KERRY’S 2011 SEASON began and ended on a familiar note.
One point in arrears to Dublin on the biggest day of the football calendar, one point in arrears to Cork when the season had started in earnest that February.
That spring opener in Tralee saw Jack O’Connor press a 20-year-old attacker into action for his league debut. As the game headed down the stretch Paul Geaney came on for his cousin David, who had shot 0-4, and the youngster bagged a goal to mark his senior bow.
O’Connor steered Kerry to the final football hurdle in 2011, an occasion weighted with significance as Dublin made the breakthrough that kick-started their era of dominance.
On Sunday he will renew acquaintances with Dublin on the All-Ireland final stage.
Geaney is the only Kerry playing link that has survived from that 2011 campaign. The Cork appearance was his solitary one that season, he wouldn’t feature in the league again until 2014, but did squeeze in a championship debut off the bench against Cavan in the 2013 quarter-final.
Injuries ripped up his plans. His back was troublesome for a chunk of 2013, a broken vertebrae was eventually diagnosed as the problem and an operation was recommended.
“I thought that he would have a good cut at it but every time he got going, he got injured,” was the summation of Eamonn Fitzmaurice, the Kerry manager at the time, of the Dingle player’s stalled development.
Yet Geaney persevered and is still going. Last Sunday week’s All-Ireland semi-final against Derry represented his 50th senior championship outing in Kerry colours. He reached a similar number for league ties last March in the round 7 fixture with Galway, another spring that had been disrupted by injury.
“He’s kept himself in fantastic condition, down through the years,” says Diarmuid Murphy, Dingle club-mate and Kerry selector, when speaking of Geaney’s longevity.
“He’s really minded himself even in the off season. I was with Dingle for a few years there when I wasn’t with Kerry and you’d see him doing gym work off season, doing his runs, getting through his work that he needed to get through.”
Fitness concerns were one thing, elbowing his way into the conversation for a starting Kerry forward spot was another. Consider the roll call of attacking names when Kerry exited the 2013 race in that classic against Dublin. Galvin, Cooper, Walsh, O’Sullivan (x2) and O’Donoghue all started, with Brosnan and Donaghy introduced.
By the close of the following season Geaney was a regular, bagging 1-2 in an All-Ireland final winning display.
The 2016 and 2017 championships did not yield collective success but they did produce individual riches. By that stage he was Kerry’s main attacking man, reflected in his presence in the All-Star full-forward line after both seasons, his county’s sole representative.
In the 2016 championship he fired 3-15 across four games, in 2017 that total swelled to 1-30 across five matches. Kerry’s pursuit of Sam Maguire was fruitless, yet in those semi-final losses Geaney took the Dublin defence for 1-4 and pickpocketed the Mayo backline for 0-10.
The winter of 2017 was critical in shaping the future of the Kerry attack. David Clifford moved out of underage football and slotted seamlessly into the senior forward line. Ever since he has dominated the conversations surrounding the health of the Kerry team.
He will collect his fifth All-Star in a few months and is the hot favourite to retain his Footballer of the Year crown. He has amassed 5-39 in another summer of dazzling displays. As a magnet for attention, all other Kerry forwards must adapt and Geaney in particular as the colleague who plays most regularly alongside the Fossa wonder close to goal.
Has his game required major modification?
“Maybe yeah,” says Murphy.
“Like, I mean, (Kieran) Donaghy would have been around that time as well, who would have been an imposing figure inside in the full forward line when Paul won those two All-Stars.
“He’s actually playing very well at the moment, we’d be happy with Paul, what he is doing. I suppose it may be different (with David playing), but maybe it could create opportunities for you too in the sense that David does tend to draw maybe a lot of the attention himself.
“So it might open it up for other lads as well.”
The bald scoring statistics may suggest a dilution of Geaney’s role. He has kicked 0-7 across six games this summer, missing out against Louth through a minor injury. The Derry game was the one where he was held scoreless. He remains a regular starter, withdrawn mostly in the 50th-55th minute period, yet his game has evolved and he has tailored his involvement to suit the needs of his team, while factoring in the different demands defensive systems now place on inside forwards.
When Kerry lost to Mayo two months ago, Geaney was their best forward after Clifford as he snapped over three points from play.
There have also been inputs in fashioning goals. The left-footed clip across for Dara Moynihan’s finish in the Munster final, the crucial penalty won away to Cork, the quick hands that helped piece together the move for Gavin White’s goal against Derry.
Geaney is the longest-serving member of the current Kerry squad since David Moran stepped away earlier this year. Only Paul Murphy and Stephen O’Brien are still around for company from the All-Ireland winning class of 2014.
Four years ago he was denied from the penalty spot by Stephen Cluxton in the draw with Dublin before rattling off four points from play in the replay.
He’s still motoring on as Kerry prepare to face Dublin in a decider again.
100 appearances in the bank and chasing Sam Maguire for the third time ahead of his 33rd birthday.
“He’s getting the rewards for the work he’s putting in now that he’s still able to play and still being competitive at the top level,” says Murphy.
“Even though he’s getting slightly older now, he deserves everything that’s coming to him.”
