We had wars but Red Hand were THE REAL DEAL
As Tyrone and Kerry rekindle their rivalry today, Kieran Donaghy remembers great battles gone by
FUNNY how life works. Up in Dublin to promote the annual Páidí Ó Sé tournament, Kieran Donaghy finds that he isn’t the only cult football hero being talked up as he tussles with retirement. Earlier the same week, another force of nature on the field, just as colourful, charismatic and outgoing, stepped away from the game, Tyrone’s Owen Mulligan posting a photo of a pair of boots hanging on a dressing room peg.
Two players whose careers intersected over the course of the Kerry-Tyrone rivalry that shaped football for much of the noughties and into the next decade. Two players whose strength of personality is such that they are often simply referred to by their nickname: Kerry had ‘Star’ wreaking havoc on the edge of the square; Tyrone had ‘Muggsy’ pulling shapes that only he could get away with.
As Kerry prepare to host Tyrone at Fitzgerald Stadium this afternoon, Donaghy, no more than his old attacking opponent, is getting used to being an ex-inter-county footballer.
He’s still in demand, even on hand to promote the 30th anniversary of Lidl Comórtas Peile Páidi Ó Sé in which GAA clubs from the United Arab Emirates, Scotland, England and 17 counties across the four provinces of Ireland will take part. Is it a strange experience? ‘I wouldn’t say “strange”. It’s unfortunate but it’s down to Father Time. You fight it for as long as you can but you know it’s coming. Me and Owen gave it our all for our counties, probably maxed out, couldn’t give any more.
‘There is a sense of calm when you go on your own terms. I think the guy who it torments most is the one who goes a year or two early, or not on their own terms due to injury – we saw with Andy Murray in tennis how hard it can be. We were very lucky to go on our own terms.’
The story of Donaghy’s Tyrone roots and the troubled life story of his Tyrone father Oliver is recounted in the player’s awardwinning memoir What Do You Think Of That?
The weekend he learned of his father’s death in March 2012, Donaghy played for Kerry in a National League game against Cork, the crowd in Páirc Uí Chaoimh honouring his passing with a minute’s silence.
In winning four All-Irelands with Kerry, he saw his life further intertwined with Tyrone. Back in 2008, Tommy Walsh and Donaghy earned the moniker the ‘Twin Towers’, making a devastating double-act up until the final when Mickey Harte’s Tyrone found a way of thwarting Kerry’s three-in-a-row bid.
‘It brings up loads of memories,’ he says on the subject of Kerry-Tyrone. ‘They were a great team to go to war against. I played against them in 2008 and lost, going for the threein-a-row which was a really hard one to take. The next time we played them was in Killarney in 2012, that famous day in the sun when we beat them in front of 40,000 – the day Mickey Harte got a fantastic reception from the Kerry fans. Then 2015, we got them in the semi-final – the same day they missed a few goal options.’ Those looking for a rise in Kerry liked to talk up the idea of an Ulster hoodoo during the noughties, Tyrone ambushing their illustrious opponents in the seminal 2003 AllIreland semi-final before winning the two critical final head-to-heads in 2005 and 2008. Donaghy dismisses it for what it was. ‘We beat enough northern teams along the way to know that wasn’t a thing. ‘Armagh in 2002, Tyrone in 2003. We won the All-Ireland in 2004 which noone remembers. Lost again then to Tyrone in 2005. Beat a very good Armagh team that had beaten Tyrone in 2006. We won the All-Ireland again in 2007 – 2008 is the year we felt Kerry didn’t perform.
‘In 2005, Tyrone were absolutely brilliant, you could say they were the best team in the country. They had options everywhere – Canavan was still around, Muggsy was still around, and Stephen O’Neill.
‘They had ballers and workers and tough guys at the back – just a legit football team. They were great battles. I wish I was around for that 2005 game. I wish I was on the edge of the square when Chris Lawn was catching all those balls.’
Now it’s Dublin’s world; the rest of the country just live in it. So when he was jawing at Stephen Cluxton as the Dublin goalkeeper prepared to kick the winning point in the All-Ireland final, did he ever envisage Dublin going on to be so successful, that kick delivering the first of six titles in eight seasons.
‘Not to the extent that they would be this dominant. We certainly realised when they won it in 2013, “Oh, we’re after opening a can of worms”. They had the confidence. They were a good team. We were after giving them that breathing space where they had an All-Ireland medal so the next one was easier to get.
‘You see with Mayo, when you don’t get it, it gets harder and harder.’
As the five-in-a-row talk gathers pace, he understands the anybodybut-Dublin sentiment. ‘It’s always the way. When we were going for three-in-a-row that time, the whole country was going for Tyrone. We weren’t foolish enough not to understand that.
‘Manchester United are winning – everybody wants them to lose. Manchester City are winning – everybody wants them to lose. Dublin are winning – everybody wants them to lose. Sure of course everybody are sick of Dublin winning. That’s just the way sport is.’
Is it too much to ask of a Kerry team under new management to stop Dublin’s five in a row?
‘Logic would probably tell you yes but logic doesn’t always work in this scenario. Come the summer, the Kerry management will be working on a defensive system or some system to help protect our backs. If you have an inside forward line of [David] Clifford, [Paul] Geaney and [James] O’Donoghue and they are all moving well and fit and healthy and their confidence is high, of course that forward line can cause damage and win you a one-off game.
‘We’ve been in that position of being the better team and not playing up to par and being beaten.
‘Kerry’s main job is to get back into an All-Ireland semi-final.’
‘THEY WERE JUST A LEGIT FOOTBALL TEAM, PROPER BALLERS’