oconnor hails kingdoms refusal to let summer end

emmet riordanit was very much a case of crisis, what crisis as victorious kerry boss jack o’connor reflected on his side’s tenth consecutive all-ireland quarter-final victory after their 17-point demolition of dublin at croke park today.rumours of discontent in the kingdom camp have been rife throughout the summer, culminating in the benching of colm cooper and tomás Ó sé for the final qualifier game against antrim for breaching team disciplinary procedures.o’connor agreed it was par for the course for a kerry side that were far from impressive in the qualifiers, but that it had no affect on the team.“sure there are a lot of people who get a bit of pleasure out of criticising you, especially when you’re not going well.“we felt ourselves that we were trying really hard, the management and the players were giving it everything, and that’s the only thing that mattered to us.“if it were otherwise we’d say so. but sure people can say what they like, it doesn’t trouble us. it used to trouble me once upon a time but it doesn’t anymore. and in many ways it helped to gel us together, because we felt if we stuck together that it didn’t matter what people were saying about us and that’s the way it was,” said o’connor.reports during the week that kerry were firing in training were borne out by their whirlwind start this afternoon, with cooper firing home to the dublin net inside the first minute, while points flowed freely from all angles and areas of the pitch.o’connor admitted it was a key element of their game plan to snatch momentum from pat gilroy’s side in the early stages.“dublin pride themselves on getting a fast start and getting the hill behind them. we were very adamant that we were going to put it up to them in the first ten minutes and the goal and a couple of points settled us. it gave our fellas a bit of belief and we played with great confidence after that,” added o’connor.that belief also stemmed from a group of players and a management that had no interest in packing up their championship campaign too early.“we felt there was a big performance in us. i said it during the week, we had too much put into this to throw in the towel. there were a lot of people writing us off, but we felt ourselves we had an awful lot of work put into this ourselves and we didn’t feel like going out of the championship in the first week in august. i’m just delighted for the lads, they worked so hard and got their just rewards today.”gilroy made no excuses for his side’s capitulation on the day, again pointing to those vital early exchanges as key to the outcome.“i think we froze, we looked like startled earwigs for the first 15 minutes, all over the place. we weren’t getting to the speed of the game at all.“right around the middle third they were flooding through on us and that killed our full-back line. it just totally opened us up and we were behind all over the place. even when we did get ball we weren’t winning it in our full-forward line. there was nowhere where we got to the game in the first 20 minutes,” said gilroy.dublin’s fifth-straight leinster title had again raised expectations of ending the 14-year all-ireland title drought in the capital, with the sky blues going into the game at 4/5 on against a kerry price of 11/8, which now looks like the bet of the summer.gilroy believes players and management will have to have a cold, hard look at themselves in the coming weeks after again crumbling once outside of leinster.“i think from the off we weren’t at the races and we’ve got to sit down and analyse why. we’ve worked very hard and we just did not do ourselves justice out there at all today“it’s sport, they’re not going to give up but we have to ask serious questions and find the answers. you don’t want to be coming out here every summer and having that kind of performance as your last one.”

kerry 2-08 meath 1-07

... darran o'sullivan slipped as he kicked, but still managed to beat paddy o'rourke with the penalty awarded for anthony moyles' foul on colm cooper ... kerry fared little better, and while cooper and darran o'sullivan slotted over points, they also struggled to inject any fluency into their game ... kerry: d murphy, m ó sé, t griffin, t o'sullivan, t ó sé, m mccarthy, k young, d ó sé, s scanlon, p galvin, t kennelly (0-02), d walsh, c cooper (0-03, 2f), declan o'sullivan, darren o'sullivan (1-01, 1-00 pen) ... subs: t walsh (1-02) for d walsh (28), a o'mahony for young (50), m quirke for d ó sé (60), p o'connor for cooper (60), b sheehan for declan o'sullivan (66) meath: p o'rourke, c o'connor, a moyles, e harrington, s kenny, c mcguinness, c king, n crawford, b meade, p byrne, j sheridan (0-01), s bray, d bray, b farrell (0-02, 1f), c ward (1-04, 0-02f, 0-02 sideline)

kerry call on kennelly

... kennelly comes in at centre forward in a move that sees declan o’sullivan move into full forward alongside darran o’sullivan and colm cooper ... kerry (sfc v meath): d murphy; m Ó sé, t griffin; t o’sullivan, t Ó sé, m mccarth; k young, d Ó sé, s scanlon; p galvin, t kennelly, d walsh, c cooper, d o’sullivan, d o'sullivan

sublime kerry annihilate dublin in croke park rout

... colm cooper found his range with a first minute goal and scored 1-7 in total ... they were hit with a sucker punch early on when cooper signalled his intent with a cheekily taken goal after being fed through by mike mccarthy ... with bryan cullen absent and denis bastick with one eye on cooper, he added another ... gooch followed suit with another free before cluxton, left exposed again when alan hubbard got caught in the middle of cooper and declan o\'sullivan, brilliantly denied the latter a goal ... kerry: d murphy; m Ó sé, t griffin, t o\'sullivan (0-1); t Ó sé (0-2), m mccarthy, k young (a o\'mahony 61); d Ó sé (m quirke 61), s scanlon (0-1); p galvin (0-2), declan o\'sullivan (0-3), d walsh (0-1) (p o\'connor 49 (0-2); c cooper (1-7), t walsh (kennelly 30 (0-2), darren o\'sullivan (capt) (0-3) (s o\'sullivan 60)

kerry and dublin get test of character

... after a week of speculation, colm cooper and tomás Ó sé were indeed omitted from the starting line-up, but were introduced over the course of the match

laboured kerry deny spirited antrim

... the frustrations paved way for colm cooper to come off the bench after the half hour mark ... substitutes : c cooper (0-4, 4f) for s o’sullivan (30), t o se for o’mahony (43), d walsh for kennelly (43), p o’connor (0-2, 2f) for darran o’sullivan (56), m quirke for scanlon (58)antrim : j finucane, c brady, a mcclean, k o’boyle, t scullion (1-0), j crozier, j loughrey, m mccann (0-4, 3f), a gallagher, t o’neill, c close (0-1), n mckeever, p cunningham (0-3, 2f), k niblock, t mccann (0-2)

longford 0-11 kerry 1-12

... longford 0-11 kerry 1-12 - as it happened tommy walsh hit an 11th-minute goal, and five colm cooper points helped kerry to a 1-10 to 0-4 interval lead ... donnacha walsh and colm cooper both collected lay-offs from kieran donaghy to shoot points, and by the 27th minute jack o\'connor\'s men had strolled into a 1-10 to 0-2 lead, and were already well on their way to the third round of the qualifiers ... subs: d barden (0-3 for kavanagh (23), p dowd for dennigan (31), p foy for farrell (44), a maher for smith (72) kerry: d murphy, k young, t griffin, t o\'sullivan, t ó sé (0-1), m ó sé, a o\'shea, d ó sé, s scanlon, d walsh (0-1), d o\'sullivan (0-1), s o\'sullivan (0-2, 2f), c cooper (0-5, 2f), k donaghy, t walsh (1-2)

donaghys departure almost costs kerry

... donaghy was targeted with the long ball from the off and repeatedly secured possession for colm cooper and co, though it was tommy walsh’s ninth minute goal that really set kerry on their way after each side had registered a point each ... seán o’sullivan, cooper, donncha walsh and declan o’sullivan then pointed as kerry threatened to run riot ... paul barden replied for longford but cooper and donaghy combined again for another gooch point

oconnor names kerry side to face longford

...    diarmuid murphy (dingle), killian young (renard), tommy griffin (dingle), tom o’sullivan (rathmore), tomás Ó sé (an ghaeltacht), marc Ó sé (an ghaeltacht), aidan o’shea (glenbeigh/glencar), darragh Ó sé (an ghaeltacht), seamus scanlon (currow), donnacha walsh (cromane) (captain), declan o’sullivan (piarsaigh na dromada), seán o’sullivan (cromane), colm cooper (dr

lynch and mullane claim monthly awards

... anthony lynch’s man marking job on colm cooper in the munster football semi-finals has seen the cork defender earn the gpa’s player of the month award for june ... his efficient shut-down job on cooper helped the rebels to a 1-17 to 0-12 triumph ... “to deliver one great performance marking a player of colm cooper’s ability is a great achievement,” commented martin mchugh, chairman of the football selection committee