Paul Geaney: 'It is about being confident…not letting the doubts creep into your head'

The Kerry forward on practice, confidence, success and failure

Last weekend Geaney delivered 1-7 in Fitzgerald Stadium as they overcame Templenoe in an exhibition of kicking that stemmed from practice

The numbers spell out everything. Since Kerry’s mid-July championship exit, Dingle’s Paul Geaney has played nine games between senior club and county championship. His scoring total is 4-45, 3-18 from play. Awesome.

That Armagh semi-final defeat was a disappointing one in every sense. Kerry were flat, he was withdrawn first after 47 minutes. Two weeks later he togged against Dr Crokes and fired 2-7. Last weekend he delivered 1-7 in Fitzgerald Stadium as they overcame Templenoe. It was an exhibition of kicking in a challenging climate that stemmed from one comforting place: practice.

“Years and years and years of it,” he explained.

“I know how to play these conditions. We are used to the old wind back in Dingle. Sometimes you just have to gauge it. I missed one free in the second half that died off a bit, Tadhg got a hand to it and I’m not sure if it was a square ball or not. That is a tough rule to manage now so...

“I suppose years and years of it. Confidence as well. I’m playing with confidence the last two years with the club, which is great.” Early in the first half, Tom O’Sullivan marked his return from injury with a typical drive forward until he was fouled. It was just outside the 45m line, dead centre. Geaney drilled the free with the outside of his boot. It was a kick he had evidently executed countless times before.

Paul Geaney of Kerry in action against Cillian Brennan of Clare during the 2018 Munster GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final 

“The important thing is training on a Tuesday or Wednesday and once I get that done, if I’m fresh enough on a Friday, I will kick. Otherwise, you build it up before Kerry trainings and over the summer. It is just muscle memory and like I said, confidence is a big thing.

“Every fella can kick those; it is about being confident standing over it. Not leaving the doubts creep into your head. I like to kick through the ball rather than being afraid of missing and then you can seize up.” Even for the two-time All-Ireland winner and two-time All-Star, those doubts are constant.

“Everybody has that,” he stressed. “You have to be mentally strong enough to fight it and believe in your range of motion and your mechanics.” The run of games is relentless. Dingle take on East Kerry this Sunday in a blockbuster semi-final fixture. Geaney, who turns 34 next month, is captain this season and leading from the front. The lack of a break is a challenge at times, but they’ve no option other than to kick on.

“I had a couple of weeks there in the middle all right, the club final and the week after I was carrying an injury for both of those games. But I managed to get through them, we lost both and weren’t great. It was disappointing that way. I like to stay on the field if I can, even if I am at only 80%. So got through those few weeks.

“Obviously, the extra week would be handy at times. Look We’ve had guys, we’ve been in the doldrums with injury this year. Missing big players every week.

“It has been tough and they are the times you say you would love a week here or there, just to get healthy bodies back but everyone is in the same boat. We’ve to do the best we can. We are patched together a bit but getting bodies back and hopefully we’ll have a bit of luck from here on in.”