BROTHERS IN ARMS

Senan Connell on glorious Na Fianna days with Dessie and Geezer

- Roy CURTIS

Connell shines a light on an infinitely more benign side of the iconic figure who captained his county to their first All-Ireland title (2002) and managed them to their second (2024).

"Geezer has the Roy Keane persona. But in the changing room, he was at the heart of the banter and the craic all the time, one-line quips, funny as anything.

"We are talking about the 1990s, so you won your championship match and you are out for a couple of pints.

"Geezer was at the heart of it, he really enjoyed the social side, a gem of a fella.

"Singing songs on the bus, McGeeney would be in the middle of it. Everyone had to sing a song, he'd have his

"He had good social intelligence, good emotional intelligence, a good football brain and good smarts in terms of knowing what was needed at the right time in the changing room and what to say."

Connell would enjoy almost a decade as a Dublin regular, knowing the rock-star buzz of playing in front of a heaving Croke Park, but there was something about Na Fianna's county three-in-a-row team (1999-2001) that delivered a zigzag thunderbolt.

So much of that was down to Farrell and the wonderfully eccentric coordinates of his mind.

"There's something in him, it's in his family. Phenomenal competitors. Seamie Coleman is his first cousin, their Mas are sisters. It's in the blood.

"You meet Dessie's Donegal side of the family. All brilliant footballers, driven, hard.

"Look at Seamie, Ireland's best player against Portugal at 37. They are natural leaders.

"After we finished up with the football, we used to play Astro five-a-side. Jayo played, Dessie played, Geezer was playing for a while. Old men running around, but Dessie was manic. He just couldn't bare the thought of losing.