By Cian O'Connell

Colm Cooper expects to meet Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice 'in the next week or so' to determine his inter-county future.

Cooper, famously the mascot when Dr Crokes won the AIB All Ireland title last in 1992, bagged a crucial goal in Friday's win over Slaughtneil.

The 33-year old will discuss the situation soon with Fitzmaurice. "It is, it is to be honest," Cooper remarked when asked whether it was a decision for another day.

"Look, I spoke with Eamonn at Christmas. I said, 'yee do your thing, I'll do my thing and we'll chat when the Crokes journey is over'. Look, I envisage that we'll talk in the next week or so and thrash it out and see where we go. I'm sure we'll come to the right conclusion."

Such a stalwart in Kerry and Dr Crokes colours, Cooper earned a much coveted All Ireland club win. "Just incredible, yeah, right at the end I had a sideline and I kicked it to Johnny Buckley and I remember just Pat O'Shea being beside me and to hear Maurice Deegan blow that final whistle, it was just wow, like," Cooper admitted.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. To meet friends and family afterwards, I just don't think words can describe how I'm feeling right now. It's relief, it's joy. It's a lot of things.

"I've pretty much poured everything into this since we lost with Dublin out here in the semi-final last year. I poured everything into Dr Crokes because I knew there wouldn't be too many more opportunities for us again.

"It was great, Eoin Brosnan coming on at the end, I'm so happy for so many players, Luke Quinn did his cruciate, Kieran O'Leary his achilles, all tough injuries, out for a year, but finally it came right for us so that's the most pleasing thing for me."

In the 2014 All Ireland Club Semi-Final loss to Castlebar Mitchels at O'Moore Park Cooper suffered a serious knee injury. Did he wonder would Crokes ever return to the summit of the game?  "Well, it was an incredibly low point, I didn't know whether I'd even get back to play with Kerry never mind win an All-Ireland club with Dr Crokes," Cooper commented.

"Yeah, possibly it flashed through my mind for sure. That's where these guys have hung in and cajoled me along and thankfully I've got back to playing a bit of better football this year and I'm enjoying it."