Post by bigmac on May 2, 2007 9:14:57 GMT
SECOND season syndrome? He hadn't heard of such a concept until he arrived in Dublin for yesterday's adidas photo shoot out in Parnell Park. Every question carried the same sense of doubt, spitting out those three words with beautiful alliteration.
Twelve months ago he was an 'Underdog' trying his luck in a Kerry shirt. Now he's a phenomenon threatening to bring football back to the future.
He's had men running up to him on the street telling him how their club was trying out a 6'3" full-forward without much success. Charities have called and he's found it hard to say no. Clubs are also interested in a day with Donaghy where he can smile sign and do 'high fives' with young kids and see the delight on their faces. Companies see him as a marketable product.
He's swapped the leisurely days behind the counter of a sports shop in Tralee for a blue collar job with Ulster Bank in the south west region. How life has changed since those leisurely days of last summer when his energy, colour and innocence to the more cynical elements of the game on and off the field inspired and transformed a whole county. He energised Kerry and they responded by winning an All-Ireland title.
It was never going to be easy after that. And it was certainly never going to be the same. But what Kieran Donaghy might have gauged from yesterday's exercise is how little faith people will have in the coming months in him repeating the heroics of last summer. No one truly believes he can reproduce the same illuminating power.
It's as if the words 'second season syndrome' have been tagged on his forehead and won't be removed until the business of '07 is finally done and dusted. Like a sickly disease that he simply can't avoid.
So the biggest challenge he will ever face in his football career awaits him, bigger than the night Jack O'Connor rang him on the way to training on the Thursday night before last year's defining qualifier game against Longford in Killarney and told him there'd be a No. 14 shirt waiting for him in the dressing-room two days later.
It wasn't just his height that made him such a suitable candidate for the position, it was the unique agility for such a big man. He was small in statute growing up and as a point guard in basketball he needed a leap. When he played for Ireland in the European U-17 basketball championships he was the smallest player in the tournament.
From 5'7" he shot up to 6'2" in two years but the agility and leap remained. Full-forward threatened to faze him though.
"I never got nervous before any game I've ever played in bar the Longford game this year. It was my first game full-forward and when he named the team on the Thursday night I was like 'I'm full-forward'. I couldn't believe it.
"I know we had tried it at training but I didn't know he was going to go through with it. But he rang me Thursday evening and said we're going to throw you in there and see how it goes and if it doesn't work we'll throw you back out around the middle.
"I suppose I was worried that if some of the first few balls come in and they pass me or go under my legs or go out over the sideline you'd have a lot of people going 'that big useless . . . take him out of there'. But obviously it went the other way and it went grand and you have everything that goes with that."
The rest of the summer was a dream for Kerry and for Donaghy. O'Connor took his leave, Stacks offered him shelter from the celebrity and Kerry headed for Australia shortly after Christmas. All the time basketball dotted his diary.
The clock turned quickly. By February he was good to go again and Kerry prepared to play Mayo, a quick repeat of the All-Ireland final. But since then his momentum has stalled. A red card in Castlebar subsequently rescinded, another in Fermanagh that led to criticism from new Kerry boss Pat O'Shea. And then there was his damaging of the AC joint in shoulder which he continues to nurse ahead of the championship next month.
He's wiser now for a league campaign that never got going. He appreciates how opposing teams and even referees may choose to target him and accepts it's an area he's going to work hard on.
Four times in the last 15 months he's picked up red cards four double yellow card offences out of awkwardness and anxiety more than anything sinister.
"I'm new to this game, I'm still very new to the whole football scene. I was sent off against Tyrone and Cork last year and then I've had the two this year so hopefully that's the end of it for a while.
"I could stand out too and I'm probably a target too after last year, that's in the mind too. I'm trying to put all that behind me now," he reasons.
"I'll have to work on the discipline side and think more because I've got this sending off image for a fella that never got sent off when he was young. The one against Mayo was rescinded and if I'd appealed in time after the Cork game last year I might have got off too. It's not like I kicked anyone on the ground or punched them flat out, they've all been silly so if I eradicate that I should be okay."
As for the criticism from the manager he took that on board too and accepted it without a counter rebuke.
"He was right. He was critical of me and he was right because I was affecting the team by my irresponsibility, if that's the word for it. It was childish really, stupid things like.
"You're walking off the pitch and in your own head you are worried about getting sent off but it's the other fellas on the pitch you're after hurting, the other fellas in the dug out and the people who after working constantly over the weekend to get you right for this game and then you turn around and get sent off. So he was right in what he said and it was taken on board."
He hasn't played a full match at full-forward since the All-Ireland final in September. The only full game he has completed was against Cork in the second round of the league. Now he has a longing to get back.
"I'll be looking forward to getting back and to expressing myself the way I want to do it. I haven't had the chance this year to do that. I had two sending offs and then the injury. Bar the Cork game if I played an hour's football that was it.
"I still have a lot of work to do as regards knowledge but I've got good fellas around me giving me pointers every time I go in there. I still played midfield with my club when I came back and I haven't played any football this year.
"The last full game I played at full-forward was the All-Ireland final.
"Even against Cork this year, the only full league game I played, I was moved out around the middle.
"I still have a lot of work to do, getting used to the running, getting used to the flight of the ball coming in."
A year on and Donaghy is older and wiser but no less enthused.
Second season syndrome is unlikely to catch hold too easily here.
Colm Keys
Twelve months ago he was an 'Underdog' trying his luck in a Kerry shirt. Now he's a phenomenon threatening to bring football back to the future.
He's had men running up to him on the street telling him how their club was trying out a 6'3" full-forward without much success. Charities have called and he's found it hard to say no. Clubs are also interested in a day with Donaghy where he can smile sign and do 'high fives' with young kids and see the delight on their faces. Companies see him as a marketable product.
He's swapped the leisurely days behind the counter of a sports shop in Tralee for a blue collar job with Ulster Bank in the south west region. How life has changed since those leisurely days of last summer when his energy, colour and innocence to the more cynical elements of the game on and off the field inspired and transformed a whole county. He energised Kerry and they responded by winning an All-Ireland title.
It was never going to be easy after that. And it was certainly never going to be the same. But what Kieran Donaghy might have gauged from yesterday's exercise is how little faith people will have in the coming months in him repeating the heroics of last summer. No one truly believes he can reproduce the same illuminating power.
It's as if the words 'second season syndrome' have been tagged on his forehead and won't be removed until the business of '07 is finally done and dusted. Like a sickly disease that he simply can't avoid.
So the biggest challenge he will ever face in his football career awaits him, bigger than the night Jack O'Connor rang him on the way to training on the Thursday night before last year's defining qualifier game against Longford in Killarney and told him there'd be a No. 14 shirt waiting for him in the dressing-room two days later.
It wasn't just his height that made him such a suitable candidate for the position, it was the unique agility for such a big man. He was small in statute growing up and as a point guard in basketball he needed a leap. When he played for Ireland in the European U-17 basketball championships he was the smallest player in the tournament.
From 5'7" he shot up to 6'2" in two years but the agility and leap remained. Full-forward threatened to faze him though.
"I never got nervous before any game I've ever played in bar the Longford game this year. It was my first game full-forward and when he named the team on the Thursday night I was like 'I'm full-forward'. I couldn't believe it.
"I know we had tried it at training but I didn't know he was going to go through with it. But he rang me Thursday evening and said we're going to throw you in there and see how it goes and if it doesn't work we'll throw you back out around the middle.
"I suppose I was worried that if some of the first few balls come in and they pass me or go under my legs or go out over the sideline you'd have a lot of people going 'that big useless . . . take him out of there'. But obviously it went the other way and it went grand and you have everything that goes with that."
The rest of the summer was a dream for Kerry and for Donaghy. O'Connor took his leave, Stacks offered him shelter from the celebrity and Kerry headed for Australia shortly after Christmas. All the time basketball dotted his diary.
The clock turned quickly. By February he was good to go again and Kerry prepared to play Mayo, a quick repeat of the All-Ireland final. But since then his momentum has stalled. A red card in Castlebar subsequently rescinded, another in Fermanagh that led to criticism from new Kerry boss Pat O'Shea. And then there was his damaging of the AC joint in shoulder which he continues to nurse ahead of the championship next month.
He's wiser now for a league campaign that never got going. He appreciates how opposing teams and even referees may choose to target him and accepts it's an area he's going to work hard on.
Four times in the last 15 months he's picked up red cards four double yellow card offences out of awkwardness and anxiety more than anything sinister.
"I'm new to this game, I'm still very new to the whole football scene. I was sent off against Tyrone and Cork last year and then I've had the two this year so hopefully that's the end of it for a while.
"I could stand out too and I'm probably a target too after last year, that's in the mind too. I'm trying to put all that behind me now," he reasons.
"I'll have to work on the discipline side and think more because I've got this sending off image for a fella that never got sent off when he was young. The one against Mayo was rescinded and if I'd appealed in time after the Cork game last year I might have got off too. It's not like I kicked anyone on the ground or punched them flat out, they've all been silly so if I eradicate that I should be okay."
As for the criticism from the manager he took that on board too and accepted it without a counter rebuke.
"He was right. He was critical of me and he was right because I was affecting the team by my irresponsibility, if that's the word for it. It was childish really, stupid things like.
"You're walking off the pitch and in your own head you are worried about getting sent off but it's the other fellas on the pitch you're after hurting, the other fellas in the dug out and the people who after working constantly over the weekend to get you right for this game and then you turn around and get sent off. So he was right in what he said and it was taken on board."
He hasn't played a full match at full-forward since the All-Ireland final in September. The only full game he has completed was against Cork in the second round of the league. Now he has a longing to get back.
"I'll be looking forward to getting back and to expressing myself the way I want to do it. I haven't had the chance this year to do that. I had two sending offs and then the injury. Bar the Cork game if I played an hour's football that was it.
"I still have a lot of work to do as regards knowledge but I've got good fellas around me giving me pointers every time I go in there. I still played midfield with my club when I came back and I haven't played any football this year.
"The last full game I played at full-forward was the All-Ireland final.
"Even against Cork this year, the only full league game I played, I was moved out around the middle.
"I still have a lot of work to do, getting used to the running, getting used to the flight of the ball coming in."
A year on and Donaghy is older and wiser but no less enthused.
Second season syndrome is unlikely to catch hold too easily here.
Colm Keys
