Gutsy Geaney takes the battle to Cluxton and Dublin

SHOUT goes up and a ripple follows. Soon enough heads start to turn. The play may be down the other end, but the commotion is such that before long the entire ground has fixed its gaze in that direction.

The volume rises, the play stops, the referee runs in. Nine times out of ten it’s over before it really gets going. This one flared for a time, but never truly caught fire. A couple of yellow cards later and it was back to the task at hand.

It was only after the game that its true significance became apparent. There was more to this scuffle than first met the eye. This was about a Kerry player letting a Dublin player know it’d be a mistake to get too comfortable. As much as anything else Saturday night was about Kerry getting under Dublin’s skin and this was a piece with that.

Stephen Cluxton, as he does, had a number of balls beside his goalmouth, ready in the event of a kick-out. The Parnells man doesn’t mess about, from point scored or wide to the ball being sent back into play is a quick, seamless process.

Well that’s the theory anyway. In Croke Park it is, but this was not Croke Park, despite the presence of a couple of thousand Dubs behind that goal, and as if to reinforce the point Paul Geaney pulled on a ball, driving it far from goal.

Cluxton, in Geaney’s words, took exception. Once battle was joined there was no backing down. The yellow card a price well worth paying for causing the Dublin shot-stopper to lose his cool.

We probably shouldn’t encourage such behaviour, we should tut tut and think of the example being set... the thing though is we can’t, not this time. A smile came across our face when Geaney recounted the tale in the press room after the game.

What Geaney did took guts, he poked the bear, he got the reaction he wanted. It was a display of spiky defiance from a man with silken skills. With young Kevin McCarthy and Jack Savage alongside him, he was laying down a marker, setting an example.

Such is the age profile of this Kerry team that Geaney – at twenty six – is now one of the team’s elder statesmen and, although he acknowledges the fact, it’s not something he worries too much about.

“I just go out to try and be part of the team and lead anyway,” he says when asked if there’s any greater sense of responsibility upon his shoulders.

“I suppose I’d be used to that playing with the club. As long as I remember I’ve been one of the older fellas even when I was sixteen, seventeen playing with Dingle, it’s just an eternally young club team as well because of the nature of the area, people go away.

“I suppose I’m used to playing with younger guys. I’m twenty six now and the third oldest on that team. It’s nice to see the young guys coming and talented guys. Adrian Spillane had a great game today and Kevin McCarthy and Jack Savage as well so we’ve some

very good performances around the place.”

Overall the performance – if not the result – was very good for Kerry. The defiance Geaney showed with his first half contretemps with Cluxton was manifest all over the pitch and throughout the side.

“The performance was what we’ve been chasing the last couple of years against Dublin,” he continues.

“Mainly because we haven’t performed for the full seventy minutes against them and we did today. We played seventy five minutes and maybe if play was left develop another small bit at the end we would have kicked the winner.

“The performance was good, just the result wasn’t exactly what we wanted. We had the chance to see out the game with possession in the last minute, but we gave away a point.

“In that context it was a good result getting a point out of here tonight. A few positives to take from it, a few negatives, a missed goal chance, a missed easy free we’ll call it as well, so things to improve on as well.

“It was a championship pace match, maybe in worse conditions, it was as close to championship as you’re going to get at this time of the year. End to end stuff, really high intensity, hungry for the breaks on both fifteens so it was a really high intensity game.

“The Dublin team was not as experienced as the full Dublin team either so you can say that on both sides. Just on the face of it you could say it was a good game today and highly intense and good preparation.”

It was the type of game and the type of occasion that footballers live for. Lights, camera, action. “It was mighty to see it full, it was a great atmosphere tonight,” the Dingle man agrees.

“A lot of Dubs had travelled for the game, they brought their voice, a times it sounded like there was ten times more than them than there was Kerry fans, they’re a noisy bunch alright when they travel and they’re a noisy bunch in Croke Park as well.

“You just factor that into the game when you go into it you know they’re going to have plenty of support and noise. It was a lovely night, lovely occasion for Tralee as well having been redeveloped in the last two years.

“The match fit into it.”