Paul Geaney of Kerry at the recent launch of the 2025 GAA All-Ireland SFC as AIB celebrated its 10th year as sponsor. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho.
By John Harrington
At the age of 34, Paul Geaney is playing the football of his life.
He was the stand-out performer in the Kerry club championship for the past two campaigns and he's replicated that effectivness in a Kerry jersey.
Geaney has always been a player of huge ability but it all looks a little bit easier now for him which he puts down the maturity that comes with the passing of years.
“It was probably a biological change in my brain or something," says Geaney. "Maybe after you get to a certain stage, your brain matures a little bit more...people maybe mature at different rates but maybe around 30/31, I started to settle down and get more content with myself and a bit more laid back in my own skin.
“Maybe I was a bit more edgy, needing everything to be done yesterday and less patient. The kids definitely give you a bit of perspective. My second child was born in '22, the year of the second All-Ireland.
“Paul Óg then arrived last year so I couldn't put it all down to the kids, but they definitely give you a different perspective then on it all. You see them growing as well and you're appreciating everything a bit more.
“My oldest fella is 8 now and it's kind of like 'where has that 8 years gone?' I want to appreciate the eight years of my second and third child's life a bit more rather than just going from Sunday to Tuesday, to Thursday to Sunday, which is probably what that period of my life was, just going from day to day and probably looking too far into the horizon rather than looking at the ground in front of me."
When he looks back now, he can clearly see how excessive his footballing obsession was, and it did him now favours on the pitch or off it.
Paul Geaney, Kerry, reacts to a missed goal chance in the 2015 Munster GAA Football Senior Championship Final, Kerry v Cork. Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, Co. Kerry. Picture credit: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
To much of his identity was wrapped up in it, too much life validation was sought through it, and that could lead to a suffocating pressure to perform and frustration when he didn't.
“That’s exactly it," says Geaney. "It was my whole life really when I was younger and it was about me performing and that was the be all and end all, and I suppose your whole week then depended on what the result was at the weekend or how you played and that’s just not the case any more.
“You were worrying at the start of the year how things are going to pan out for the year. Are you going to be on the team? Are you going to be coming in as a sub? Are you going to be seeing any game time at all?
“I suppose a couple of years ago I just came to peace with it that I’ll give it everything and whatever happens then will happen and that’s been brilliant too for me.
“That’s basically been it. It’s just not the be all and end all as such any more. Obviously I love it and I’ll give it everything and play for as long as I can.
“I’ll probably be involved then afterwards in some capacity. It’s just a change in perspective I think has been hugely helpful.”
Paul Geaney of Kerry during the Allianz Football League Division 1 final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.
His form for his club Dingle in last year's senior club and county champinships was sensational.
Over the course of 11 matches he scored 5-51, 4-21 of which came from play.
He's obviously physically in great shape, but he puts his club form down to mental freshness as much as anything else.
“Yeah, the last couple of years with the club, I'm not sure if it's just that I'm at the stage of my life where I'm settled with family, but before when I was younger coming back from the county season it was a slog, the winter time.
“Getting into the right mind space for club was difficult but I've found it much easier in the past couple of years. Maybe being captain of the team has helped me keep a focus on it as well even during the county season.
“For the last three or four years I've thoroughly enjoyed going back to the club and the form of the club and my form has been excellent really. It has helped me as well get the confidence back early doors coming into the county season. It has helped me on that side of it.
“The season split is a big help for us. Obviously we had a long season with the club last year (2023), we got to the Munster Final, and then I was nearly straight back in to training which obviously you don't want that every year, but for me it actually suited just to keep on it and keep on top of the body when it was good.
"I've enjoyed the last couple of years going back to the club and then coming back in with Kerry as well."
Paul Geaney of Kerry during the Allianz Football League Division 1 final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile.
Maybe because he's at the stage in his career where he knows he won't have too many more opportunites to wear the Kerry jersey, but he's savouring every moment now of representing his county.
Even the aspects of inter-county involvement that felt draining in the past are now things to be embraced.
“I’d be thinking about having to travel up to Derry for the weekend and in the past you’d be giving out about the trip," he says.
“This year left here for the Derry game at ten o’clock on a Saturday morning and we didn’t get home until twelve o’clock on the Sunday evening.
“So that’s two whole days we were gone. You have a business there as well. That’s the peak time during the winter, Saturday and Sunday. You are gone from that.
“A couple of years ago you’d have kind of half been saying, ‘Is this for me,’ and giving out about the long journeys. Now I just can’t wait to travel to Derry, just can’t wait to travel to Galway - and be in the bubble again.
“I just enjoy the experience of it as it comes."
His greater maturity as a person and a player has helped him develop one of the most important qualities you need as a forward in Gaelic football - patience.
Where once he might have chased the game, now he lets it come to him. Where once he might have snatched at a shot, now he has a better instinct for when you should or shouldn't pull the trigger.
“When I was younger or whatever, I kind of felt I had to be in the zone, which was quite easy for me to get into, but if I wasn't in the zone, I was off and it was all about that," he says. "I do feel now I don't specifically have to be in the flow or the zone to have that.
“Maybe less so in inter-county because it's a lot higher tempo but at club level it's been something that I didn't do enough of when I was younger, just being calmer or more relaxed on the ball. It was all about how quickly can I get this score?
“There was less patience in my play, less patience for other people's mistakes and my own mistakes. So I think I'm a totally different player to play with as well.”
Goal scorer Paul Geaney of Kerry with his son Paidi, age 8, after the Allianz Football League Division 1 final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
He turns 35 in November but if he keeps playing the way he's playing there's no reason why he shouldn't return for a 16th season of inter-county football next year.
He'll see how he feels in his body and his mind and then the decision will be an easy one either way.
“That’s kind of been the way the last two or three years," says Geaney. "It’s been more because of work and life commitments than because of my age.
“People are very keen to be pointing out my age all the time.
“It used to grate on me there a small bit but I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably just the human condition be looking at age and kind of say, ‘When’s the end? What’s the new shiny thing coming?’
“It’s been more like, how can I be least disruptive to my family of three kids and work as well the last two seasons. So I’ve been taking it one season at a time because of that.
“I am just lucky that my body is in a good place. But I have also got better over the years at looking after my body as well. So that’s gonna help too.”
