“To be quite honest, I think at this stage we’re kind all sick of listening to the guys of ’92 [laughs]. So we really would like to put them away and have another bunch that we could say have won an All-Ireland.”
-Harry O’Neill, Dr Crokes selector, October 2016
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LONG BEFORE COLM Cooper ever terrorised a defence for Kerry, before he lifted the Sam Maguire or was named on an All-Star team, his first experience of glory in Croke Park was with a team wearing black and amber.
If you ever find yourself in Tatler Jack pub on Plunkett Street in Killarney, have a look at the framed picture hangs above the fireplace.
Alongside the 1992 Dr Crokes, who would go on to win the All-Ireland club title that day, sits their team mascot – a wide-eyed eight year old. Cooper even warmed up goalkeeper Peter O’Brien prior to that St Patrick’s Day win over Dublin’s Thomas Davis.
“I said to myself, I have to get back to this stadium,” Cooper once said of the experience. “That’s where my love of Croke Park began.”
Few could have predicted what he would go on to achieve. The little red-haired kid grew up to become the finest forward of his generation.
Four All-Irelands (or five including 2014), seven Munster medals, four National League titles and eight All-Stars later, he’ll go down in GAA folklore as one of the greatest.
But the shadow of the class of ’92 still looms large over Cooper. A national title with his club is the only medal missing from his collection.
After their last Kerry SFC title in 2013, Cooper told reporters he felt the 2013/14 club campaign could potentially be his last.
“I always treat it as a last go,” he said. “I know how hard it took for us to get back here, to win county finals in Kerry.
“I suppose myself and Eoin Brosnan are two of the older guys. You just don’t know what might happen. Guys might go travelling, pick up injures.”
For a third straight year, Crokes would lift the Munster title, but, also for a third year, they would depart the All-Ireland race at the semi-final stage. This time it was an unfancied Castlebar Mitchels side who dashed their hopes in the last four.
A devastating knee injury to Cooper in the first-half robbed Crokes of their talismanic leader. They never recovered and lost by eight. Cooper spent the next 14 months in rehabilitation after undergoing surgery on a torn cruciate knee ligament and fractured knee cap.
It was a horrible way to end what he felt would be his last sojourn into the AIB club championship. For all his success with Kerry, the All-Ireland club title was the one code he couldn’t crack.
Here’s how Crokes have fared in the years they’ve competed in the All-Ireland club championship since Cooper made his club debut in 2000:
- 2006/07: Munster champions, lost All-Ireland final to Crossmaglen
- 2010: Lost Munster final to Nemo Rangers
- 2011/12: Munster champions, lost All-Ireland semi-final to Crossmaglen
- 2012/13: Munster champions, lost All-Ireland semi-final to Ballymun Kickhams
- 2013/14: Munster champions, lost All-Ireland semi-final to Castlebar Mitchels
After that loss to Castlebar Mitchels and with Cooper set for an extended spell on the sidelines, it looked like Crokes had blown their chance. For the next couple of years, their fortunes dipped.
Following that golden period where they annexed four Kerry titles and three Munster medals, Crokes suffered in Kerry. They fell to rivals Rathmore and Killarney Legion in 2014, and Rathmore again in 2015.
In the meantime, though, they kept churning out the players. The production line continued to produce talent. In 2014, Michael Burns and Jordan Kiely won an All-Ireland minor title with the Kingdom.
By early 2016, Burns, Kiely, Gavin White and Tony Brosnan had all clocked serious game time for Jack O’Connor’s Kerry U21s.
Brosnan’s meteoric rise continued when he made his senior debut for Kerry in their All-Ireland quarter-final win over Clare in Croke Park this summer.
Last September, four Crokes youngsters – Billy Courtney, David Naughton, Michael Potts and David Shaw - started in the Kerry All-Ireland minor final win over Galway. Those four are yet to make Pat O’Shea’s 30-man matchday panel.
All those youngsters were fed into an experienced senior set-up which features familiar names like Fionn Fitzgerald, Ambrose O’Donovan, Johnny Buckley, Daithí Casey, Brian Looney, Kieran O’Leary and Eoin Brosnan.
And another huge addition has been talented goalkeeper Shane Murphy, a former Kerry minor and U21, who joined the club at the start of the year from Kilcummin.
O’Shea, an ex-Kerry manager, is back in charge of the Killarney side, 10 seasons after he led them all the way to St Patrick’s Day.
In October, the Lewis road club rose back to the pinnacle of Kerry football for the first time in three years. At 33 and with his Kerry future still up in the air, Cooper gets another crack at Munster and, he hopes, All-Ireland glory.
Today, they host Tipperary winners Loughmore-Castleiney, who knocked out the reigning Munster club champions Clonmel Commercials in the county semi-final. They’ll be a tricky test, with a team that boasts All-Ireland hurling winners in Noel and John McGrath.
Two clubs littered with senior All-Ireland medalists and All-Stars, duking it out in the middle of November.
In the mist of the battle will be Cooper, the most decorated gladiator in the arena.
All-in for another winter campaign.
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Munster SFC club semi-final: Dr Crokes v Loughmore-Castleiney, Dr Crokes GAA Grounds, 2pm
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- This article was updated at 11.45am on 13 November to correct the name of the Dr Crokes goalkeeper that Colm Cooper warmed up in 1992. It was Peter O’Brien, not Peter O’Leary, as was previously stated.
