There were few occasions in Colm Cooper's inter-county career where he was fit to play but did not start for Kerry. One of those, infamously, was the 2009 All-Ireland qualifier against Antrim.
Kerry had lost the Munster semi-final to Cork and would have to take the qualifier route to All-Ireland glory. It was not a straight road for the Kingdom.
After slipping past Longford, Kerry faced Sligo in Tralee. Had David Kelly scored a late penalty for Sligo, it would likely have been a different result.
Tomás Ó Sé and Cooper hit the headlines after that game for breaking Kerry's alcohol ban. Both players would subsequently be dropped by Jack O'Connor for the Round 4 qualifier against Antrim. Though, they would both make appearances off the bench - Cooper scoring four points - as Kerry won by 5 in Tullamore.
In his Irish Independent column following Cooper's retirement from inter-county football on Tuesday, Tomás Ó Sé felt he needed to 'set the record straight' about what happened after that game against Sligo.
PS Now is as good a time as any to set the record straight. Back in 2009, myself and Gooch hit the headlines for having a few pints after we escaped from Sligo in the qualifiers that year. We were dropped for the game with Antrim the next day out, but now that we're both gone I can say claims that we were drinking together were totally false.
He was drinking in Killarney, but I was at it in Dingle.
