Profile Graham Geraghty - yet another controversial incident may spell the end of his Meath careerOne of the best-known names in the GAA, for his combative nature as much as his ability, might have finally gone too far with his latest altercation, writes Ian O'Riordan
In all walks of life you find those who are loosely referred to as "the flawed genius", and sport is no exception. Graham Geraghty is arguably the most gifted Gaelic footballer of his generation - celebrated for his exceptional fitness levels, frequently dazzling skill, and generally unyielding will to win.
A football prodigy, Geraghty helped his native Meath end its long wait for All-Ireland minor and under-21 titles, and made his senior debut for the county in October 1990 at the age of 17. In 1996 he won his first of two senior All-Ireland titles with Meath, the second of which saw him raising the Sam Maguire as captain in 1999, much to the delight of legendary Meath manager Sean Boylan.
Though recently turned 34, Geraghty can still put the fear into any opposition, and was as prominent as ever last month when Meath so nearly derailed Dublin's Leinster football championship ambitions, eventually losing out in a replay. Although, if any player could claim to have tormented Dublin - and particularly Hill 16 - most in recent years, it would be Geraghty.
Now here's the flaw. Meath play a must-win All-Ireland qualifier against Down this evening - but Geraghty will be watching from home. Team manager Colm Coyle, himself an All-Ireland winner with Meath in 1996, felt that he was left with no choice but to eject Geraghty from the panel after a training-ground incident in Simonstown last Saturday morning.
Geraghty is reported to have reacted angrily to a tackle from 19-year-old rising star Stephen Sheppard, prompting an unsightly flare-up that quickly forced other team-mates into restraining Geraghty, who then left the training ground. Coyle ended the session, and on Monday confirmed the player would not be part of his plans for the foreseeable future - despite Geraghty later apologising to Sheppard.
Inevitably this has raised questions about whether or not Geraghty has any future in Meath football, not just because of his age, but because this incident was just the latest in a series of disciplinary controversies over the course of his career. While Geraghty's homestead could easily accommodate a hall of fame, it would also have to leave room for a hall of shame.
TAKE YOUR PICK - from the time he made a racist remark to young Australian footballer Damian Cupido during Ireland's International Rules series of 1999, to the 48-week ban he was landed with in 2003 for abuse of match referee Jim Smith while playing for his club, Seneschalstown.
If his reputation for dissent ever bothered him, that no longer appears to be the case. Geraghty managed to generate a love-hate relationship, with both in equal measure, within his native Meath and throughout the GAA community.
Nor has he let it hold him back from exploring other pursuits, including a brief flirtation with a rugby career with the Buccaneers club, and more recently a foray into politics, which saw him running - unsuccessfully - as a Fine Gael candidate in Meath West in the general election.
Away from the football field, Geraghty comes across as a polite and somewhat subdued individual, completely at odds with the heated, rather immature figure who is constantly agitating against whichever opposing player or official is close at hand. He has made one notable effort to explain the contradiction in his suitably titled autobiography Misunderstood, published in 2003.
In the book, Geraghty goes to some lengths to explain both his inner motivations and his tortured image, which has included whispers of domestic violence. Thhese he rejects as "ludicrous" and "comical", and one of the sad consequences of his problems on the football field has been the malicious spin-off into his personal life. He went so far as to appear on The Late Late Show with his wife, Amanda, in order to scotch those rumours.
One thing Geraghty doesn't disguise in his book is his unrelenting drive to be the best, and how that drive has sometimes got the better of him, from very early on. He tells a story about playing an underage game for Seneschalstown a week before starting secondary school, and notes: "I was sent off for fighting in that match . . . and had forgotten all about it until I was reminded a few weeks later."
Most of the time, however, talent has won out over temperament. When playing in the 1994 Leinster final against Dublin, he drew compliments from Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, a guest in Croke Park that day, prompting talk of a soccer career. By coincidence, that same week an Arsenal scout invited him to Highbury.
His brief spell at the club didn't work out, partly because his "heart never was and never will be in soccer", although former Arsenal star Paul Merson later mentioned how Geraghty was the fittest player he had ever seen.
YET BY THE end of Misunderstood it's hard to know exactly what Geraghty feels so misunderstood about. There are countless references to his disciplinary problems, and the opening line, about his birth on May 17th, 1973, probably best sums him up: "From what I've been told, it was one of the few occasions in my life when I did not cause a stir."
As a consequence, suspensions from the field of play have come thick and fast - one after the All-Ireland win of 1996 for his involvement in a fracas during the replay with Mayo, and another a year later when he missed the Leinster final against Offaly.
Even the gloss of captaining Meath to All-Ireland success in 1999 was soon blemished by his racial abuse of Cupido, a young Aboriginal player, during a friendly warm-up in the International Rules tour in Melbourne that October. Geraghty issued a lengthy apology and was banned from the first test, although it's said the Australians weren't particularly forgiving.
In the most recent International Rules series, last October, Geraghty once again found himself in the middle of some heated exchanges with the Australians, which resulted in him being cited for foul play after the first test. After being cleared, Geraghty was inevitably a wanted man in the second test, and - accidentally or otherwise - was the victim of a brutal tackle by the young Australian player Danyle Pearce, which left him severely concussed on the Croke Park pitch, in full view of his wife Amanda and daughters Sophia and Lauren.
By then there were already some doubts about Geraghty's future with Meath. His hunger for the game has been questioned since the summer of 2002, when he announced his retirement from intercounty football. The 48-week ban imposed in August 2003 cast further doubts over his future, although that was later overturned after 35 weeks and cleared the way for his comeback in the summer of 2005.
Incredibly, he was off the panel again just a year later when he fell out with new manager Eamonn Barry, although they later patched up their differences and Geraghty was again chief tormenter for Meath in last summer's championship.
His decision to enter politics came about last November after a conversation with Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee, later re-elected in Meath East. Despite embarking on an exhausting campaign trail, he was eliminated on the fourth count in last May's election, polling just 1,284 first preferences, mustering only 136 transfers, and ending up more than 8,000 short of the quota.
TYPICALLY UNDETERRED, GERAGHTY came out just a week later with a fiery display against Dublin in the drawn Leinster football quarter-final, his reputation for dissent as intact as ever. He was seen to engage in some repeated striking of Dublin defender David Henry, which failed to come to the attention of the match referee.
Later that evening, RTÉ's Sunday Game analyst Kevin McStay reviewed the video evidence, and announced that Geraghty "always had a nasty streak in him".
This comment was subsequently put to Geraghty, to which he replied, "Yeah, I saw that all right, I wouldn't expect anything more from a bitter Mayo man like him anyway. He was always a whinger. Not too many people I know would be listening to him anyway."
Although he got away with those incidents, Geraghty may now have stepped over the disciplinary line one time too many for even his own team management to ignore. He is a major loss for the game against Down this evening, although if Meath come through it, don't be surprised to see him back on board later in the summer.
And whether or not he does ever play for Meath again, it's certainly not the last we'll see of Geraghty, for better or for worse.
The Geraghty File
Who is he?Unquestionably among the most talented Gaelic
footballers in the country, a two-time All-Ireland winner and
two-time All Star winner.
Why is he in the news?Was this week dismissed from the Meath football panel ahead of this evening's qualifier game against Down following a bust-up with a team-mate at training last Saturday.
Most appealing characteristic:His right foot.
Least appealing characteristic:His right hook.
Most likely to say:Accidental! I was going for the ball.
Least likely to say:Deliberate! Sure he had it coming to him.