Colm Cooper took the winter to decide whether or not he would retire from inter-county football. While mulling over his Kingdom future, he also had other footballing matters to which he had to attend - an All-Ireland Club Football Championship campaign with Dr. Crokes.
That concluded on St. Patrick's Day when Cooper won his first All-Ireland club title, also his club's first since 1992.
It was a tight, two-point game. One which saw Crokes run out the clock in the final minutes as they retained the possession Slaughtneil required to grab a late winning goal.
In an extensive interview with Vincent Hogan in today's Irish Independent, Cooper related what was going through his mind in the final moments of the game.
With the clock deep into the red, the Killarney team won a sideline ball. Cooper knew he had to take responsibility.
When we got the sideline at the end, I just said, 'Well there's fucking no-one else taking this...' I was thinking if some gave possession away, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I ran over, I don't know was it David O'Leary or Fionn (Fitzgerald) was there, I took the ball and pushed them away. Looked up at the big screen. The Crokes management were all around me, hysterical of course. They were shouting at the referee, telling him to blow the whistle.
And I remember the screen said 64 minutes gone. I just jabbed a short kick to Johnny (Buckley) and wanted him to pass it back to me so I could step down the sideline maybe. Before the ball even got to Johnny, the whistle went. Fuck it, elation, joy... I turned around, Pat was the nearest one there and he wouldn't be the biggest man in the world. I think I nearly body-slammed him to the ground.
The 33-year-old added that though he has five All-Ireland medals with Kerry, not winning an All-Ireland with Crokes would have been 'the biggest X on my career'.
It was huge pressure. That's why I wanted that sideline. I was saying to myself, 'Once it's in my hands, I know we won't lose it...'
Because I won't be giving the fucking thing away.
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
