HOOPY DAYS FOR GEANEY

Basketball trader courting All-Ireland win

- BY GARRY DOYLE

THERE is a particular stillness that comes with an All-Ireland final morning, the kind Mikey Geaney recognises instantly.

He has stood in it before, most memorably in 2014 when he played the entire second half of an All-Ireland final for Kerry, and to a lesser extent in 2017 when the Kingdom ended Dublin's famous unbeaten run to claim a National League title.

“Youd be very lucky and privileged” he says now, “to get a chance to play with such a good group and win an All-Ireland medal’

Yet this is different. At 36, standing on the brink of an All-Ireland club final with Dingle, it feels heavier and lighter all at once.

He knows the stage and also knows how rarely it comes wrapped in the colours of home.

“At the end of the day” Geaney says, “it always comes back to the club. I grew up dreaming of winning county Championships with Dingle rather than anything else.”

This final against St Brigid’s carries the glow of an Indian summer. Careers are not meant to bloom again at this age. They are supposed to fade politely.

But Geaney has never been especially interested in how things are meant to go.