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Daniel Bohan celebrates with Kieran Donaghy after yesterday's game. Cathal Noonan/INPHO
Star Man

Kerry captaincy beckons for Donaghy but he just wants to savour Stacks club success

The Kerry star finally won a county senior football championship yesterday.

KIERAN DONAGHY IS set to become the Kerry senior football captain for 2015 but the attacking lynchpin wants to savour yesterday’s club glory with Austin Stacks and build on it over the winter.

Austin Stacks victory in yesterday’s Kerry senior football final replay means they have the privilege of nominating a player to become Kingdom captain for 2015 and Donaghy is the front runner to be bestowed with that honour.

The player himself is still basking in the glow at finally winning a Kerry senior decider with his club, the latest chapter in an incredible run of personal glory.

“It doesn’t get any better than what I have been through in the last three months. Three great months, 16 very tough months before. It’s funny, I said it to the missus and that it must be all for a reason. Not everyone gets to be as lucky as I am, that it works out as good and I just have been fortunate.

“It’s been unbelievable for Kerry and we enjoyed Kerry for five or six days after the final and then I got the head down and back in with the club and I’ve been full on since then.

“I suppose I’ll start really thinking about the captaincy when this journey ends but I just want to keep focused on the club now. We’ve got a chance to go on now and do something. We’ll look forward to that and go hard.”

Gaffer

Austin Stacks manager Stephen Stack heaped praise on Donaghy’s contribution that saw him shoot 1-2 and win the man-of-the-match award yesterday.

“He’s such a magnificent leader! If he is going to be captain of Kerry, I can tell you he is going to be a great captain. In time I believe he’ll be a great coach but for now we want to hold onto him as a player. I thought he was magnificent again today, the ball going into him was very good.”

Cathal Noonan / INPHO Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO

Donaghy admitted that Austin Stacks have had to endure tough days to reach to this juncture.

“”We were in the exact same dressing room last year. We lost to an unbelievable Crokes side and a lot of soul searching went on. Fellas had to up it this year and we went away and did a bit more stuff and all credit goes to that bunch of players who have been hard at it all year.

“That gap was a tough one. We’ve been to a few finals and just came up against a Crokes team that were too good for us on both days. They beat us in two other semi finals. We ran them really close in one semifinal so to get over the line is just brilliant.

“I just tried to do my best for the Stacks and my club. To win it with my friends like Daniel Bohane and William Kirby. Darragh Long and Mikey Collins, fellas who’ve trudged for 10-15 years, it’s just great to get our hands on the Bishop (Moynihan Cup).”

Cathal Noonan / INPHO Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO

Donaghy drew on his experiences with Kerry to help his club teammates not become discouraged by failing to win in last week’s draw against Mid Kerry.

“I said to the boys afterwards in our WhatsApp group that I went through a draw this year with the Mayo game and we were buzzing after the draw even though we could have won it. So it was very similar.

“I said to the lads draws are tricky ones to handle but we have to learn from our mistakes. We counted the battles we won last week and we counted five or six. We said that we needed nine or 10 and I think we got that today.”

Donaghy the star as Austin Stacks end 20-year wait for Kerry senior football glory

As It Happened: Austin Stacks v Mid Kerry, Kerry senior football final replay

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