Forgotten Daithí Casey is Kerry’s hometown hero

Kerry 2-18 Donegal 3-14: Ironic isn’t it that followers of the green and gold poured in to catch the first glimpse of David Clifford at senior level and yet departed celebrating a different DC.

It is almost three years to the day since Daithí Casey last saw game-time with Kerry. It was February 1, 2015. Mayo were the visitors to Killarney on the league’s opening weekend, Casey introduced for Stephen O’Brien with five minutes remaining. Come that summer’s championship, the Crokes man was no longer part of the panel. Where the inter-county scene is concerned, he was a forgotten man in the years subsequent.

Involved in the winning of a free shortly after his introduction, Casey would lay off a couple of passes thereafter, but his defining involvement arrived with 75 minutes and five seconds run on the watch, the 27-year-old burrowing a path towards the 20-metre line before swinging over the winner. Hometown hero.