KIERAN DONAGHY DESCRIBES his journey home from Kerry’s All-Ireland quarter final win over Galway as “a lonely old drive.”
He sits here now as the Player of the Month for September, having just won his fifth All-Ireland medal and is the favourite to land a third Allstar at full-forward.
But after he was an unused sub in that win over the Tribesmen at the beginning of August, Donaghy felt his inter-county career was in the balance.
“I’ll be honest, I was in a bad place. My confidence was low I was kind of half doubting myself. Could I still do it? Could I go on and help the team?
“The career was probably on the line. If I can’t get into the team, I’m not going to be playing so my career is finished at the top level. That’s where I was at.
“In fairness to Eamonn he explained it. He said, ‘I may have made a mistake not putting you in against Galway. You have to keep going – we’ll need you yet. You are in my plans for down the line, I promise you that.’ That kept me going.”
It wasn’t easy to stay going. The 31-year-old had already battled back from a series of injuries in his hip and groin before he dislocated his shoulder soon after returning from a training camp in Portugal in April.
He had planned on stepping up his rehab while the rest of the team trained in the Amendoeira Golf Resort, “getting physio every day, getting into the pool, getting into the sea, doing my bits and pieces” to treat the Osteitis Pubis problem that had plagued him since 2011.
He was watching in from the sideline of a training game during the end of their stay, when Fitzmaurice needed an extra body on the field and Donaghy obliged. He enjoyed a freedom he hadn’t felt in a long time out on the field.
“All of a sudden I’m starting to play well, I’m starting to move well. It (his hip) starts to free up a bit through natural movement which is what they were saying would do it. By the end of it I played 25 minutes of football in the last trial game so I was coming home delighted.”
Less than a week after their return to Irealnd he suffered a major set-back by popping out his shoulder in a club game, but typical of the man he didn’t allow it get him down.
“The shoulder to me wasn’t a bad thing. I was like, right, ‘tell me what the story is’. Ten weeks – no bother. So I went home to the calendar and said, ‘Right, ten weeks what’s on then, the Munster semi-final against Clare. Right, I’ll be back for that.’ And that was the next goal, that was the way I went at it and thankfully it worked out well in the end.
Donaghy managed a return to fitness for a couple of five minute cameos in Munster against both Clare and Cork and come the All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway, he expected to get the call at some stage during the second half. When he didn’t, it was a tough blow to take.
“I’d be the ultimate positive guy. I remember that day, waiting for a call, looking down and seeing the boys waiting below and thinking ‘It has to be me.’ Next thing, someone else.
“I nearly spent more time watching what they (the management) were doing than what was going on out in the field. I wanted to get on and to get on they have to have a chat and say, ‘yeah, we need him on’ so I was watching them. I’d watched enough of the game to know where I felt was needed.”
“I think it was a bank holiday weekend and everyone was going out after the game but I just went home and sat the couch. I put down a tough enough night of just thinking.
“It’s a long weekend up for a big game. The preparation that goes into it is long enough as well but then to go home on the Sunday and be thinking of it all night Sunday, and to work on the Monday. It was a low place.”
His support system helped him when times were tough. He leaned on his wife, mother and his nan for support.
“My nan kept saying, ‘I thought they should have put you on against Galway, (their) fellas were doing well around the middle of the field.
(He laughs) “I was like ‘I know nan, sure they should have put me on.’ Them kind of people get you going again and say look, come on, keep going.”
Donaghy always knew there was a chance Fitzmaurice would come calling against Mayo, but he was afraid the lack of game time against Galway would hamper his impact.
“I was coming on in the middle of the field kind of going, ‘I’m going to have to do something here, grab the game by the scruff of the neck’ which was an awful lot of pressure to be putting on myself after not really playing all year.
“The two games against Clare and Cork were five-minute jobs, last sub on, ‘go on there and get a bit of a gallop into you.’ So yeah, the nerves coming on against Mayo were high.”
His introduction allowed Kerry return to a far more direct approach and target Mayo full-back Ger Cafferkey, who looked vulnerable under the high ball.
“Paul Geaney got that ball, I knew were five points down and I kind of half knew he was going to do it. If that was a few years ago he might look into the corner for James or somewhere else.
“Next thing all of a sudden I saw him swinging on to his left and I knew it was coming. As soon as I saw it going in I said, ‘I have to get this and I have to get my hands on it by hook or by crook.’
“To turn and take a fella on and win a free, it just brought on confidence. Then obviously the goal, we went from completely losing it and being gone to all of a sudden, James O’Donoghue is having a shot to win the game.
“Bryan Sheehan has another free to win the game, albeit 70 yards out the field. He still had a good go at it putting it over so the contrast of where I was 50 minutes into the first Mayo game to where I was at the end of it, the confidence had picked up which was huge for me.”
Kerry rescued a draw and Donaghy was back. He says it was “an unbelievable boost” for Fitzmaurice to parachute him into the starting line-up for the semi-final replay in Limerick and 140 minutes later he was an All-Ireland champion.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The ‘Kieran Donaghy Be A Star’ basketball camp takes place from October 28 to 31st in the Mitchell’s GAA clubhouse in Tralee.
