Colm Cooper

Colm "the Gooch" Cooper (born 3 June 1983) is an Irish Gaelic footballer whose league and championship career at senior level with the Kerry county team spanned fifteen years from 2002 to 2017.

Born in Killarney, County Kerry, Cooper was born into a strong Gaelic football family.

His father, Mike Cooper, had a strong involvement with the Dr Crokes club, serving as a minor and junior selector.

He first appeared for the Dr. Crokes club at underage levels, before making his debut with the senior team in 2000.

Cooper made his debut on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he was selected for the Kerry minor team in 2000.

Cooper helped Dr Crokes win the 2000 Kerry Senior Football Championship at the age of 17, beating An Ghaeltacht in the final.

He enjoyed one championship season with the minor team, culminating with the winning of a Munster medal in 2001.

Cooper subsequently joined the Kerry under-21 team, winning a Munster medal in 2002.

By this stage he had also joined the Kerry senior team, making his debut during the 2002 league.

After being chosen on the Munster inter-provincial team for the first time in 2002, Cooper was also included on the team in 2004.

He ended his career without a Railway Cup medal.

Cooper was first called up to the Kingdom team in 2002 and made his National Football League debut against Laois.

He continued his rise in that year's Championship, making his debut against Limerick on 12 May en route to the 2002 All-Ireland final, where they faced Armagh.

Armagh defeated Kerry in the final by 1-12 to 0-14 with Cooper scoring a point.

Cooper was awarded his first All Star award in 2002.

Over the course of the next fifteen years, Cooper won five All-Ireland medals, beginning with a lone triumph in 2004, back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007, a fourth title in 2009 and a final championship as a non-playing substitute in 2014 due to injury.

He also won nine Munster medals, three National Football League medals and was named Texaco Footballer of the Year in 2004.

He was named Texaco Footballer of the Year in 2004, however, he never collected the All-Star Footballer of the Year title.

In spite of this he won eight All-Star awards.

Cooper was first selected for the Ireland international rules football team in 2005, however, he declined to be included on subsequent squads for the competition.

Even during his playing days Cooper came to be recognised as one of the greatest players of all time.

Dr Crokes reached the Kerry Senior county final again in 2005 and 2006, but were defeated on both occasions by South Kingdom.

However, South Kingdom are a divisional side and not a club so Dr Crokes qualified to represent the Kerry in the Munster Senior Club Football Championship.

In 2006 Dr Crokes won the Munster Club Championship, beating The Nire of Waterford in the final.

They advanced to the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship after beating Moorefield of Kildare after a replay in the semi-final, and faced Crossmaglen of Armagh in the 2007 All-Ireland Club final.

The game finished in a draw.

Crossmaglen won the replay to claim their fourth All-Ireland title.

In 2010 Cooper played against Austin Stacks in Tralee in the Championship final finally giving Dr Crokes the title after the three losses in finals.

Cooper and Crokes were back again the year after to win back to back county titles.

They secured the Kerry title in 2011, 2012 and 2013 to make it five in a row.

In February 2014, Cooper suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in the All-Ireland Club Championship semi-final against Castlebar Mitchels which kept him out of action for the remainder of 2014.

On 27 November 2016, Cooper won his fifth Munster club title beating the Nire in the final by 3-15 to 0-6 with Cooper scoring two points.

An All-Ireland medal winners with the club in 2017, Cooper has also won five Munster medals and six county senior championship medals.

He played his last game for Kerry against Dublin in August 2016 before announcing his retirement from inter-county football on 4 April 2017.

Cooper released his autobiography called Gooch The Autobiography in October 2017.

On 27 October 2017, Cooper became the first GAA player to have a testimonial dinner which was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Ballsbridge.

Dr Crokes went on to reach the 2017 All-Ireland Senior Club Football Final on 17 March 2017 and won the game against Slaughtneil by 1-9 to 1-7 at Croke Park.

Cooper scored 1-2 in the final and claimed his first All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship title.

Colm's nephew Mark was a part of the 2018 All Ireland winning Kerry Minor team, a competition he himself never won.

Cooper played competitive Gaelic football as a student at St Brendan's College; however, his tenure coincided with a downturn in fortunes for the college.