*Paul Geaney. Photograph: David Fitzgerald / Sportsfile
THREE-TIME All-Ireland winner, Paul Geaney said Kerry teams never get it all their own way when travelling to Cusack Park and admitted their objective at the beginning of every year is always to win the Munster championship.
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Claiming provincial honours this season would be special for Kerry not because there is added significance around winning an eighty seventh title but rather this is the first year whereby the trophy is named after Páidí Ó Sé, a winner of eleven All-Irelands and eight Munster championships at senior level.
A winner of five All Stars Páidí died suddenly in December 2012 and is Paul’s father in law. “Of course it would be nice, it doesn’t change anything as regards motivation, we’ve always been hyper-motivated to win Munster, set your camp out early and do your best. It is a huge privilege for the Ó Sé family for the Cup to be named after Páidi and tipping the hat to his career after winning eleven as a player and numerous as a manager, he is my father in law and he spent his time in Clare too so he contributed to more than just Kerry football in his time as manager, it is testament to Páidí to have it named after him. It is hard to say would it add extra significance for us because it is always our objective at the start of the year when we set out our stall at the start of the year to win Munster so you can’t want to win it anymore but it is significant and a huge honour for Kerry, for Páidí and the Ó Sé family,” Geaney admitted.
It was in 2014 when Paul made his senior championship debut for Kerry, it was a fine personal showing where he kicked six points from play finishing as top scorer as they left Ennis with 1-17 1-13 win and a place in the Munster final secured. He recalled, “we barely got out of there, it was the skin of our teeth in 2014, it was a great day out for me and kicked 0-6 but over the years anytime we have been to Ennis it has been very testing, a few times we’ve barely got out of there, a few times we shouldn’t have and were left off the hook but it is always testing going up there. Ennis as a ground is a great venue, it can be hostile enough up there to tell you the truth, it is a big field but sometimes it can feel tight, it is a tough affair anytime we’ve been there and I expect the same again”.
There is plenty of familiarity between both counties. Prior to Paul Madden, the last two Clare managers were Kerry men, Mark Fitzgerald (2024) and Peter Keane (2025) while Paul’s first cousin David coached St Joseph’s Miltown to Clare SFC success in 2018 and 2019 before getting involved with Michael Neylon and the Clare U20s. “He spent a bit of time with Miltown and the Clare U20s, he was with Limerick too. He was telling me about players on the way up to keep an eye out for or fellas that we might have met that he had along the way. David might have had his fill of the coaching side now, he was up in Miltown for a while, Donie Buckley was the connection for David to go to Miltown, there’s plenty of other Kerry fellas that have been up in Clare that would have more insight than David would like Mark Fitzgerald, James Costelloe, Shane O’Rourke who was Clare as S&C last year and us with Dingle this year, we’ve plenty insight already”.
Kerry contested the Division 1 final of the league while Clare finished third from bottom in Division 3, two grades separate the counties but that does not come into the thinking this weekend, Paul said. “For us we don’t look at divisions or anything like that, any opposition we look at them on an even keel and break down the team looking at their strengths and weaknesses and go from there and make sure we’re at our peak too, that is how we approach every game and it doesn’t change regardless of divisions. With championship fare it is giving your all for seventy plus minutes, that is the way we have always approached it and we approach every team by respecting them first and going about the game, trying to break down the game over the seventy minutes and getting on top, it has stood to us in this point in Munster so hopefully we continue in that game”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, he acknowledged that reaching the Division 1 final, the 3-20 2-10 defeat aside, helped in giving them an early outing in Croke Park. “It feels there’s an extra week in preparation this year, I remember last year we came off the league final and we went out to Portugal shortly after and we didn’t have too much of a gap between that and Munster, we’ve an extra week this year, the extra game in the league is great because you get into Croke Park early in the year, you’re playing another top class opposition too so you try and compete in Croke Park for honours early in the year and you turn your attention after that. We had a nice block of work to do after the league, we reviewed the league and got a block of work done before the Munster championship. It is nice to have a tight season, before there was nearly two months between the league and the first round of the Munster championship which wasn’t ideal, it was a complete broken season really and you went away playing a month of football for your club and lads would be crocked left, right and centre after coming back from the clubs, focus wise it is a lot better of a situation”.
A calf injury curtailed his involvement during Kerry’s run to lift the Sam Maguire but all is well on the injury front for the Dingle publican. “I’ve had a couple of setbacks along the way but you factor that into your recovery that it might be six weeks and you nearly allow for eight weeks, I’m in good fettle and I’m happy with where I’m at, touch wood I don’t get anything else in the next run in over the next block of work and get back in for championship. I had a great run last year until I broke my scapula against Cork, breaking the scapula derailed me really because I was running with my shoulder stuck to me for three weeks and that upset other things, then I had a calf issue which basically finished my championship run with Kerry. I got back with the club and it was going great until one little thing in the winter, staying on the field is key and staying away from injury is key because one will lead to another, hopefully I’ve had my fill of it for another will”.
Geaney captained to win a first Kerry SFC title in 77 years in October before they later captured a maiden All-Ireland SFC club title in what was a fairytale season. He was given time off during the league to serve as his period to recover. “I missed most of the league so that was my window, I took three weeks off after the club, then I went at it from there, recovered from my injury and tried to get a bit of a pre-season done which I got done, I’m ticking along nicely and looking forward to trying to get my jersey back which is my first task”.
New players including U20 Tomás Kennedy were among those to catch the eye in his absence but the competition for places “is key” for any successful side, he said. “It is pretty key, you have to have competition for places otherwise things will go stale on a panel and people can get lacks. You need the next generation coming up to learn from the generation above them and pushing them and maybe taking their jersey, that is how you have long-term success rather than a flash in the pan, we haven’t been too bad in the last while with plenty of new blood coming in, there was thirty two players used during the league which is good, it wasn’t far off last year and a couple of lads got more games this year, Keith Evans did very well, Armin Heimrich at wing back nearly for the whole league which is great for them, Tomás Kennedy got injured in the first game and has got back in, it is key for him and Dylan Geaney to be pushing on and training to take the inside jerseys”.
