At the end of Dingle’s longest journey comes Mikey Geaney’s shortest trip.
Dingle’s odyssey to a maiden All-Ireland senior club football final arrives at Croke Park on Sunday but when the team bus arrives in the capital on Saturday, chances are Geaney will be there to greet them.
The 36-year-old former Kerry player has been living in Portmarnock for the last three years, during which time Geaney has predominately trained away on his own and returned to the Kingdom at weekends for matches.
The move to Dublin could have had a detrimental impact on his playing days with the club, but instead at the latter end of his career the 2014 Sam Maguire winner now finds himself preparing for an unexpected big day out at GAA headquarters.
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And for a change, his team-mates are travelling to him on this occasion.
“Before the county final I was kind of down the pecking order so I had to do a bit of travelling home during the week for training, an eight-hour round trip from Dublin to Killarney,” said Geaney.
“But for most of the year I’m based up here (in Dublin), training away on my own and travelling home for games. I’m on the road long enough to know how to keep the body ticking over and keep ticking the boxes that I need to.
“With the travelling, when you’re from Dingle, everywhere is an hour away, so we’re used it.”
Geaney was part of the Kerry senior football panel from 2012 to 2018, making 15 championship appearances and playing 28 matches in the National League. But getting to an All-Ireland final with your club just hits that bit differently.
“Obviously, you would feel very lucky and privileged to have got a chance to play with such a good group in Kerry and win an All-Ireland medal,” he said.
“Even winning a league medal was special that time as well. It’s something you would be very proud of, being even just a small little speck on the history of Kerry.
“But at the end of the day, it always comes back to the club. I grew up dreaming of winning county championships with Dingle more than anything else. I’ve been playing for 20 years now, since I made my debut with Dingle – we had a good few losses, three county finals lost and a Munster final lost as well.
“We had a few scattered wins in there with county leagues and club championships as well, but this year the last three and a half months have been special.”
Dublin-based intercounty players joining clubs in the capital has been a source of much debate in recent years, but Geaney never contemplated switching allegiance.
“No, I was never going to transfer up or anything like that. I was always going to play on with Dingle.
“My wife is from Dublin, so I was moving up pre-marriage and it was a case of we wanted to move for a couple of years out of Dingle.
“And football never really came into the equation, to be honest. I was 32 years of age, I’d been on the road a long time, it wasn’t a case of like, I’m sacrificing football to make this move. It was a case of I’m going to make this move and see how football works out, without being too flippant about it.
“I was confident enough, I have a background in S&C and stuff like that, I’ve been on the road a long time, I was confident enough that I’d be able to keep fit enough to play at least county league and then maybe keep my place in the match day panel for the championship.”
The odds have St Brigid’s as very slight 5-6 favourites on Sunday, but Geaney knows better than most about such tight margins as he works for Flutter Entertainment – primarily setting the betting prices for college basketball games.
“I’m a college basketball trader, I love watching basketball. Not so much the NBA, I think there is too much dead games and stat-hunting and stuff like that. The college game is much different.”
And he doesn’t see a clear favourite in Croke Park this weekend.
“It’s probably a flip of a coin. I don’t make those odds,” he smiled.
But Dingle could on Sunday complete a very special clean sweep for Kerry teams in the 2026 All-Ireland club championships.
Last weekend at Croke Park, Ballymacelligott won the All-Ireland junior final while Dingle’s neighbours, An Ghaeltacht, claimed the intermediate crown.
“An Ghaeltacht are only back the road from us so when both teams won their semi-finals in such dramatic fashion it kind of got everyone excited,” said Geaney.
“I would have watched (bits and pieces of last week’s games), I didn’t want to watch too much of them because it might get the blood boiling a bit too early in the week, but I kept an eye on them.
“They were two great wins, so hopefully we can cap off the third one at the weekend.”
The AIB All-Ireland Senior Football Club final between Dingle (Kerry) and St Brigid’s (Roscommon) takes place in Croke Park on Sunday at 3.40pm. The game will be shown live on TG4.
