'It's unreal' but Paul Geaney hopes goals don't decline because of two-point rule
GOALS WIN GAMES: Paul Geaney hopes that goals don't dry up because of the two-point rule. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
Paul Geaney fears a steady decline in the number of goals scored because of the two-point option.
The Kerry captain is a fan of the orange flag score but contends the four-point goal, as first proposed by the Football Review Committee in 2024, should have been retained.
“It's unreal and I hope the goals don't suffer as a result of it down the line,” said Geaney.
“I would have said as well from the start that they should have left the goals at four. I said it last year, and you can see it already – goal numbers are going down, and two pointers are going up.
“You would be concerned that in a couple of years' time it's basketball where you only take two-point shots. The inside point is gone as such, and the goal is effectively gone as well because it's pointless trying to advance the ball to try and get a shot at goal, to try and get it on target.
“Like, the stats guys are already telling all their teams, ‘Don't bother.’ The probabilities just doesn't line up. So, you have to reward it by bringing it maybe up to four.”
Geaney even suggests the arc may have to be brought out from 40 metres in the future. “Do we have to bring it out even further because guys that are 16 are actually practicing it with intent because there's a huge reward for it now.
“Whereas I was 16, I practiced because I was centre-forward in my team and it was an easy way to score a point rather than have to go all the way in, to come all the way back out.
“But they're practicing it and inside forwards are practicing and everybody's U16s are going to be good at it. So, is it going to be too easy for them in a couple of years' time to get rewarded two points effort?”
Winning the 2022 Munster senior hurling championship when the cup was renamed after Mick Mackey was an incentive for Limerick. It will be same for Kerry this year as the SFC trophy is now known as the Páidí Ó Sé Cup.
For his son-in-law Geaney, it would be an honour to accept the reward for the championship Ó Sé won 11 times as a player and six as a manager.
“Big privilege obviously for the Ó Sé family to have named after Páidí and my wife (Siún), and it's a great honour for them. Yeah, it is class to be kind of immortalised.
“It doesn't really make me want to win it more because we already wanted to win it as much as you could, but it would be nice obviously to try and lift it again this year, which is always the goal, win Munster.
"A bit of work to do before that obviously and a bit of work for me to do to get back into the team as well!”
Geaney might be 36 in November but the battle to get back into the Kerry attack excites him. “I enjoy it, it gets the best out of me then as well.
“Just trying to get your jersey, you have to go to another level. If you do go to another level and get on the field and start and you're in a good place as you are like, that's where I enjoy the environment most is when it's that competitive.
“Same as pretty much when I was there in '14. You look at the forwards there and you say, ‘How's Paul Geaney going to get into that team?’ I thrive, I think, with that kind of competition.”
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