FOUR ALL-IRELAND medals, six in Munster, three National League triumphs and three Allstar awards.
It’s quite a list of accolades that Kieran Donaghy has accumulated in his Kerry senior football career.
But all the praise and honours haven’t diminished the Kerry captain’s belief that he needs to prove himself as he prepares to lead the county out in championship for the first time when they play Tipperary next Sunday.
“I feel I have something to prove all the time when I tog out for Kerry because I’m a basketballer slash footballer.
Kerry
“If you’re good at football in Kerry, you’ll be good all the way up.
“Whereas I wasn’t playing football at 15, 16, 17. I was an Irish international, I was playing basketball, I was captain of my country, I was loving it
“I was all basketball, football was so far from my imagination, it wasn’t even funny.”
Donaghy recalls when he took his first steps in swapping sporting careers.
“At 17, getting back in with my local C (football) team, not the B team, the C team. A bunch of boys that loved training on a Monday and Wednesday night, then play county league on a Friday night, and go on the drink for Friday, Saturday and Sunday!
“They were a good bunch of lads, I learnt an awful lot off them. All of a sudden I was a Kerry minor for a game against Dublin in an All-Ireland semi-final.
“That gave me the taste of Croke Park, that gave me the taste of putting the Kerry jersey on my back and probably for the next three or four years, then it gave me the ambition and the drive to go and try and maybe be a Kerry player.
“It never would have entered my head, I was a Kerry fan at that stage. I would go to Munster finals and I would go to All-Ireland’s as a youngster but never kind of going, I’ll be out there in a few years.”
Donaghy is aware of the captaincy mantle but he is conscious of not being overburdened by it.
“The captaincy is a huge one but I’m conscious too that it doesn’t change me.
“I am going to be trying to be like I always have been the last ten years but then when the boys need me on the pitch that I am playing to a high standard.
“That’s the most important thing a captain can do is lead by example.”
– First published 17.29
