Colm Cooper inching towards own high standards

"I've always set high standards of myself," says Colm Cooper. "Me getting to my expectations is more important than everybody else's expectations, because I need to reach a certain level to make sure I'm in this Kerry team, playing my part, and once I'm doing that, heading for Croke Park now, one of my favourite venues, that's a step definitely in the right direction."

So goes the modest statement of Cooper’s intent on regaining a starting place in the Kerry team. And why, once he reaches his own expectations, there may have to be a place again for the Gooch.

Cooper certainly put his hand back up in Killarney on Saturday evening, coming on for the last 25 minutes against Cork. He didn’t get much ball but it didn’t matter – his pass produced the goal that shifted the game in Kerry’s favour.

Frustrated

“And that expectation is always high, so when you don’t meet it, you get disappointed, maybe frustrated is the word too,” Cooper added. “Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself, that I was away from the game for so long with a serious injury. Maybe things don’t come as easy as they once did, that you have to work that little bit harder for them and that’s fine. If that’s the way it is, that’s okay.

“But it’s a lot less frustrating to where I was this time last year. You’re looking to break into an All-Ireland winning team, so regardless of what you’ve done in the past, it doesn’t count. I’m plugging away. And I was disappointed the last day [in the drawn game] when I came on that I didn’t do more.”

Now, with just two weeks before their quarter-final date against either Westmeath or Fermanagh, Cooper doesn’t have much time to rediscover his vintage form; yet he has full faith in manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s way of looking at it.

“If feel I have to fight for that place, same as the 30 other guys who feel they should be there. Look, I want to start. There’s no doubt about that. If I was happy being a sub there’d be no point whatsoever. I don’t pick the team, and it’s up to me to fight for it. And to be fair to Éamonn, he makes the changes when he feels they’re necessary, and you can’t question that.

“So I’m much happier than I was this time two weeks ago. It didn’t work the first day [against Cork] for whatever reason. We were struggling in a number of areas and I didn’t get a chance to get on the ball as much.

“So you’re hoping that you’re building on it all the time. But again, it’s up to the management. They’re the ones watching training every night. That’s what I’m working towards, and if you’re out for 14 months, you can’t expect to be up to 70 minutes of championship football, at that sort of intensity.

“So look, they can see what’s going on. I have all the confidence in them that they’ll make the right decision for me, and whether that’s starting or coming on to the field, I’ll have to live with that.”