Jonny Cooper
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish name | Seán Cúipéir | ||
| Sport | Gaelic football | ||
| Position | Right Corner Back | ||
| Born |
4 November 1989 Dublin, Ireland | ||
| Club(s) | |||
| Years | Club | ||
| Na Fianna | |||
| Colleges(s) | |||
| Years | College | ||
| DCU | |||
| College titles | |||
| Sigerson titles | 2 | ||
| Inter-county(ies)* | |||
| Years | County | Apps (scores) | |
2012– | Dublin | 11 (0-1) | |
| Inter-county titles | |||
| Leinster titles | 7 | ||
| All-Irelands | 6 | ||
| NFL | 5 | ||
| All Stars | 2 | ||
| *Inter County team apps and scores correct as of 23 August 2014. | |||
Jonathan "Jonny" Cooper (born 4 November 1989) is a dual player,[1] who nowadays predominantly plays Gaelic footballer who plays inter-county for the Dublin county football team and the Na Fianna club.[2][3]
Cooper played hurling at schoolboy and minor level. First playing football under manager Jim Gavin at under-21 level, Cooper is reckoned to be one of Gavin's most trusted players.[4]
Early life
The youngest of four children born to Brendan and Loyola, Cooper has two brothers called Niall and Mark and a sister called Jules.[1]
He is a grandnephew of Simon Deignan, who played in the Polo Grounds final of 1947.[1]
Loyola's father, who helped found the Na Fianna club in 1955, had emigrated from Cavan and begun a clothes whoelsale business in Ranelagh.[1] Cooper often worked there during summers from about the age of ten.[1] Cooper's grandfather died before the Blue Wave began.[1]
Playing career
Underage: 2006–2010
Cooper won an All-Ireland "A" Hurling medal while playing with Dublin Colleges in 2006 and the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship the year after.[1] He knew future Dublin teammate Stephen Cluxton as a teacher at his school.[1]
Jim Gavin named Cooper as captain of the 2010 Dublin under-21 football team when he was manager.[4]
In early 2011, Cooper required surgery on a shoulder but kept playing in the hope that Pat Gilroy would call him into his Dublin squad. When this did not occur, Cooper underwent surgery in March that year.[1]
Early senior: 2012–2014
Some games for Dublin followed in 2012, under Gilroy's management.[1] But not many.[1] Gilroy later dropped Cooper from the Dublin team.[4] His physique and his intelligence were flaws to his progress.[1]
His former under-21 mentors Declan Darcy and Jim Gavin were puzzled why Cooper was not playing for Dublin.[1] Darcy even called Cooper for the first time in about a year to enquire why Cooper was not playing more games.[1] "They were very good", Copper later said. "I think they came to me first".[1] The morning after he watched the Dublin team win the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, Cooper went training "because I knew the 30-odd guys that [sic] were my direct competitors weren't going to be training and I was trying to get the edge there, in my own small way".[1]
Cooper played some games in the 2012 National Football League, but only 20 championship minutes in the Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final win over Louth.[1] For the 2012 Leinster SFC final, Cooper was given the number 33 jersey; he kept it with his other jerseys and would use it to motivate himself to become a better player.[1]
Cooper was part of the Dublin team that defeated Tyrone by 0–18 to 0–17 to win the 2013 National Football League, with Gavin having by then been appointed manager.[5][6][7][8] He was then part of the Dublin team that beat Mayo by 2–12 to 1–14 in the 2013 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final. In 2014, Cooper won both the 2014 National Football League and the 2014 Leinster Senior Football Championship with Dublin, before an infamous semi-final defeat to Donegal ended their season.
Then, in September 2014, came the attack. This brought unwanted public attention to Cooper and created headlines in the national press: "I remember a guy in a car following me with a camera... Guys knocking on the door".[1] Mick Bohan — then part of the Dublin management team — and Gavin visited Cooper in the Mater Hospital.[1] Cooper received professional counselling and it took 18–24 months to fully recover.[1]
2015–present: Five-in-a-row
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2019) |
A foot injury sustained during club month in April led to Cooper being sidelined for the 2019 Leinster Senior Football Championship.[4] He began to slip down the ranks with Dublin, appearing as part of the "B" team during training games.[4] For Cooper it was like when he had been dropped by Pat Gilroy.[4]
Style
Ahead of All-Ireland finals, he usually takes the Friday off work.[4] He is a self-admitted introvert.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Crowe, Dermot (22 September 2019). "Learning life the hard way". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 22 September 2019. "Learning life the hard way" was the title in the print edition.
- ^ "Cooper: Loss of confidence blunted my ambition". The Herald. 1 March 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
- ^ "Jonny Cooper says Dublin are their own harshest critics". Irish Independent. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Roche, Frank (31 August 2019). "'Things could have gone the other way': Injury forced Jonny Cooper to start from the bottom and claw his way back again". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
- ^ "Supersub Rock breaks Tyrone hearts in epic final". Irish Independent. 28 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
- ^ "Dublin 0-18 Tyrone 0-17". RTÉ Sport. 28 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
- ^ "Dubs show their depth as fringe men shine". Irish Examiner. 28 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
- ^ "Dublin 0-18 0-17 Tyrone". BBC News. 28 April 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2013.