THE LACK OF regular championship games and the benefit of the GAA’s proposed new round-robin quarter-final format have been highlighted by Kerry’s only All-Star winner in 2016.
The Dingle man was one of Kerry’s leading lights this summer but the attacker has voiced frustrations after a season where they only had four senior championship games against Clare (twice), Tipperary and Dublin.
In that context, he feels there is plenty value to Pauric Duffy’s new football championship proposal which would see a round-robin quarter-final format introduced.
“We had four games in the championship this year and spent eight months preparing for basically the four of them. It can be frustrating when it’s four games of serious football and that’s it in a nutshell.
“Mentally, you can’t really feel totally satisfied unless you’re winning tight games by a point or two so it’s a disadvantage from that point.
“If you get through Ulster without injury you’re in a great place because you’ve had all the tough battles and mentally could only be in a great place having got through what you got through. I think we’re at a disadvantage in that sense.
“I actually like the look of that new format. There’s a home game and an away game and a game in between as well so that’s interesting. I’d love to play a big home game in Killarney.
It would be great to see some sort of a change in the format. It was an unusual year in that we didn’t meet Cork earlier in the championship, which we would have done every year.
“It was Dublin in the semi-final, which really kickstarted the championship but also ended the championship on the same day, which was a kind of an odd feeling. It was a weird championship in that way.”
“Definitely I would be satisfied with my scoring rate, my conversion rate even more so.
“I didn’t have many wides in the championship this year, which is something I wanted to improve on because sometimes the corner forward doesn’t get too many chances.
“So I said if I take all the chances I get I would be on a good roll and that’s the way it panned out for me.”
Given his electric form against Dublin, the decision to substitute Geaney in the closing stages provoked an intense post-match debate.
But the forward bears no grudges towards manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice for that decision.
“We spoke. He didn’t have to explain himself really to me. I wouldn’t be a guy that goes mad altogether.
“I’d be disappointed, I’d take it on the chin though. I have spoken to him and all’s good.
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“We were disappointed when he extended by a year last year and some guys were kind of feeling, ‘Why didn’t you commit to two years or three years?’
“I think Eamonn didn’t want things to stale, he wanted things to be fresh. That was maybe good management by Eamonn thinking that kind of way because most people would be selfish and only think about themselves.
“Eamonn had Kerry football in mind and he didn’t want to over-stay his welcome. We wanted Eamonn to stay on and thankfully he’s there for another two years anyway.”
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