Kieran Donaghy: I don’t enjoy trash-talking but...

Kerry captain Kieran Donaghy insists inter-county defenders are the ones most likely to engage in sledging.

Donaghy says he has received plenty of verbal abuse when stationed at the edge of the square for the Kingdom and while he’s never been afraid to “fight fire with fire”, he believes an opponent’s personal issues are off-limits.

“I don’t enjoy it [trash-talking], really. But I am not afraid of it, either,” the 32-year old remarked.

“I was 18, 19, marking guys who were 23-24, coming out of college in America, playing basketball and who loved to talk on the court. Fight fire with fire is how I found out is the best way to go about it.”

Tyrone’s Sean Cavanagh revealed last month he’s been the subject of sledging on numerous occasions and Donaghy claims it is more advantageous for defenders to dish out verbal abuse.

“If I was a back, I would be a nightmare. As long as it doesn’t get into people’s personal issues, mostly just hopping off each other, rather than hopping shoulders off a fella, you have him in your ear.

“When I was playing bad, I got a lot of that treatment. I don’t move that much inside at full-forward. Fellas would say I wouldn’t move enough so I’m used to getting a fair bit of stick at the edge of the square. You have to be able to handle all types.”

With Tommy Walsh returning from the AFL and Colm Cooper back in the fold after a year on the sideline, Donaghy expects several players will experience the frustration he encountered when left on the bench for last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Galway.

“That’s going to be a fact of life and I’m sure I wasn’t the only fella that was upset after the Galway game last year.

“The way I looked at it was like, ‘I can’t wait to train on Tuesday night, to go out and show him that they should have brought me on’ and that’s the angle hopefully we’ll be looking for this year, that if guys don’t play in one game, hopefully if we win that game they’re going to have three or four weeks to prove themselves right.”