Cooper played hurling at schoolboy and minor level. First playing football under manager Jim Gavin at under-21 level, Cooper was reckoned to be one of Gavin's most trusted players when Gavin managed the county team.[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 wholesale 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]
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]
2015–2022: Six-in-a-row and retirement
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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]
On 31 December 2022, Cooper announced his retirement from inter-county football, ending his 11-year senior career.[9][10]
Style
Ahead of All-Ireland finals, he usually takes the Friday off work.[4] He is a self-admitted introvert.[1]
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