Kerry have been in the long grass: Jonny Cooper

Tue, 9th August 2016

Dublin and Kerry will renew their famed rivalry when the counties meet at the end of this month in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

The Dubs hold the upperhand in recent meetings but prior to that the Kingdom were very much in control in terms of summer meetings.

Dublin defender isn’t really interested in the historical perspective, the Na Fianna man senses Kerry have had the Dubs in their sights for a while.

“I suppose that’s in the history books, those results already. That’s for people to weigh up and judge whatever way they want," says Jonny.

“But from our point of view, it’s just about looking at them now in a couple of weeks’ time.

“It’s going to be a big challenge. They’ve earmarked this, they’ve been in the long grass the last couple of weeks."

Reflecting on last Sunday’s quarter-final victory over Donegal Jonny says the Dubs have learned to put lessons of the past to good use and paid tribute to Dublin’s defensive game.

“We went into it with our eyes open. 2014 was a learning curve for us. So we tried to bring those learnings into the match and again, that bit of defensive structure to try and curtail that threat.

“It’s probably been a point since Jim started that our full-back line was susceptible to the high balls.

“I thought we did extremely well. Any ball that went into them by and large, off the top of my head, I can’t think of any goal chances that came off that high ball.

“But again, that threat is always there," concludes Jonny.