Getting Kildare back on top the driving force for Kevin Feely

A few years ago, Feely was asked in an interview what is more important in Gaelic football, physical or mental. After weighing it up, he opted for a 60/40 spilt

Sat, 25 Feb, 2023 - 07:45

Maurice Brosnan

Kevin Feely is head of sales and one of the team is not performing. The time has come for a meeting. There will be no bonus this month. Buck up. The Kildare footballer in one corner, an argumentative employee in the other.

“A brutal yoke,” says Feely with a shake of the head. The exercise is part of the Jim Madden GPA Leadership Programme. The employee is an actor. Over the course of a year a group of intercounty players learn about different leadership styles, how to get the best out of people, a competency-based interview, improving decision making and conflict resolution.

“The actor is making it as hard as possible,” he explains. “It is daunting but brilliant. You learn so much about yourself. It is meant to be an awkward and uncomfortable situation. A real examination of leadership. Trying to keep them on board while they are quite difficult. It is challenging but eye opening.

“I’d like to think one of my strengths as a therapist is my ability to empathise with people, understand their view and avoid conflict. I wasn’t comfortable at all with someone saying, ‘if I am not getting my bonus why does he get his?’ It is observed and they tell you about your style and how to adapt it depending on circumstances. I got so much value out of it.

“Off the back of the programme, I felt a bit more confident to expand my business someday. It is a one-man operation right now, but I’d love to build it.”

Feely works as an athletic therapist out of a gym in Tallaght, where he sits back now chatting for a couple of hours. Since he set it up in 2018 the facility has been a perfect bridge between his sporting and professional life. Those worlds collided head on last August when he suffered a major injury in the form of an Achilles rupture.

Ironically, it all kicked off with a confrontation. Athy versus Eadestown in the club championship. The tactic was a long ball to the edge of the square after they won the throw-in. Feely caught it for a mark and turned to Emmet Bolton, after feeling studs rake down his lower leg.

"'Jesus. there is no need for that.' He was looking back at me like I’d two heads. Niall Kelly was nearby, so I turned to him, 'did he kick me?'

"'Kev, there was no one near you.' Your first reaction is anger. Then it is the horrible shock that no one was nearby. That would be a 100% specific diagnostics test. Did it feel like someone kicked you? My dad ruptured his and I remember when I was younger hearing stories about how he turned to punch whoever was behind him."

Incredulously, five months later he took to the field for the opening round of the league against Dublin. By round three he had logged a full 70 minutes, kicking a point and breaking the final kickout as 14-man Kildare overcame Clare away.

After that game Glenn Ryan told us he was still marvelling at the speed of his recovery: "He has defied all logic to get back to this point. Kevin Feely doesn’t look back. He doesn’t want pats on the back. He wants to get back to the football he is capable of playing and he is getting there."

Three days after he was helped off the Hawkfield pitch Feely went under the knife. It was a week before his 30th birthday. Two weeks post-surgery he returned to strength training. By December he was back running. How?

The more revealing question is why.

*****

To answer that we first need to start with Feely’s prior injury, also on the left leg. In the 2021 Leinster semi-final he collided with Westmeath’s John Heslin. It left him with a partial tear of his ACL, a depression fracture of the tibial plateau (top of the shin bone) and a rupture of the MCL.

REHAB: Kevin Feely during rehab. Pic: Instagram

“I really struggled with that mentally,” he admits now. “I brought it all down on myself too much. Having come back from that, when the Achilles happened I said, ‘this is bad but I won’t let negative thoughts affect the outcome here.’ Initially it was about accepting I was out seven to nine months. Whatever you are told to do, do it.”

His knee caved in. It felt like his world had too. First came the realisation that he would miss the Leinster final and entire club season. Then it dawned that it all meant more than it ever should.

“I guess it was the realisation I am not well equipped to cope with not playing sport. At the time I was getting quite anxious and down, not having the coping mechanisms to deal with not playing sport.

“Is this who I am? The realisation that I do really identify myself as a Gaelic footballer and not a whole lot else. I had to focus on the other areas of my life. There is more to it all, I suppose. Having that recognition was key. It doesn’t define me anymore. This rehab I knew I’d other important things in life, but I was also doing everything I can to get back doing what I love.”

Feely was born in Brussels to Irish parents. As a child he moved to Waterford while having a particular affinity for Galway through his mother. He still remembers breathlessly standing behind a Dunmore goal, waiting to meet Michael Donnellan. Tramore made way for Kildare. Then his professional football career took him to Charlton.

As a result, he had touches all over but few ties. Even in the UK it was four clubs in three years. That Croke Park crash stopped him in his tracks. In some ways a eureka moment. He rebuilt his knee and built a circle. Brick by brick.

“The knee injury helped me realise I didn’t have a support network in place. I tried to get that around me. I suppose you realise it takes work to make long lasting relationships with team-mates and longer lasting ties with them.

“It was important to widen my network really and be willing to share with them. I wouldn’t have done that previously, just talk about emotions. I did that in the programme, I actually signed up around the time of that injury.”

He was grateful to hear his manager’s recent plaudits. He categorically disagrees with them. The root cause of Feely’s remarkable recovery was that he did it by the book. Whatever the Santry Sports Clinic said went. The minute he met surgeon Johnny McKenna, all feedback was completely positive. Thanks to his profession he already knew how to push the boundaries without being stupid.

Post Achilles surgery, most patients are told to spend the first four weeks non-weight bearing. The Kildare footballer was given a week. Within six he returned with no swelling, good movement and the tendon at a nice length.

Feely is endlessly thoughtful, stressing this comeback story is not to challenge others. Some treatment plans are progressive. Others are conservative. What worked for him won’t for everyone. Not once did he opt for a calf massage because it wasn’t something he utilised previously. Some of his patients prefer them and that is just fine.

“I understand why he (Glenn Ryan) said it because he might not have come across a case with such a quick recovery but I never did anything outside of what the lads in Santry told me. It wasn’t in anyway defying logic. If anything, it was adhering to it even more. I understand what he meant however I never did a thing outside of what I was told to do.”

Physically he could set goals with the help of physio David McCrea, who happened to be doing a PhD on Achilles recovery. With plenty of plyometric work, some skipping and sled pushing, he progressed to within ten percent of his good side in strength tests.

There is always another frontier. His time in a 1km test with turns, 100m over and back, was 3.06 pre-injury. That is a hurdle he wants to clear again. At one point he was invited back into Kildare training for kickout plays and felt a pang of anxiety with the unpredictable movements of tracking a man. He went back to his physio and requested drills that incorporated erratic actions.

That quality of care underpins his main advice to any athlete in a similar position. Avoid the temptation of getting the nearest available treatment. For some the goal is to get a patient back walking; at every moment his was to get back playing sport. Once a plan is in place follow it to the letter of the law. And make sure to understand this is not merely about physical recovery.

*****

A few years ago, Feely was asked in an interview what is more important in Gaelic football, physical or mental. After weighing it up, he opted for a 60/40 spilt with mental coming out on top. Investments in that area yielded big personal returns. When Jack O’Connor was in Kildare, Tony Griffin was their performance coach. He worked on introducing a freedom back into their individual game, returning to that child-like joy of in the moment play rather than overthinking.

Feely is striving for that balance all over. Striving, not always successful. Against Mayo last year he had the misfortunate of being man of the match despite their loss. That meant a post-game interview. His face matched his ultimate summation: “Pure devastation.”

“It is still something I am working on,” he says now. “To compartmentalise the emotions football brings. Some guys are really good at it. I was the type of guy if I saw a team-mate laughing in the hours after a defeat, I’d think he doesn’t care enough. That is not the case.

“There is no link there. I’m just not naturally good at that. The whole… things are never as good or bad as you feel in the immediate aftermath.”

Work done; more to do. In football, in his career, in his personal life. Another priority?

“To pay more attention to my partner, Patríona. Like, she was so keen to travel the world more and being a teacher gives her big windows to do that.

“Then there is me. I have one guaranteed week in the year. October bank holiday. If we are knocked out of championship early, there is more but you can’t plan for that. That is a huge sacrifice for her. It is not a healthy way to live. I’m more conscious and appreciative of it.

“She was joking if she had been on career break we could have at least used some of this time. Could I not have planned it better: ‘You are injured and it is not even a worthwhile injury!’ She is a huge support and is the person I bounce all my emotions off anyway. When I spoke about that realisation earlier, a huge part of that was how selfish we are in this game. I owe her a huge amount.”

Back to the why. The driving factor. He still has a dream. To one day see Kildare back on top. To be a part of that. That was constant inspiration during rehab. There is more to come.

“It is a big motivating factor, definitely. The goals I set out early on, I have not achieved but I do think they are achievable. I really do think Kildare have the possibility to do something positive and I want to be part of that change. Becoming a more consistent, more respected top team. We’ve almost got to that point numerous times since the semi-final in 2010.

“We’ve threatened to be close. I have huge motivation that I can be part of that and as a player that I haven’t hit my peak. There is so many examples of lads who hit 30 and get better. Whether I am tricking myself or not, I still believe the coming year will be the best year.”