On Monday morning last, the soul-searching, scratching of heads, and staring into mirrors, was well underway in at least a dozen or so locations throughout Kerry. The sort of reaction which is normally induced by a big defeat in August, or an All-Ireland final, was in full swing. And, it was only Monday, 15 June.

Darragh Ó Sé, you can bet, was heavily involved in one of the above activities. So too, for sure, was Kerry team boss Jack O'Connor, and his two selectors, Ger O'Keeffe and Eamon Fitzmaurice.

The four of them have to sort out one of the bigger messes a Kerry team has found itself in at the beginning of a championship season. Of course, with the summer still in front of us, Kerry might have all the time in the world to put things right. But that's largely down to these four men, and down to Darragh Ó Sé every bit as much as Jack O'Connor.

O'Connor is the boss, and while he is guilty of dithering and second-guessing himself to a staggering degree in his first two games back as Kerry manager, he's now got to make up his mind about exactly what he's at; is he stubbornly building a team with both eyes firmly on September 2009, or is he putting together a team which might lose some, find itself, and take Gaelic football by the neck in 2011 or 2012 and rule for four or five years as confidently as any Kerry team has done?

Plan A includes Darragh Ó Sé. Plan B has the number-one midfielder of this generation packing his kit bag for good. Make your mind up Jack!

Darragh, of course, should have a say in this too, since someone who has given such honourable service to the most distinguished jersey in the country has to be allowed to hand-pick the time and place for either a quick exit, or a slow, deserving lap of the pitch. Ó Sé will likely choose the former, but when?

He could compete for another few months. There is no doubt about that. Even though the furious pace and intensity which Cork brought to both encounters made Ó Sé look ten years older and ten yards slower than we have ever seen him before, he could wrestle with the gigantic challenge now facing him and get to grips with the next few games in the qualifiers. Nobody would doubt him on that front.

Question is, where does that lead Darragh Ó Sé? Even if he does put the Kerry team on his back, once more, those old legs will hardly see him or the team safely through to the autumn. It might be wise for him to call it now. Strangely enough, if he retired from the team right now, it would probably make Jack O'Connor's real job of building a Kerry team for the future all the easier.

Not that that will happen. David Moran will, I guess, be playing tug of war with Darragh Ó Sé over the number-eight jersey for a tiny while longer.

I can hardly remember a Kerry team, after a defeat, which has so many people asking so many questions of themselves. There's the four we've just mentioned. And then there's Tom O'Sullivan, Pádraig Reidy, Aidan O'Mahony, Paul Galvin, Tadhg Kennelly, Colm Cooper, Bryan Sheehan, Darren O'Sullivan, and Michael Quirke. There you go. Thirteen Kerry men all told.

Individually, O'Sullivan, Reidy and O'Mahony have gone through a torrid time since the second half of '08. Galvin clearly does not understand the level of respect the Kerry jersey deserves, and cares far more about himself than the clatter of people in the Kerry dressing room. Tadhg Kennelly, meanwhile, must be wondering why he took the outrageous career turn which has left him with Galvin as a teammate. Kennelly, don't forget, came home to win All Irelands, and fast. He hasn't time for selfish, self-centred characters around him.

Sheehan, Darren O'Sullivan and Quirke must all wonder will they ever become fully-fledged inter-county footballers, who can earn and retain their place on a starting 15. And O'Sullivan, especially, must be cursing his bad luck at, quite idiotically, being named team captain at the start of the season. Cooper, also, funny enough, must wonder quite a lot about himself.

For starters, Colm Cooper, despite being gifted with abilities beyond the dreams of most of us, must know at this stage, over halfway through his career, that he is still not quite the complete genius on a Gaelic football field which the Irish media claim. Certainly, these last two years, he has been playing like somebody who had less than 50 per cent confidence in his abilities. Himself and Kieran Donaghy are fortunate, and unfortunate, in many respects.

Who wishes to be known as 'Gooch', and who really and sincerely wishes to be called 'Star'? Assessments of both players, every second game they play, are far too complimentary and usually quite inaccurate, and certainly the younger breed of Gaelic football journalist, as well as a fair body of the middle-aged blokes as well, have an awful lot to answer for in trying to make Kieran Donaghy, especially, one of the greatest and most complete exponents of the modern game.

Donaghy has only one really good year of football behind him, and unless he really gets a grip on his career upon his return from injury then he is going to end up as some sort of schoolboy, comic-book hero, rather than the real thing. It's not his fault that grown men in press boxes and broadcast studios call him 'Star'. But he's now got to live up to this ridiculous billing.

Cooper's biggest problem is that he clearly needs Donaghy (or Tommy Walsh, in another two or three years when he becomes the player he can be) before he can also confidently live up to his own spectacular billing every single Sunday. Cooper's skills are beyond question. His movement is simply magnificent. But, last Saturday, not uncommonly in recent seasons, all four of his points came from relatively easy frees. He was guilty of a couple of outrageously poor attempts at scores, but, all told, barely a sniff was allowed his way in over 140 minutes by the irrepressible Anthony Lynch.

Cooper doesn't win games on his own. He lacks the ability to dominate and win hard, one-on-one physical contests and take a stranglehold on games all on his own – and that leaves him at a level below some of the outstanding men who have played on full-forward lines through the '80s and '90s on some of the best All-Ireland winning teams.

We all know Kerrymen who could win the big games single-handedly. Peter Canavan, small man he may be, would take on the personal confrontation and complete the job of winning the game himself. So too, Colm O'Rourke. And I make no apology for believing that Colm Cooper, right now, is still just up to lacing O'Rourke's boots.

Cooper's lack of fortitude is a real problem for this new Kerry team which will soon be in the making, and it is a problem which is exacerbated, not only by Donaghy's present injury, but by the prospect that Donaghy may never again be quite so devastating at full-forward as he was in August and September of 2007.

Only a little while ago, I was on the receiving end of an awful lot of guff from Kerry football supporters. Newspapers or radio stations, in Tralee or Killarney, were then phoning me on a weekly basis asking me to stand over, in full view of the Kerry public, my 'questionable' opinions of the Kerry football team. But I don't hear too much from any of these people anymore.

In this period, Kerry have won one God-awful All-Ireland final against Cork, and have lost to Tyrone, once again, in another All-Ireland final. And now, in June 2009, we see them in this mess. I was not wishing this upon Kerry, but it was quite obvious to see, if anyone really remained sensible and calm in watching Kerry win and lose All Irelands this decade, that the county is not the incredible, dominating force it once was for roughly three-quarters of the last century.

Kerry, sure enough, will always be at the top of the game in Gaelic football, and therefore whenever the game goes through a period of mediocrity, Kerry will always be there or thereabouts, and able to win two or three All-Irelands. The point I have been making over the last couple of years is that, in the last decade, Kerry are not at the top of their very own highest of standards.

There is no question of who the dominant team of this decade has been. It's Tyrone, no matter what becomes of Mickey Harte and Jack O'Connor and their teams this summer.

lhayes@tribune.ie