Cooper is captain in sweeping shake-up

Kerry have made so many notable changes for Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier against Longford that it's hard to know where to…

Kerry have made so many notable changes for Saturday's All-Ireland qualifier against Longford that it's hard to know where to begin.

Team captain Declan O'Sullivan? Dropped. Number of players holding their positions after the Munster final defeat to Cork? Seven. One of the more surprising switches? Midfielder Kieran Donaghy named at full forward.

Yet probably the main talking point will be Colm "the Gooch" Cooper taking over the captaincy, while retaining his place at right-corner forward. It is hoped that the honour will inspire a return to his old form.

With O'Sullivan dropped, the only member of the Kerry champions South Kerry on the team, the captaincy rights went to the beaten finalists, Dr Crokes - who chose Cooper over Eoin Brosnan, who had previously held the captaincy.

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Having undergone some much-needed physio work after the Cork match, Cooper was reportedly in sparkling form at Kerry's training in Killarney last Saturday and a big performance is now anticipated when Longford make the trip to Killarney on Saturday afternoon.

It's has been a difficult summer so far for Cooper, largely explained by the sudden death of his father, Mike, at the start of April. He bravely played in Kerry's final league match against Dublin just six days later, coming on late in the second half to contribute one score and set up another that earned the draw with Dublin.

Since then times have been hard. He scored just two frees in Kerry's opening win over Waterford and was later replaced. Against Tipperary in the Munster semi-final he hit a single free - and was limited to an equally paltry return in the drawn Munster final against Cork.

In the replay last Sunday week, when Kerry perhaps needed a big performance from Cooper more then ever before, he hit a single score late in the first half - his only point from play in the championship so far. He also hit five unthinkable wides, hit the post once, and in the end was lucky not to be replaced.

Considering he hit 4-23 in last year's championship (including 2-5 against Limerick) there's obviously been a lot of concern about what's going wrong with Cooper. But at 23, and with three All Stars from the last four years already to his name, he was never going to become a bad player overnight and there's now reason to believe that the major blip in his usual standards will end on Saturday afternoon.

As for the rest of the Kerry team, manager Jack O'Connor hasn't shown as much sympathy.

O'Sullivan's is effectively demoted to the bench for the first time since making the starting line-up in 2004 (although he was injured at certain stages that year) and that's definitely surprising, especially given his close relationship with O'Connor (they're both from the Dromid Pearses club). But O'Sullivan's form and mood has been perhaps more questionable than Cooper's and he was replaced against Cork in the replay having failed to make any impression from play.

Also gone are young forwards Bryan Sheehan and Paul O'Connor. Eamonn Fitzmaurice is axed again from centre forward, and Tommy Griffin now joins Darragh Ó Sé at midfield. Mike Frank Russell returns to left corner forward, while Donaghy - who missed the Cork match through suspension - plays his first ever game at full forward. The entire half-forward line is adjusted and now reads Darren O'Sullivan, Eoin Brosnan and Paul Galvin.

The defensive switches are all positional, with Marc Ó Sé and Tom O'Sullivan swapping corner back berths, and Aidan O'Mahony named at left-wing back, where, in fact, he played for most of the Cork match.

Meanwhile, both Galway and Westmeath are waiting until after training this evening before finalising teams for their fourth-round qualifier at Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening.

Galway are definitely without talented young forward Seán Armstrong, who has a chronic hamstring injury, and Derek Savage remains doubtful with the leg injury that forced him to miss the Connacht final defeat to Mayo.

It remains to be seen if Ja Fallon makes the starting line-up after his dramatic return from intercounty retirement, and Paul Clancy is also in the running for a place after a knee injury.

Westmeath's main injury worry is midfielder David O'Shaughnessy, who continues to be hampered by an Achilles tendon injury, and almost certainly out is teenage forward John Connellan, who sustained a bad shoulder injury in the round three win over Sligo.

The clash of colours has been sorted in advance of the game with Westmeath wearing their away green strip.

KERRY(SF v Longford): D Murphy; M Ó Sé, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé, S Moynihan, A O'Mahony; D Ó Sé, T Griffin; Darren O'Sullivan, E Brosnan, P Galvin; C Cooper, K Donaghy, M F Russell.