His leadership always stood out

THE one thing that always stood out to me about Kieran was his leadership. He has the ability to bring others with him and it’s a tremendous quality to have. By winning his own battle he has the ability to inspire his team-mates to win their own and there weren’t too many he lost.

He had great skills coming into the game through Basketball and even though I was aware of him from the TV Show ‘The Underdogs’, the first time I saw him was the Qualifier against Longford in Fitzgerald Stadium back in 2006. It was like a throwback to the ‘Bomber’ Liston with the outlet he brought Kerry and what I with him was that when the occasion was at its most pressurised, Kieran was always the one who embraced it most.

When he was there for training with Austin Stacks everything went up a notch and Kerry’s loss is certainly Stacks’ gain. He was instrumental to the success we had in winning the County Championship in 2014. I would be very surprised if he doesn’t go into coaching down the road but for the moment I think Kieran might want to experience the things he missed out on in life because of football.

STEPHEN STACK - FORMER AUSTIN STACKS MANAGER