Kerry’s Paul Geaney admits battle to retain place in side

Eamonn Fitzmaurice has a serious attacking headache to consider

Kerry’s poor Allianz League form over the last number of seasons hasn’t hampered them when it comes to championship success but there is a feeling that Kingdom supporters would prefer an easier springtime than the last two years. Poor starts have been followed by scraping away from relegation with last-minute heroics in order to preserve their top-flight status.

Dingle’s Paul Geaney was one of the breakout stars for Fitzmaurice’s side in the 2014 campaign. Speaking at the launch of the 2015 Allianz football leagues, he doesn’t feel a late return for the All-Ireland holders after their team-holiday will impact on their early season ambitions.

‘Last year we started the 2nd week in December so this year we’re a month behind in fitness work and all that sort of things. Fellas are in good enough shape as it is, a lot of fellas didn’t stop playing club football until Christmas anyway, so really we’re only a week or two behind in training schedule.’

Mixed Allianz League form hasn’t held the Kingdom back later on in the summer but Geaney admits that poor results have been a concern.

‘I suppose it kind of rocked the boat a small bit because we thought we were training well. We thought we were going well and when we weren’t getting the results at the weekend it kind of put a downer on it. Hopefully this year, we’ve got a better run of fixtures because we have more home games and we’ve Cork away which is only just down the road as well. It might suit us a bit better hopefully.’

Kerry will have home advantage for the clash with Mayo but the 25-year-old doesn’t expect the team to be suffering from any signs of rust after being out of action as a group since September.

‘There’s bound to be some but I think we’ve had a good two weeks of training and we got a good two weeks of ball work in as well so hopefully we’ll hit the ground running on Sunday. We’re at home so maybe there’s a double-edged sword there as we’re in front of our home crowd, but at the same time it is a home game so it is a bit more comfortable than having to go to Castlebar.’

Geaney was part of a well-oiled Kerry attack in 2014 that saw the Dingle man aided by James O’Donoghue and Kieran Donaghy in the Kerry full-forward line. Tommy Walsh and Colm Cooper will also be vying for a place in the team and the forward admits trying to keep a spot in the starting 15 will be tough.

‘It’s going to be seriously tough this year with what’s there now and even a lot of talk about Tommy and Gooch but Darran O’Sullivan had an injury ravaged year and he’s going to be fully fit again this year. That’s three players that easily could slot into the six forwards that are there you know. It’s going to be tough but looking forward to the challenge.’

Geaney is in his final year at UCC and will be in action in the Sigerson Cup against Cork rivals CIT. The Dingle man has suffered with a number of injuries during his career, especially a back problem, but he doesn’t agree with a proposal that no senior inter-county players should play at third level. He feels that any issue of burnout is more of a problem at minor and Under-21 level.

‘I don’t know about this burnout. They’re trying to get inter-county players out of Sigerson, then there’s this, that and the other. There’s the club debate, maybe compressing the Championship will be helpful, especially for the club players. I can remember three years ago when I was just a club player. I was frustrated because there was maybe only two league games, county league games in the summer time. That’s frustrating and you’re training all year. It’s a disaster really for club players. Maybe that’s the only thing that they could do, shorten the season a small bit but as far as burnout goes, that’s more applicable to minor and Under-21 players than it would be for senior players who are playing for the colleges.’

Geaney is in line to start for Kerry on Sunday but has missed several clashes with the Westerners in the past due to injury and not making the starting 15. He also missed out on the infamous clash in February of 2013 when Kerry were held scoreless for an entire half.

‘I was named to start. I pulled my hamstring during the week with UCC. We played UUJ in the first round of the Sigerson and I pulled a hamstring there so I missed out on that game. I’ve had bad luck actually in the League against Mayo – I was named to start last year and I didn’t. Didn’t travel, was named to start the year before and didn’t travel. I think it was 2011 I was named to start on the team and didn’t start so I’ve had bad luck. Hopefully this Sunday now I’ll have no bad luck and I’ll start against them.’

One man who won’t be available to start on Sunday will be Kieran Donaghy, the Kerry captain for 2015. He’s absent due to his commitments with Austin Stacks. Geaney feels that Donaghy’s new role won’t make a massive difference to the side because of the forward’s part in the team as it is.

‘Kieran’s a leader anyway, he’s not going to become more of a leader because he’s captain. He was always one of the main leaders on the team. He was always great with all the younger fellas  and even when he wasn’t starting his attitude was 100 per cent. I wouldn’t expect anymore of out of Kieran because he was was always giving 100 per cent.’