Paul Geaney focused on retaining starting spot in hot company

Just getting to face Mayo on Sunday will be something of an achievement for Paul Geaney.

They were in his crosshairs in Croke Park and again in Limerick last August but varying circumstances have meant he’s yet to face them in a league bout.

He had been in line for a start against them in 2011 only to be denied by injury. Two years ago, he pulled a hamstring for UCC in the first round of the Sigerson Cup thus avoiding that six-point defeat in Castlebar when Kerry went the entire second-half without scoring. He’ll hope to avoid a similar fate when he lines out for his college as they embark on their title defence against Cork IT in the Mardyke this afternoon.

Then last year he was a late withdrawal from the team that travelled again to Elverys MacHale Park, his mother Christina passing away the next day. The prospect of two significant games in the space of six days at this stage of the year doesn’t fill the Dingle man with any dread.

Bar the odd back spasm, he reports a clean bill of health after enjoying the recent team holiday to South Africa.

Coming back from those sunny climes to read newspaper articles and radio segments about players being battery hens, Geaney found it peculiar. There are issues at inter-county level, he agrees. Just not the burnout ones that have been hogging the headlines.

“I counted up maybe 100 training sessions last year for 15 inter-county games. I mean, that doesn’t make sense. If you were playing more games that means you’re training less so why not go down that route, like?

“I’m missing a training session in Kerry on Tuesday night but I’m playing a game. I’d rather play the game than train. That’s what you want to do as a player, you want to play games and be competing all the time.

“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 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 U21 players than it would be for senior players who are playing for the colleges.”

For all the envious eyes cast Cork and Kerry’s way, the stop-start structure of the Munster championship isn’t helpful for either, says Geaney.

But, for now, he’s more focused on retaining his starting spot as competitions for places heats up with the return of Colm Cooper, Tommy Walsh and Darran O’Sullivan. Just as there was an onus placed on James O’Donoghue moving to the half-forward line in September’s All-Ireland, responsibility was loaded on Geaney as the only foil to Kieran Donaghy in the inside line and sometimes the sole target-man. He intends drawing from the experience and establishing himself in Kerry’s attack.

“It’s a privileged position to be asked to do something on All-Ireland final day. It comes down to the confidence in yourself to see if you can pull it off. If I didn’t, I didn’t but I would have tried so there would have been no regret. It worked out well for me in the end and I look forward to hopefully being a leader in the forwards this year and maintaining my spot because it is going to be seriously tough. There is a lot of talk about Tommy and Gooch but Darran O’Sullivan had an injury ravaged year so he is going to be fully fit again so there’s three players who could easily slot into the six forwards.”

When new captain Donaghy returns from club duties, his voice will boom. As for Geaney, he’ll call it as he sees fit. “The dressing room is open anyway for any fella that has something to say, it’s an honest atmosphere in there. If you want to be there you have to take the constructive criticism and the praise.”

There was much of the latter after last year’s disappointing league start but Geaney believes the schedule is kind to Kerry this spring.

“Hopefully this year, we’ve got a better run of fixtures because we have more home games.”