kerry 2-13 donegal 0-11

first half goals from colm cooper and tommy walsh paved the way for kerry to begin jack o'connor's second term as manager with an impressive nfl division 1 victory over donegal. kerry were rusty at times in tralee, but they did enough in the opening quarter-hour to spoil donegal's chances of an opening day win. the dr mckenna cup champions started well with stephen griffin pointing after only 35 seconds, but they had to wait a further 20 minutes for their next score. kerry grasped control of what turned out to a one-sided first half.
cooper fisted home his goal from a david moran through ball. walsh then pounced on a rebound to add a second and make it 2-01 to 0-01 to the hosts after eight minutes. paul galvin notched kerry's first point and he gave a strong display in attack, landing three points during a first half that saw kerry assisted by a gusting wind. ul student moran was kerry's other stand-out performer in the opening 35 minutes. he kicked two points, helped establish midfield dominance for the home side and went on to be named man-of-the-match. donegal were 2-08 to 0-03 in arrears at half-time with griffin and substitute michael doherty, in the last minute of the half, picking off their second and third points. they ulster side stepped it up a gear on the resumption and substitute brian roper, slotting in at centre-forward, caught the eye with three points from play. donegal outscored the hosts by 0-08 to 0-05 in the second period but the efforts of roper, who was making a record-breaking 148th senior appearance, were not enough to catch kerry out. cooper (1-03) and walsh (1-02) led the scoring for the victors, while griffin and roper (0-03 each) and doherty (0-02) finished as donegal's top scorers.

cork deserved replay winners

... add colm cooper to the list as well but that was down to excellent, textbook man marking by anthony lynch ... the kerry revival came right from the start of the second-half with darren o’sullivan pointing before his namesake declan, cooper and, to a huge roar of approval from the travelling support, darragh o’se registered consecutive points ... cooper knocked over two short-range frees but they were facing a superior team in fine tuned form ... : d murphy; m s, t o’sullivan, p reidy; t s, a o’mahony, k young; d s, t griffin; p galvin, declan o’sullivan, t kennelly; c cooper, t walsh, b sheehan

kerry revival forces replay

... when they did, colm cooper and tommy walsh failed to take early chances, but the latter eventually got them off the mark before donnacha walsh levelled the scores ... cooper stepped up to take the penalty, but again he shot badly wide and after the yellow-carded spillane was replaced by noel o’leary, donncha o’connor put three points between the teams with another free for cork ... paddy kelly then missed a golden opportunity to hit the net when he shot tamely past diarmuid murphy’s right hand post and cooper finally lost lynch to find his range with a quality point ... sheehan answered it with one from play and then a free, before cooper dug a point out of nowhere when being hounded by lynch and shields ... d murphy; m o’se, t o’sullivan, p reidy; t o’se, t griffin, a o’mahony; t kennelly (0-1), m quirke; darren o’sullivan, donnacha walsh (0-2), p galvin; c cooper (0-3, 1 free), tommy walsh (0-1), declan o’sullivan

nfl div 1 final preview: derry v kerry

... kerry are, however, still sweating over the availability of colm cooper (hamstring), tommy walsh (hamstring), micheál quirke (calf muscle), paul galvin (groin) and padraig reidy (back)

cooper a doubt for nfl showdown

... colm cooper is a doubt for kerry's nfl division 1 final clash with derry at croke park on sunday

kerry 2-15 galway 1-11

... two points in the closing stages of the first half, including a routine free for colm cooper, gave kerry edge after a cagey opening 35 minutes