Paul Geaney’s reason for being possibly only Kerryman to attend All-Ireland final shows his mindset

Such a will to win

Darragh Culhane

Paul Geaney is brilliant.

There’s no point arguing, he is one of the best forwards in the country.

If it wasn’t for the Kerryman we’d be facing a unique situation, an All-Star team filled with just Dublin and Mayo men.

But because Geaney is such a talented forward that probably won’t happen, he’ll probably pick up his second All-Star award.

Since breaking into the Kerry team, Geaney has made himself undroppable. As impressive it is to be the star forward in Kerry, it is even more so when that full forward line includes Kieran Donaghy and James O’Donoghue that have both won the Player of the Year Award before.

The Dingle man has got this far because of sheer hard work and determination and an overriding desire to win.

And that’s why he attended the All-Ireland final.

Geaney was speaking at the announcement of PwC’s sponsorship of the All-Star awards where he was nominated alongside four other Kerry players and gave his reasoning for attending:

“I’d say I could have been the only one from our team in Croke Park the last day and I can guarantee a couple of fellas definitely didn’t even watch the game, it’s a tough one alright,” Geaney said.

“I used my tickets last year as well, I come because I want to learn how to beat Dublin and Mayo, every day is a school day and I suppose I’m a supporter as well.

“I pretty much saw all that I knew, that both teams were capable of what they were doing.

“Kick outs were something I was interested in, Mayo did extremely well off Cluxton’s kick outs. You saw (Jason Sherlock) running into him in the first half to change up whatever it is to get the hand on ball. Not often you see anyone go into Cluxton to tell him what to do so that was interesting.

“The cynicalness of how the game finished up in the end, those sort of things, they’re interesting to see and I suppose if you’re contesting the All-Ireland and you want to win it they’re markers of where your team is it because if you’re not doing those things it means you’re not really tuned in enough to be contesting in an All-Ireland final.”