.

This year has been different, though. The team, of course, still reeks of youth. There just happens to be a lot of it to choose from these days due to an excellent underage system (Divisional sides generally dominate the underage grades in Kerry, but Crokes reached the county minor final three years running till 2007 and are still harvesting those crops.) but the downturn in Kerry's fortunes has made a difference.

In Kerry, the county championships are an odd thing.

The championship proper finishes and the divisional county championships run on and in a normal year, that is a year when Kerry reach an All-Ireland final in September, players can find themselves playing divisional county finals on Christmas week.

This year, as Colm Cooper has pointed out, Kerry's exit stage left in early August has meant county players got the first sos beag they've managed to get in over half a decade. Crokes aren't heavily represented on the Kerry senior panel, although that seems likely to change in the next few years, but it has made a huge difference to Cooper who astonishingly, is only hitting his prime right now as a player.

The games have come thick and fast in the past few weeks, but the year hasn't been as attritional, the pitches haven't been as heavy and his hunger has been more keen.

He speaks often about the helpless sense of guilt attached to missing club games and, for Cooper, one of those players for whom club is intricately bound up with county (his dad Mike died in 2006 having just watched Crokes play Rathmore and all other strands of family life pass through Lewis Road), that weighs heavily on him. This autumn he has been able to offer his full attention to the black and amber.

Last week Crokes played Rathmore without Ambrose O'Donovan, Kieran O'Leary, Fionn Fitzgerald, Gavin Tucker and James Cahalane, the sort of casualty list more currently associated with their near namesake club in Kilmacud.

As those players feed back into the set-up over the next while, Dr Crokes should come that little bit stronger each time. O'Donovan won't return till after Christmas, but having him in harness beside the young but naive Johnny Buckley will be no harm.

Meanwhile, Crokes just keep producing the players. Last week teenager Chris Brady had four points from play, including a fisted winner five minutes into injury-time. Where else are teenagers raised with such sang froid?

Tomorrow, they travel to Cashel to meet Aherlow, the Tipp champions, and without being presumptuous they have an eye on the other semi-final, expecting Nemo to advance.

Two of the most progressive clubs in the land duking it out in December.

In this time of bailout and national humiliation such monuments to self-sufficiency and cultural confidence are a tonic.