PAUL TO PLAY FOR

Geaney not giving up on All-ireland quest

KERRY’S Paul Geaney admits he’s irked by the fact a Dublin golden era has broken out on his watch - and he’s determined to put a stop to it.

The Dubs emulated yet another Kerry record last Sunday when they became the first county since the Kingdom in

1986 to claim three successive All-irelands and they’ll rival Mick

O’dwyer’s four-in-arow crop of 1978-81 if they can tag on another next year.

Geaney (inset) was a guest of new All-star sponsors PWC at the final, which he described as “painful enough” given his side’s exit at the semi-final stage.

Reflecting on Dublin’s three-in-arow, which includes 20 Championship games unbeaten, Geaney said: “It started with us in an All-ireland final against Dublin when we were going for back-to-back [in 2015].

“That was a tough day because we were so poor – Dublin were poor that day too but we were very poor. That kind of got the wheel turning for them.

“Now they look extremely hard to stop. They’ve a really strong bench as well, good management, system, they look imperious at the moment. It’s up to us to try to bridge that gap.

“It is hard to take. A bit more so for me this year. Last year was easier to get over after two weeks, three weeks, but there’s a long winter ahead for me to be looking at and feeling sorry for myself. “I’ve no club football left either, so it’s hard. There’s no option but to move on. I’ll be thinking about the All-ireland from now on until we get a chance to win it again next year. It’s sickening enough, alright,” he said.

“It’s something I said maybe two years ago, I didn’t want to be a player playing when Dublin have a golden era and it looks to be unfolding.

“They’re in a golden era this minute, the only thing I can try to do to stop that is win an All-ireland or two begood

fore I hang up my boots.

“It looks pretty tough at the moment and we are doing everything we can to try and change it. We’ve come up short the last two years.”

Geaney’s former teammates Colm Cooper and Marc O Se have talked down Kerry’s chances in 2018 of late though the Dingle man insisted: “Until the semi-final I was convinced we were going to win it.

“But looking back we seemed to have peaked at the Munster final and went downhill from there.

“We were well off the pace in both the Mayo games looking back now, and even the Galway game we were poor, we were sluggish.

“We have to try to peak later in the year to give ourselves a chance.

“I think you need a lot of luck to win an All-ireland as well. We need to improve a few areas – there are too many scores going against us, that’s probably where we start.

“I would say it’s too early to be saying we can’t win the All-ireland