COLM COOPER HAS shrugged off Joe Brolly’s criticism that he lacked the “warrior mentality” to be considered among the game’s greats.
The Kerry legend announced his retirement on 4 April and, while the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and Shane Lowry paid tribute to his career, Brolly took a different stance.
The RTÉ pundit accepted that ‘Gooch’ was a great player, but he felt the public were ”over eulogising” his career. The claim that didn’t go down too well in the Kingdom.
Speaking with Marty Morrissey on RTE Radio 1 this morning, Cooper dismissed the criticism and suggested Brolly was only looking for a reaction.
“I take Joe for what he is, he’s a very outspoken pundit,” Cooper said.
“He likes to go against the grain, sometimes just to create debate. I certainly don’t lie awake at night thinking about what Joe is going to say about me, because in my earlier part of my career he thought I was a fantastic player. In the latter years his view has changed a little bit.
“Look, I played for Kerry and Dr Crokes to win medals and challenge for titles, not to satisfy Joe’s needs or what he thinks about my character. If I let Joe get to me I don’t think I’d ever tog out.
“He has his views and I think he gets a kick out of winding Kerry people up and they always bit back a little bit which he loves as well. I don’t take it too seriously.
“He has his opinions, the same as everybody else, and I think he gets a little bit more of a kick out of it if he goes against the grain and he gets the reaction that he seems to be getting over this.”
Brolly’s words drew the wrath of the Kerry public. Cooper believes they took it personally because they’ve seen how he’s operated throughout his career.
“I think that’s because people have seen me play club matches down here, they’ve seen me playing for Kerry, they’ve seen how much time and effort I’m after putting into football.
“They see me up close and personal and see what I’m like and maybe they feel I have all those attributes and characteristics that Joe speaks about. Then they get a little bit annoyed and bite back which he enjoys.”
The 33-year-old admitted it was a strange feeling to watch his former team-mates soldier on without him in their recent league final win over Dublin.
“It was quite strange watching the boys in the league final against Dublin and not being part of it for the first time in 15 years.
“Look my time has come, I’ve had a fantastic journey, I’ve had an amazing time, I’ve taken a lot of medals with me so I certainly can’t complain.
“When I took sentiment out of it I didn’t think my body could put up with the rigours of inter-county football for the next five or six months.”
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Andy Reid has always been a quality player, unfortunately his career coincided with the premier league craze for big athletic centre midfielders and out and out wide players. 442 was his downfall that is why he’s been excellent the last 18 months, he has no position with Forest just picks it up anywhere on the pitch and makes things happen. Donkeys like Chris and Pat just form an opinion without reason, they’ll be wavin their plastic hammers all over the pub when he’s helping Ireland to the next Euros
Fair point but dies that still not mean that physically Reid was/is not good enough for the premier league? He’s had 2 or 3 opportunities to prove himself as a premiership player and has failed every time. It takes a lot more than the ability to “pick out a pass” when it comes to making it at the highest level. I believe Reid wasted his best years because he did not give total and unrelenting commitment to ensuring that he was at his absolute maximum level of physical fitness, which would have allowed him to be a consistent performer at premier league level. Hence he would often string a few decent performances together at Sunderland in particular, then disappear for a few months and suddenly appear again “looking fitter than he has ever looked” (WTF?) for another spell of good form before disappearing again. That kind of attitude would have been acceptable in the 70s or 80s but not in the modern game.
As for Reid’s future with Ireland, well, the guy is thirty something so he is hardly the future is he? Could be a decent option off the bench if we were struggling to break down Georgia away for example, but it would be embarrassing to see him up against Ozil, Kroos, Gotze and co.
The journal has an obsession with Andy Reid though, so expect plenty more articles on him while he is still in the mix for Ireland selection.
I disagree with your point about him not being good enough for the PL, what I was saying was the type of football being played at those clubs (Sunderland, Spurs) at the time was where centre mids were box to box and wide players who could run at people. Now with various formations being used by PL clubs there is more of a demand for players who play between the lines, he could easily play 3/4 of the teams in the premiership now, good players need good players around them. What are all the “” regarding?
I just think he’s vastly overrated by the Irish media that’s all. Who are the 3-4 sides that play these formations nowadays that would accommodate Reid? Teams like west ham/crystal palace/stoke/Sunderland play the same shite football today that they were playing ten years ago.
He’s nowhere near good enough to play for a top 6 side. He lacks pace to play behind the strikers for a top level side. His work rate was also exposed when he came up against top players of a similar style. The difference between the likes of Reid and the world class creative players is their willingness to work off the ball. Based on his career to date I think he has been lazy in the past and that’s what I meant by the quotes about him being in the shape of his career/lost a few pounds etc.. Shouldn’t he always have maintained that level of conditioning? Is that not what he is paid to do?
Professional footballers getting praised for losing a few pounds of fat?? It’s a joke. Like Roy Keane said “it’s like praising the postman for delivering mail”
That’s my opinion anyway
Those comments should be reported on the basis of nothing but stupidity
Ah booo
Feel bad for him I know he has it in him but hasn’t gotten a big enough chance to prove it!
He has had multiple chances at premier league level and with Ireland throughout his career and has never taken any of them or nailed down a proper starting place for a sustained period of time under any manager? Were all his previous managers wrong then?
“Nottingham Forest star”
I must remember that next time I need an example for the meaning of oxymoron.
^^^^^^^
You’re an idiot. You know nothing about football. Better not to speak when you’ve nothing but stupid things to say.
Hes fat anyway!
Big loss for Ireland, he can do things that others can’t.
But Forest, already crippled with injuries, are absolutely fooked without Reid.
Still makes me angry at least 4 years of international duties were robbed off him. Wouldn’t mind if Whelan and Green were worthy their places in the squad