Seán Moran talks to Kerry's Colm Cooper about the struggle to reproduce his prolific scoring form of previous years and the progress of Kieran Donaghy

In one way it's familiar territory for Colm Cooper but in others it's uncharted. For a start his presence at a Kerry media night is unusual, but so committed (or resigned) to his fate has he been that he has taken individual confessional interviews and is now ending the night with a mass conference.

There's another disorientating aspect about the preparation for this year's All-Ireland final. Cooper has been one of the game's blue-chip forwards since first emerging at senior level four years ago. Three of his seasons have ended with All Stars on the mantelpiece and at various times he has looked unmarkable.

Until this year: earlier in the season it was business as usual, with Cooper terrorising defences during the National League. His performances did much to disguise stuttering team form and manager Jack O'Connor made something of a one-man show out of a script hoping the other forwards would share the burden.

Nonetheless the county emerged from the league campaign with the title but in the process, far from backing up Cooper, the team wasn't recovering form and their star forward eventually lost his as the summer got under way.

"I've been on the road for over two years without a break," he says. "It's tough going the whole time. Maybe I was going a little bit too well early in the year for the way it worked out. But you don't think of that when you're out on the field. You always want to do your best. It was working in the league but then when it came to the championship it wasn't working.

"I felt if I kept at it and persisted with it that it would come back. It probably took a little bit long to get going. Performances weren't great and from a personal pint of view mine were a bit lower than the team's. I kept hanging in and the standards I set for myself over the past couple of years probably didn't help. I had been kicking five, six points or 1-5 and people were expecting that every day. Being realistic, there's not too many players doing that every day."

There's no doubt about that. But the slump was precipitous and he reached the Munster final without having scored from play. Even after a replayed final, he had just one point.

Despite his considerable achievements, the Dr Crokes man is still just 23 and hitting his first rut at intercounty level.

"It's not the first but probably one of the first with Kerry - I've had plenty of them with the club. You learn to deal with it. Jack never put me under any pressure. No one ever panicked about the loss of form. It happens to everyone. Unfortunately for me it was this year."

The qualifiers that followed ended up with Cooper replaced as the big story in Kerry's attack. Kieran Donaghy's redeployment as a traditional full forward: all catching, all handling and all conquering. One of the things said about him is that his presence eases the pressure on the corner forwards. Familiar with the sort of hype that currently vibrates around Donaghy, who has been routinely involved in about half of the team's scores in each of the matches since his switch to the edge of the square, Cooper sounds a cautionary note.

"He's a good player and has all the skills and he's done well so far. But the next day is going to be another test and challenge for him. Hopefully he'll do as well as he has been doing.

"All-Ireland finals are strange - nothing works the way you think it will. The next day it mightn't be Kieran who does it - everyone might be expecting Conor Mortimer to do it as well. I hope it goes well for him but who knows?"

Details of the team selection have come as a blow to Cooper's Killarney club, Dr Crokes. The return of team captain Declan O'Sullivan has cost Eoin Brosnan his starting place and means Cooper, who has been captain in O'Sullivan's absence, will not lead the team around. He's unfazed by the issue.

"Before the Longford game, South Kerry didn't have a man on the team. We played them in the final last year so I was asked if I would take the captaincy. I was delighted but from one day to the next you don't know how it's going to work out. As long as Sam is coming home no one really minds who gets to lift it."