At the end of 2018, Paul Geaney thought seriously about packing in his football career.
But now in his mid-30s, he’s still going and enjoying one of his finest seasons in recent years, liberated by the FRC revolution.
Kerry’s championship campaign may have been shunted slightly off course at the weekend but Geaney – blameless regarding events in Tullamore – is enjoying a productive 2025 to date.
He racked up 4-17 across Kerry’s topsy-turvy but ultimately successful league, assisting in many more scores, and had rustled up 2-10 in three and a half championship games before an injury against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh forced him to endure a rare spell on the sidelines.
At 34, Geaney is keen to prolong his inter-county career as long as possible. Which is a far cry from the late 2010s.
As an out-of-sorts Kerry staggered their way through the inaugural – and penultimate – Super 8s group stage, Geaney thought about making the campaign his last in the jersey.
“About 2018-19, I found it hard to get motivated,” Geaney said, at the launch of this year’s All-Ireland SFC knockout phase.
“In the summer of 2018, it actually reflected in my football, really. We lost to Galway here in the first round of the Super 8s and then drew in Clones with Monaghan.
“I kind of had a little bit turned the corner motivation-wise towards the end of that group stage. We had Kildare at home but the thing was out of our hands at that point.
“We won but Galway happened to lose to Monaghan at home, so we actually got knocked out, which was unfortunate because I felt that I kind of turned a corner.
“But then in the off-season, I probably felt I might pack it in, actually.
“I wasn’t playing as good, or I wasn’t invested. I wasn’t giving everything to the club either, I suppose, in a lot of senses.”
Geaney, who had one All-Ireland medal at that point from his second year in the team in 2014, scoring the opening goal in the early minutes of the final, could have opted out prior to his 30th birthday.
But he decided to hang tough and remained around long enough to recover his form and add another All-Ireland winners medal as Kerry bridged an eight-year gap in 2022.
“I might have been just sick of it, looking back, but probably glad I stuck at it for a while because if I did step out, I don’t know would I have had it to come back. I just kind of fought through that patch. I was decent in ’19, and then just fought my way back little by little.
“In ’22, I felt I had a good season, but kind of started back then getting on a good trajectory to being at my best, which I feel I’ve been at the last two years.”
The Dingle star has survived long enough to sample the snazzy, new Jim Gavin re-designed Gaelic football.
Like his manager, and the majority of the paying public, he is wildly enthusiastic about the new game, which has made playing corner-forward fun again.
His chief concern at this point is that some coaching superbrain is going to find a way to game the system.
“I was an out-and-out corner-forward, I suppose, at the start. And then you started developing your second engine, your aerobic engine, for the way the game went afterwards, which I didn’t mind too much.
“I started to be more of a false nine than an out-and-out striker, in the soccer sense, for a lot of those years, where you were kind of more of a link player and weren’t scoring as much or as heavily.
“And obviously, there was a lot of defensive work that’s needed because the backs started going up the field and you had to mark your man. It was nearly more important to make sure that the corner-back wasn’t scoring 1-03 than you getting 1-03.
“The new rules now have kind of flipped it back the other way. I’m still a link man, but I get to be the out-and-out striker the odd time as well. So you enjoy that.
“I hope it stays that way. I hope that some coach doesn’t come out and ruin it on us all, because I think every team has seen the benefits of it.”
Early predictions that the FRC changes were going to lead to even more lop-sided scorelines have been confounded, with several counties reborn amidst one of the most open championships in years.
Geaney sees Kerry’s conquerors last weekend as a prime example of a team who benefitted from the changes.
“There’s teams that were playing defensive last year and the year before and showing no ambition to go forward.
“Then all of a sudden this year… look at Meath last weekend as an example. We played them last year and they were 15 behind the ball and showed no intention to play football. Then 12 months later, they’re able to play like they’re playing at the moment.
“They’re playing a great brand of football. They have the players and had the players last year, but they seem to be inspired at the moment.
“There’s a lot of teams like that. Down and Monaghan last weekend threw up a great game and there’s seven or eight teams that can win the All-Ireland.
“It’s great for us as spectators to watch the games and be excited by football again. We probably were a little bit jealous of hurling over the last couple of years because of the nature of the Munster championship, specifically.
“I know people like to make a bigger thing about it when a team is beaten by a so-called lesser team. At the moment, there’s no such thing as an upset.
“You can be eight points up or ten points up, and realistically, it’s three or four scores. Two-pointers have just changed it and momentum is so hard to break that the game can change rapidly. If you can’t get out from your kick-out, you’re done really.
“It’s a hugely important part of the game now, the kick-out. It’s probably the main part of the game. But momentum; if a team is firing and they’re getting their scores, it’s very hard to stem momentum.
“That’s part of it. I think before the rules, people were worried that the so-called best teams, the gap would be widening, but that’s not the case, which is only good for the game.”
While the defeat in Tullamore was a jolt, it could have an unexpected benefit in providing Kerry with a further chance to tune up in time for an All-Ireland quarter-final – Armagh being probable opponents – even if it will entail them playing three weeks running.
“Clearly, we need it. I think we need to nail down some things and need to find the energy that’s required to mount a challenge.
“You couldn’t be happy with Saturday, everyone’s a bit disappointed. We just have to regroup and get things right now for this weekend.
“If you don’t win this weekend, you don’t deserve to be going any further. But it’s forced us into a one-game-at-a-time mentality, where it’s all about Saturday.”
Defeat to Meath was only the second championship game in his career that Geaney had missed since making his debut against Cavan in 2013. The previous one – not to draw any major conclusions – was the infamous 2020 defeat to Cork in an empty Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
On the group stage injury against Cork, Geaney had banged his head shortly beforehand and could have gone off for a concussion check before the incident shortly before half-time that saw him traipse off the pitch. Initially, the two-time All-Ireland winner thought his season was finished until scans painted a far less alarmist picture.
“I only got a scan later on in the week, so straight 48 hours afterwards it looked like my year was done, but that was just the nature of the swelling. I went down for a scan after that and all is good.”
He’s touch and go to avoid missing a third championship game against Cavan. If they survive that, he should be available again soon and is set on continuing on for a while yet.
“As you kind of come into an off-season, you’re thinking, am I able to go again? Can I commit to it time-wise? Can I commit to it family-wise? Work-wise? It’s hard to say no if you’re available.
“I had a thing with my back there two years ago and the surgeon said, ‘whatever you’re doing, keep doing it because it’s keeping you healthy’. So I’ll just do it as long as I can.”
