GAA News

It’s been nearly a year since Kerry’s All-Ireland Final defeat to Dublin, but it still haunts Kieran Donaghy’s thoughts… and with good reason too.

While nobody can take away from Dublin’s All-Ireland success last year, there remains a feeling in Kerry that they left it behind them, having been four points up with seven minutes to go before a Kevin McManamon goal and Stephen Cluxton’s ice-cool late winner sealed a first All-Ireland for the Dubs in 16 years.

The defeat proved particularly hard to take for the Kerry players and as Donaghy admits in a wide-ranging interview in today’s Irish Independent, the Kingdom supporters didn’t let them forget about it in a hurry.

Commenting on the reaction to the defeat in Kerry, Donaghy said (smiling): "This fella told me, if he'd a shotgun, he'd have taken me out with it.

"He gave me desperate stick. He said I should have moved to the side because, by me standing in the middle, all Cluxton had to do was aim between my two hands.

"Another fella told me I should have sat down in the yoga pose, that that would have freaked Cluxton out. Can you imagine the stick I'd have got? That'd definitely be a nice picture, me sitting down as Cluxton kicks the winning point."

Shotguns and yoga poses? When that’s the sort of reaction you get in Kerry, it’s no wonder they don’t lose very often.

Elsewhere in the interview, Donaghy talks about his often fractious relationship with his late father, this year’s All-Ireland Final and starting life under new Kerry manager Eamon Fitzmaurice.

The interview in full can be read here and it’s well worth a look.