'Gooch' can't see beyond Dubs

May 24, 2019

Kerry legend Colm 'Gooch' Cooper. ©INPHO/Oisin Keniry.

Colm Cooper believes the only things that can scupper Dublin's five-in-a-row dreams are complacency or a lack of hunger.

The five-in-a-row has never been done before - Kerry came within a whisker of achieving the feat in 1982 - but despite their indifferent Allianz League form, Cooper says Dublin are still the team to beat.

"It’s very easy to say that there’s a huge amount of pressure on them, but everyone’s looking at them internally in Dublin and externally to see if they can achieve this," the Kerry legend said on RTÉ 2fm’s Game On.

"It’s never been done before and I suppose looking back from a Kerry point of view we had some amazing teams and players that have gone, probably some of the best players that have ever played in the GAA but they couldn’t achieve it.

"That pressure’s going to be on Dublin throughout the year but it’s going to be the Super 8s before we know how they’re going, because I think they’re far too strong for anything in Leinster.

"I look at Dublin and I’m looking for chinks in the armour and people say they’re coming back in to the pack, but I just don’t see that at the moment. Maybe they’re not stealing a march on anybody but they’re certainly the strongest team and panel out there.

"Word has gone out that Diarmuid Connolly is back in the fold, Rory O'Carroll is back in the fold, so they haven’t gone away," Cooper added.

"It’s for everyone else to catch them and I’m not sure if anyone else has shown me this year that they can catch them, so the only thing that can catch Dublin in my opinion is complacency which we haven’t seen from this Dublin side yet.

"Or maybe if there’s a lack of hunger there but again with the strength and depth of their panel, it’s hard to see that become a factor for them."


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