Georgie Kelly is rarely distracted from his day job of scoring goals for Carlisle United but last weekend was all sorts of unusual.
The 145-mile odyssey up the M5 on Saturday evening from Yeovil Town to the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, to make his partner Kate O’Connor’s gold medal ceremony at the European Athletics Championships, had him racing against the clock.
Carlisle’s second game of the National League season – in the fifth tier of English football – meant that Kelly was unable to join a large Irish contingent cheering O’Connor through the seven heptathlon events.
On Friday he watched her thrilling PBs in the 100m hurdles and high jump on television. He was in transit for her gritty third place finish in the 800m that secured gold on Saturday evening.
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“My hands would be sweating,” Kelly told The Irish Times this week. “Especially the final jump in the high jump. I knew exactly where she was at. I knew she had to get over 1.86m. It was a huge jump for her because her shot put wasn’t going as well.
“My heart rate, God. How she manages stress is a gift in itself.”
We discuss O’Connor’s laser focus as she appeared in the background of the preceding long jumper. Stone cold, tuned to the frequency of the moment. The scream after she cleared 1.86m let everyone know something seismic had happened.
“What people might not notice, even in Tokyo last year [at the World Championships], there could be 50,000 in the stadium but only a few Irish dotted around. Not in Birmingham. There were thousands cheering her on. That was the first time she has experienced that. And there was new pressure on her. ‘Oh Kate is going to medal’ people were saying. There was a lot to manage. I knew she was dealing with all that.
“She is something else. She thrives in the pressure.”
O’Connor’s competitive instincts were clearly visible in Birmingham.
“I know all about her competitiveness,” Kelly laughed. “Even day-to-day things. She hates losing. Little small things, she is very competitive. But it was great, Jesus Christ it was so good.”
There is the enduring image of O’Connor on the track’s edge in between events listening to the wise words of her coach and father Michael O’Connor.
“Michael is a cool guy,” said Kelly. “Big football fan as well. He’s very smart. One of the reasons for the success, I think, is they are a very high IQ family. Michael was a director in a big construction company. Her mum Valerie is very bright.
“Kate, because of athletics, didn’t get a good crack at education. But being around her, I see the intelligence. It definitely helps. The detail in every event is so complex. The timing and steps for long jump or high jump. Trying to figure out every single piece, it helps when you have a brain.”
Kelly was determined to be there for Amhrán na bhFiann as they have struggled to align their sporting careers. He missed the 2024 Olympics in Paris as July into August will always mean preseason for a professional footballer.
“I thought I might be able to nip over. I got up to Glasgow [for the Commonwealth Games]. But it was nothing like the pressure and nerves last weekend.”
Kelly did not add to the brace he scored in the loss to Worthing the previous Saturday, but the Carlisle team bus was giddy on the return leg of a gruelling 13 hour round trip after Harvey Bunker’s 96th minute equaliser.
“Yeovil was the worst possible venue to have to go to on Saturday. Aw, it’s a trek, right down south.
“My plan was to get to Birmingham for the medal ceremony on Saturday night. It was a surprise, I didn’t tell her I was coming. The bus dropped me off on the motorway and I got a taxi. I was there in decent enough time ...”
Turns out the ceremony was postponed until Sunday after a man was arrested having been found with the wrong accreditation in a security-sensitive area of the Alexander stadium.
“We still had a great night. My whole family was over. All the cousins. Must have been about 20 of us and with Kate’s family, there was a serious crowd. Some craic.”
This is their life together. Compromise, commitment and Ryanair between Manchester and Belfast with a two-hour spin to Carlisle.
“It is the bane of our lives,” he laughed again. “We try not to let it go longer than a few weeks without one of us popping over.
“Belfast is a wee bit easier. I can fly in. She is not able to relocate her whole team of coaches, physios, nutritionists. We just make it work. Nip over and back. I have been on more Ryanair flights than I’ve ever wanted to be on.”
This is their reality since 2018 when fate put Kelly in the Dundalk club digs around the corner from the O’Connor family home after Stephen Kenny signed an unpolished centre forward who had scored a goal in every other game for UCD in the first division.
“I’d see her out and about quite a lot and we went from there.”
A career in football was never part of his plan.
“At UCD, I wasn’t thinking about being a professional footballer. At Dundalk, I didn’t really play. When I went to Bohs we were part-time, training in the evening.
“That’s when I started the Masters [in Renewable Energy and Environmental Science]. I was certain that my career was done. I’d play a year for Bohs and go work. All my college friends were progressing, getting promotions in work. I needed to get in and get up the corporate ladder.
“It’s funny how it worked out. That one good year at Bohs, scored a few goals and away it went.”
Nobody has come close to 21 goals in the League of Ireland since Kelly lit up the Premier Division in 2021. A few more in Bohemians dizzying European and FAI Cup runs meant he finished his only season at Dalymount Park with 26 goals.
“That was a great year at Bohs, Jesus. I can look back at the pictures of me, Rossy and Dawson.”
Ross Tierney and Dawson Devoy followed him to England but the Dubliners have since returned home with Heimir Hallgrímsson capping Devoy against Canada in June.
Only 29, does he ever wonder about pulling on the green shirt? “I am not the most gifted footballer. God almighty, I’m really not. I’m well aware of my own abilities and how limited I am. But there was a moment. At Rotherham, at the start of the Championship season, I got a few goals and a few Irish strikers were injured. I did think, ‘If I stick at it, score a few more in the next few weeks I might not be too far away [from a call up]. I ended up doing my hamstring or calf or something. Six to eight weeks out. I look back and think, that was a chance.
“Now, it would only have been a cap,” he quickly added. “There are much better players than me who were never capped. If it happened it would be amazing but I never thought I’d have the career I’ve had.”
Kelly’s name still comes under the nose of League of Ireland managers in search of a big man up top.
“There have been a few phone calls in the summer to see what I am doing. Never concrete. I am happy to see out this contract and see where we are at Carlisle.”
The initial plan, on moving from Bohs to Rotherham was to hold his own in League One. Some ridiculous highs and lows followed. He never planned to score the goal, on his debut in April 2022, with practically his first touch, that secured promotion for his new club to the Championship. Nor did he expect a constant battle with his lower limbs.
“I’ve been all over the world speaking to specialists about these calves. There is a guy in Waterford called David Grey who is incredible. He more or less saved my career.
“I feel my best years are ahead of me now. I am a late developer. Even that year at Bohs, I was 25. As a big striker, touch wood, hopefully there is some longevity.”
The National League does not sound overly glamorous but he speaks about his loyalty to Carlisle.
“I signed a long-term contract when we were in League One, bought a house here. I know, [we suffered] back-to-back relegations, but it is a massive club with fourteen, fifteen thousand at games last year.
“Rob Elliot, the ex-Ireland international, has come in as manager. He’s a great coach who thinks deeply about the game. It has not clicked yet, but I do think we can win this league.”
The standard is not definable by the division, as Kelly explains: “There is so much variety in the English leagues. There are leagues within leagues. The top two or three clubs in the League of Ireland would be comfortable in League One. But York, last year, won the National League and they probably would have won the League of Ireland. It is not binary.”
Besides the joys of Hornchurch, Wealdstone and Scunthorpe, what’s next for Kelly and O’Connor?
“Kate is coming over to the glamorous Carlisle for a few weeks as she is finished for the season. We were checking the dates today for the Olympics in Los Angeles. End of July, early August, just when we’re coming back for preseason.”
Kelly’s contract is up next summer. Perhaps LA Galaxy or LAFC could introduce a 6ft 2ins former Donegal minor footballer to the MLS?
“Who knows? We’ll figure something out.”
