Tomás Ó Sé says there is some “envy” in Kerry at how Conor Cox has emerged as a hero for Roscommon.
Cox was one of the stars of the Rossies’ Connacht final win over Galway on Sunday with his transfer from his native Kerry this year proving to be a roaring success.
The Listowel Emmets man played sporadically for Kerry in the League from 2013-16 and won three All-Ireland junior titles with the Kingdom before declaring for his father’s county earlier this year.
His time on the Kerry panel briefly overlapped with that of five-time All-Ireland winner O Se, who retired in 2013.
O Se explained: “He went travelling as a young fella and in Kerry sometimes they might be, 'Look if you are not fully committed 100% you’re grand, we have fellas that are’ kind of thing.
“I don’t think it was a case of Cox wasn’t shooting the lights out, he was a good solid forward always.
“Billy Morgan down in UCC always reckoned he was top quality and could not understand why he wasn’t in with Kerry and he’d won huge Sigerson Cup games for them in the past.
“The big thing with me is he’ll kick a couple of wides but he’ll kick more scores, he backs himself every single time.
“The view in Kerry at moment with the way he is going, a small bit of envy, I would say, but at the same time he is still playing his club football in Listowel he is a good guy a solid lad and I’m delighted to see him going so well.”
Despite his form for Roscommon, O Se doesn’t expect that Cox will wear the green and gold again.
“The attitude possibly would be that there are three of four Conor Coxes there and that would be the way they’d look at it,” said O Se, a Benetti Menswear GAA ambassador.
“And he got chances after, he came back and won three juniors with Kerry.
“Even that time when he was going very well there was talk of ‘bring him in, bring him in’, never got the chance, I don’t think, to go in.
“Very often in Kerry if you don’t make an impact soon it is very hard then to, they have this thought on you and you don’t get time to actually to make a proper imprint.”
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