Has goal machine Geraldine O'Shea shaped Kerry's green focus?
GOALDEN TOUCH: Kerry mentor Geraldine O'Shea before last year's final against Meath at Croke Park. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Once you find the net it seems to keep happening. So said Geraldine O’Shea about the rhythm of goalscoring on Radio Kerry’s fine ‘Women in Sport’ documentary series last year.
Few did it as lethally as she did, even as a teenager. Apart from the ones she netted in her 16 years’ service for the Kingdom, she scored 16 goals in her 26 caps for the Republic of Ireland, long before anyone ever dreamt of World Cup qualification.
So as a selector with the current Kerry team, the Annascaul great knows just how vital goals will be Sunday to end the Kingdom’s unimaginable drought.
Can it be any coincidence that they’ve racked up 31 of them this season, 20 during their run to the league title and 11 in their Championship drive?
They rammed three past Dublin in the league and five past Galway in the Division 1 final.
In Munster, they scored two in every single game and two more in their quarter-final defeat of reigning champions Meath.
Only in the semi-final against Mayo did their goal tachometer drop to one.
Losing captain Síofra O’Shea (who’s scored 3-12) didn’t help last time out but they’ve shook the net every time they’ve played ball this year.
It's easy to identify the attacking fingerprints of Declan Quill and Darragh Long in that but O’Shea’s experience as such a Rolls Royce of a forward and five-time All-Star also surely shapes this emphasis.
It certainly feels like no one wants to see them win again more dearly than herself.
“I never thought it’d be 30 years, that it would take as long again after I won mine in ’93,” she says of those three decades since Kerry’s last All-Ireland win.
She was just 15, a starry-eyed kid who thought she was brought into the squad just to make up training numbers when she was sprung off the bench in the 1993 Munster final.
Two games later she started in the All-Ireland final and bagged 1-2, her goal a turning point in that delicately balanced clash.
Yet they’ve only had two shots at it since (2012 and 2022) and not yet got back up the Hogan steps.
The closest she got personally were two semi-final in the early noughties, both of them lost by a point or two in Portlaoise. “It was like a graveyard for us.”
Yet still O’Shea's kept football’s greatest faith, the green and gold positively coursing through her veins.
“You always keep believing, especially when you’re from Kerry. You always think you’ll be successful, you always want to be successful,” she declares proudly.
“We gave ourselves a chance last year but I really do believe we’re in a better place than we were 12 months ago.
“I just think we’ve matured a lot more as a management team and the girls have matured from all their experiences of actually playing in Croke Park.
“We’ve been there four or five times in the last two years and that’s definitely helped.
"Winning Division 2 and promotion there in 2022 was also pivotal.
“Playing Division 1 this year helped as well, playing those bigger teams, a higher standard and getting more composed on the ball.
“And having more faith in each other too,” she adds.
“The girls have realised that they are well able for these kinds of opposition, to match up to most teams in Ireland on their day.”
Football’s now a world away from the kicking game of her heyday but she sees first-hand, and admires, the dedication it now demands.
“At the end of the day, it’s the same ball, the same goalposts, the same dream that everyone has when you come from Kerry.
“But the S&C is much greater, the girls put in way more time in gyms now. There was none of that back in my day, it was just time with the ball. Now it’s 24/7 with these girls, they’re like professional athletes without getting paid.”
Yet even O’Shea knows just how closely these two sides are entwined and on how little this historic final pairing could twist.
“There’s always going to be two good teams in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day and Dublin are a very good team. It’s down to which of us performs best and takes our chances better.
“Who’s going to grasp it more, maybe (get) a small bounce of the ball or a bit of luck as well,” she says before concluding “30 years is a long time. It’s about time!”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
