‘I made a move and he put the ball on the money’

IT shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that these two would have such an innate understanding.

Not so much because they’re first cousins – though they are – and growing up in the same town it’s only natural that first cousins should spend time together kicking ball on long summer evenings.

No, probably it has more to do with the fact Mikey and Paul Geaney were born within a year of each other – Mikey is just a little over a year older – and so they would have played, more often than not, on the same underage teams.

For Kerry’s first goal on Sunday that understanding was crucial. We’ll let Paul take up the story of the goal made in Dingle.

“Yeah it was a great ball by him [Mikey],” Paul says.

“It’s happened before he’s put in great balls like that for me with the club so I knew when he got it he was going to look in and look for me so I just made a small move, maybe two metres to my right and he just put the ball on the money.”

Paul still had quite a bit to do after that. He had to shrug off Alan Campbell. He had to find the space to shoot and avoid the handful of Tipperary players still scrambling. He did all that and delivered a pin-point finish to definitively kill off the Tipperary challenge.

“It was a good start from Tipperary and it kind of shocked us into focus at the start of the game,” he explains.

“It took us a small while to get going and we didn’t really function too well from our own forty five up for the first small while, but we started clicking into gear just tagging on scores and it helped us to click into gear a small bit.”

Once Kerry did there was no stopping them. Okay it wasn’t vintage stuff – although let’s be clear it was from man of the match Geaney – but it did secure for Kerry their fourth Munster title in succession. Not since the Golden Years has such a feat been achieved. “It’s nice,” he says. “It’s not something that even came into my mind before the game, but just winning the Munster final was the main thing in my mind and playing well. It’s nice now having won the game to have a four in-a-row.

“It’s not a major thing though I think for this team because our eyes are on a bigger prize and they’re just the things that happen if you are aiming for the heights that we want to get to.

“That’s the outcome or whatever you want to call it, what happens when you’re trying to win All Irelands. You win Munster championships if you’re trying to get to that level.”

It wasn’t a performance good enough to win an All Ireland title as many fans have pointed out this week. The players are as aware of this as any one. Not that they should be overly concerned just yet. They’re not and neither should the fans be. “No I don’t think so,” he says. “I think we know where we are right now, we know where we are individually and I think we know where we’re going as well so it’s good to know that. There’s comfort in it, in knowing where you’re going to go and having a plan in front of you.

“It’s good to have that in front of you and when you get there – and hopefully we will – it’s going to be on the day, but it’s up to every individual then to pull out their best. If you start your graph in January you’re going to improve your fitness and as the ground gets harder your play is going to improve as well.

“So just naturally it’s the way that the further on the year you go the fitter you get, the better you get, that’s the way it should be. That’s the plan. Get to the next step for the Munster final and after the Munster final get to the next step, so it naturally occurs again.”

For the first time in a long time – the first time in his Kerry career as a matter of fact – Geaney reports 100% fitness, “no niggles at all”. For the first time in his Kerry career he’s started and finished consecutive games. It’s allowed him to thrive.

Knowing that to see James O’Donoghue emerge on Sunday for his first inter-county game time since the All Ireland final gave not only the Kerry fans a degree of comfort, for the players too it was exciting (even if it means places in the team are just about to become that little bit harder to come by).

“It’s great to see him back,” Geaney agrees.

“It’ll add another bit of pace into our attack when he’s 100% and he’s only three weeks training, four weeks training under his belt and I know from coming back, I came back for the Monaghan game in the league and it still took me a whole month to get fully fit and fully back.

“So it’s exciting to have him back.”

It was a good start from Tipperary and it kind of shocked us into focus at the start – Paul Geaney