Player Profile – By Gavin O’Connor
Kieran Donaghy playing in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. Photo by Dermot Crean
THERE was a sense of deja-vu when Kieran Donaghy caught his first ball of many over Mayo’s Ger Cafferkey in the drawn semi-final.
It was almost a decade ago, in a qualifier match in 2006 against Longford in Killarney, when Donaghy announced himself with a typically simple, but devastating display. Kerry had a new answer.
His intervention in that season where he went from being a relative unknown to ‘All Stars Player of the Year’ in a matter of months is one of the great meteoric rises of Gaelic games.
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Tomas O’Se once remarked of the Tyrone team of the mid 00’s that “if Tyrone were out set dancing five nights a week every other team would be out doing it as well.”
Donaghy’s arrival was similar. In 2007, the year after he burst on the inter-county scene, half the teams in the country seemed to have a big man around the square.
It wasn’t long before these teams put the experiment to one side, not because the tactic of getting it into a big man wouldn’t work, but because no one had a big man with his ability. The greatest trick he ever played was that he made it look easy.
The backdrop of 2006 was Kerry had lost the All-Ireland final of the previous year to Tyrone. This was the second final defeat to an Ulster side in three years, which also included that infamous semi-final exit to Tyrone in 2003.
When Kerry lost the 2006 Munster Final to Cork, manager Jack O’Connor, was starting to feel the brunt of some of the less savoury aspects of the Kerry GAA supporter.
It could be argued that O’Connor’s plan to put a midfielder, who at that point was more famous for his basketball skills, in full-forward was the move that saved his inter-county management career.
If the Longford game sent murmurs across the country about Kerry’s new full forward, the quarter-final sent shockwaves. Up against, Francie Bellew, one of the most storied full backs of his generation and a classic full-back in every sense, Donaghy was the catalyst for victory.
A man for the big occasion right from the beginning, he struck for his first championship goal for Kerry in that 2006 quarter final against Armagh and it was as emphatic a strike as you could imagine.
Kieran Donaghy in action in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. Photo by Dermot Crean
Donaghy’s arrival was also the beginning of a beautiful relationship with Colm Cooper who found the perfect foil for his genius, feeding off Donaghy with magnificent effect.
‘Star’ scored another goal in the 2006 All-Ireland final mauling of Mayo on the way to picking up his first of two All-Stars. In 2007 he secured another All-Ireland medal along with an another All-Star. He also scored two goals in that year’s final against Cork.
He would go on to win another All-Ireland in 2009, but teams were beginning to deal with him. Most notably Tyrone’s McMahon brothers, who’s sole job was to take him out of 2008 All-Ireland Final.
If Donaghy is doing damage it can crush the opposition’s spirit, likewise if a team gets the better of him, they puff their chest out and get the roar of their support firmly behind them. This can all shift momentum and momentum shifts games.
On Sunday, expect some of the loudest cheers of the day to come from either Kieran catching a high ball, or him being turned over.
You can draw a parallel with the battles he faced with the McMahon brothers of Tyrone with the one he will likely face against the equally as formidable McGee brothers on Sunday.
It’s one of those juicy subplots that makes the lead up to a final so enjoyable.
Donaghy is 31 now. When he won player of the year in that incredible season of 2006 he was 23.
Struggling with consistency and injuries over the last couple of years, many people began writing him off – there really isn’t much room for sentiment when it comes to football in Kerry.
This meant Donaghy had to announce himself all over again with those catches against Mayo. When he caught the ball over Cafferkey and fed the ball to O’Donoghue like he did Gooch before him, all those memories came flooding back, so simple, so brilliant.
How could we have forgotten?
