Having grown accustomed to a level of scrutiny and criticism that comes with being the leading player of his generation, Colm Cooper says he has a degree of sympathy for Philly McMahon, who became the pantomime villain of Dublin's All-Ireland winning summer.

Unsavoury allegations of head-butting and gouging marred the Dublin defender’s All Star-winning performances which included an impressive man-marking job on Cooper, whom he held scoreless in the final which Dublin won by 0-12 to 0-9.

While admitting he was disappointed with his own performance in the final, Cooper claims some of the criticism McMahon received was “unfair”.

“You can talk about various points in his play, but the biggest point is that he had a fantastic season,” said Cooper.

“He marked big players in big games and did very very well against them. He was in line for Player of the Year.

Good season

“The incidents he was involved in, that’s not for me to decide. That’s what the committees in Dublin are there to sort out. My job is playing and the only thing I would say is he had a very good season.

“I’ve seen it with different players that they come under the microscope an awful lot. We’ve had it in Kerry with Paul Galvin for a number of years. Some of it fair, some of it unfair. That’s just the nature of the beast.”

Cooper is disappointed the GAA did not inform both sets of players that referee David Coldrick was wearing a microphone during the final for the purposes of a TV documentary, All-Ireland Day screened on RTÉ last week.

“It was just surprising from the point of view that no one knew about it,” Cooper said, as he visited schools in Down yesterday in his role as AIB youth ambassador.

“Should the players be told before the game? I think they should. It was there, not to catch out players I don’t think, but it was there to show the public what really happens.

“But I think it would have been nice if they had let both squads know at least.”

Though he has not yet seen the documentary, Cooper has concerns that such intrusions into what’s said during high-octane match situations may portray players in a negative light.

“In the heat of the moment players can come out with anything and you don’t want to be portrayed as something that you’re not.

“Obviously David Coldrick knew about it. He was very cool, calm and collected – but the players weren’t as cool! Look, it’s gone, but it was maybe just an error from a logistical point of view not to let the players know.”

The five-time All-Ireland winner expects all of Kerry’s senior players to join him in trying to dethrone Dublin next season.

While name-checking Marc Ó Sé, Paul Galvin, Aidan O’Mahony and Kieran Donaghy as the likely suspects, he said he’d be “surprised” if they retired. “They’re hungry boyos, and they might want some more.”