KEITH DUGGANgets the thoughts of Kerry's star forward Kieran Donaghy after Sunday's Munster championship victory over Tipperary
JOHN EVANS likened him to a “gazelle” after watching him vaulting over the Tipperary fullback line on Sunday but Kieran Donaghy is keeping his feet on the ground as he thinks about Kerry’s first big test of the summer. The amicable Tralee man missed the corresponding fixture last summer and endured an impatient summer of watching from the wings.
“It’s my favourite game of the year,” he says of the near-annual Munster derby against Cork, “apart from maybe being up here for an All-Ireland final.”
“We are not underestimating them. We know how hard it is going to be. We are just looking forward to playing in Killarney in front of a big home crowd and the Kerry fans will get behind us, as they do. You don’t have many years at this level but to be missing out on games is never easy and I am just happy to be back playing and looking forward to the Cork game down in Killarney.”
Donaghy’s transformation from back up midfielder on the Kerry squad to its most vital member occurred in such a natural way that his importance becomes magnified in his absence.
His input to Kerry was magnified against Tipperary. Colm Cooper and Bryan Sheehan thrived in his company on Sunday but Donaghy’s sharp eye for the open man makes life easier for all of the Kerry forwards. He combines the traditional full-forward ball-winning qualities with an uncanny vision and fast hands which can unlock the best defensive systems.
The new hand-pass rule threatens to disrupt Donaghy’s game more than most forwards and it is not surprising he has misgivings about the development.
A first half pass he made to Bryan Sheehan looked to have set Kerry up for their opening goal but he was adjudged to have fouled in the process.
“I don’t know. This rule has been brought in a week before the championship. We heard about it at training on Thursday night. I think it’s madness bringing in rules like that three days before a championship game.
“If they were going to do that they should have stuck with the rule they were playing with all year. You can underhand it from here, you can’t do it from here, it is just very all over the place.
“I think they kind of sneaked it in really without anybody knowing and that’s a tough thing for us as players to deal with. And again, as I always say, it makes it harder on referees.
“We are trying to make their job easier. Now he has to determine whether it’s a clean striking action, whether it’s a fist, whether it’s above our waist.
“It is just making it harder for referees and we all want their jobs to be easier. The initial rule last year was okay. That’s a throw and that’s a hand pass. It makes it easier on everybody.
“They’re going to have to scrap it. It’s going to be tough. I’m telling ye now, when it comes in games in front of 70,000 or 80,000 people and this sort of thing starts to happen you’re going to have fans and everything losing the plot.
“We’d got used the fist in the league and then for the past six weeks we’ve been going back to the hand pass because we’d lost touch with it. Now we’ve to go back to the drawing board.”
You can bet Donaghy will spend the next fortnight on the training ground honing the skill. His return to fitness and form bodes well for Kerry this summer and with Darragh Ó Sé retired and Tommy Walsh exploring the world of Australian Rules, his versatility is bound to see him operating at both midfield and full forward through the championship.
Donaghy’s skill at involving other players is of inestimable importance and he was pleased with the contribution off the bench against Tipperary.
“Sure there is always good talent in Kerry,” he says. “We are lucky with that. They are coming in and they are learning bits now every night off us. They want to find out new things. I think they are doing a great job, even the likes of BJ Keane and Darran O’Sullivan, fellas who came in.
“They are great fellas to come on, full of legs, full of life and really give fellas like me a lift, do a lot of the running around the place. Lets me take it easy when they come on because they really upped the tempo when they came in and that helped us put Tipperary away.”
Championship seems to have all the momentum of a tortoise but the thought of facing Cork is enough to sharpen the focus for Donaghy.
“Cork will be tough but we will be up for it. Our first game last year was a very tough one against Cork, who were very sharp and stuck with us. We were lucky to get a draw in the first game and in the replay we were always chasing them. Having a game under our belt might just sharpen things up and get that bit of rustiness out of the way.
“We will take is easy now, in Tuesday night for a bit of a loosen up and then Thursday night hard at it again, probably a game Sunday, and it will be pretty much hell for leather for the rest of it.”
