Down at the town’s sports centre, when Tralee Tigers train and Donaghy comes off the basketball court the kids call him Star. For the past two years Tralee have followed him, charting an impeccable route. As the Tigers won their first National Cup last year, he was named the Superleague’s Player of the Year. In 2004 they won the Superleague title. Transplant him to America or Europe and a world filled with bling-gilded contracts and spots on MTV Cribs would lie at his feet but, in Kerry, the most cherished achievements are always found down another route.
Three weeks ago Donaghy raced to Killarney for his final game with the Tigers, against the Gleneagle Lakers. He had spent the night training with the Kerry footballers and missed the first three quarters. Tralee were starting to trail off, though there was still time. He hit seven points, made five rebounds and helped pull the deficit back to two but the Lakers were too far away to catch.
He walked off the court and away from basketball. Two chapters closed. Some day, he says, the book will be reopened. Basketball and football always dovetailed neatly from winter into summer, but the past two years have asked a lot of him. In the mornings he found himself waking with a stiff back. At 22, he didn’t need that.
“Jack (O’Connor) said to me he thought it might be time I gave the football a right go. I just said I’ve been wanting that anyway if my back was going to be sore like that. There’s no need for that at 22 years of age. At least in the summer the ground is hard and the courts are hard. Now it’s like one is putty and the other is rock hard. I’ll miss the basketball but hopefully if the back clears up you’d never know what might happen by the end of the season.”
Over the years, while Kerry have cherry-picked a few footballers, basketball has left the natural order undisturbed. Brian Clarke won an All- Ireland medal in 1997 before returning to the Lakers. Micheál Quirke was the central plank of the Tigers team before Kerry called him, exchanging his full attention for the occasional appearance. If the Tigers can make the same arrangement with Donaghy, they will be happy. If they can’t, they will be glad to know he has success elsewhere.
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This weekend Donaghy was selected on the Southern Conference squad for the first All-Star game in 15 years but didn’t travel. With injuries disrupting Kerry at centre field, a game against Cork in the McGrath Cup final today and places available on a short-term lease during the spring, it’s time to make a down-payment.
“You look two years ago at Paul Galvin. He started all the games in the League and started all the way through (the championship). Jack will say that if you put yourself in the frame in the League you’ll be there or thereabouts for the championship. Last year the basketball did interrupt. I had games where I was playing basketball on a Saturday night and coming on as a sub on Sunday. This year I might get more runs. We’ll see what happens.”
In a career punctuated by drama, from the Cups and Leagues with Tralee Tigers, to a starring role in a reality TV show and magical days out with Kerry in the Munster final, nothing has been cast in stone. Growing up, Austin Stacks underage teams could take him or leave him. At home, his mother, Deirdre, had played basketball in Tralee and nurtured a love for the game in her son. He went to the sports centre for basketball on a Saturday morning and the coaches saw something in him.
Long arms gave him an exceptional reach. He loved getting on the ball, driving for the hoop. He played with daring and vigour. He was picked by Ireland through the grades, travelling to Dublin for training with packed lunches and unstinting support at home.
“My mother used to pay for the £30 train journey up and down every three weeks. We usen’t get a penny back. I never knew it at the time, we were just so happy to play for Ireland. Fair dues to my mother, she coughed out the money for me when she probably didn’t have it.”
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He travelled to the European Under-16 championships in Sweden as the smallest player in the competition and captained Ireland to victory in the Under-17 Four Nations tournament in England. Soon after, he started to grow, finally stopping at 6ft 5in.
Football always provided him with a balanced education. He went to the 1997 All-Ireland final and framed memories of Maurice Fitzgerald for posterity. William Kirby and Pa Laide were neighbours and friends who came home with All-Ireland medals.
“I’ve a picture at home of me sitting inside the wire in Fitzgerald stadium at a Munster final. Pat Spillane’s fallen out over the sideline, and you know the small stone wall? He hopped his head off that and he’s bleeding. Jack O’Shea’s over and I’m two feet away. I could’ve been killed. My mother always says, ‘How did your dad put you through there?’ ” Football never came easily but his sudden growth spurt added another dimension. In 2001 he worked in the Greyhound Bar with his cousin Aidan O’Connor, the centre of operations for the Austin Stacks junior team. The team was traditionally a chaotic work in progress, usually picked on the basis of who turned up. The club minors weren’t looking for Donaghy so O’Connor brought him along. He settled at corner-forward and his reach helped to build a thriving cottage industry, drawing ball down from unfeasible heights to lay off for onrushing forwards.
He blossomed, finding a role with the Austin Stacks minor team. That summer Kerry minors attached him to their panel. By the end of August Donaghy was in Croke Park playing Dublin. Mad.
All the while American colleges looking for basketballers were in touch. Two came laden with promises and potential but by then he had seen Croke Park. His head was turned.
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“It was a long way to go. I don’t know if I regret it or not, but once I’d played as a minor in Croke Park this was what I wanted to do. If I hadn’t played there I mightn’t have kept going. But playing the Dubs when I was a minor in front of the 60,000 coming in for the game after you. I just thought, ‘This is class.’ That was the moment, big time.”
By 2004 he was playing under-21 for Kerry and the seniors had brought him into the panel. When Seamus Moynihan returned from injury Donaghy was gently eased off. He stumbled into another adventure.
TG4’s Underdogs was already well into its second series when selector Mickey Ned O’Sullivan called. Donaghy was raw but he had something. The Underdogs was the perfect stage to hone him. O’Sullivan asked him to think about coming in. It would be good for his profile, he said. Might move his game up a few rungs. Two months before they played Kerry, Donaghy signed.
“I was a bit wary of playing against my own boys. That’s what put me off from the get-go. But once I went up, I enjoyed it. I was doing football training in December, which I’d never really done before. Fair play to the lads, they could’ve said, ‘This f****r here’s coming in now’, but they were sound.”
Kerry’s centre field for the game was Quirke and Kirby: Tralee men, teammates, friends. Donaghy hit two points and the Underdogs won by a goal. It felt strange, but sweet.
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“What I got out of it was the reaction among the other fellas. Them fellas will look back at the video in 20 years and love it. Fellas from Tipperary that may never play for their county but they’ll always have that to look back on; that they beat the All-Ireland champions on their first game back. Lads from Cavan, Monaghan, all these kind of places. They were like, ‘We beat Kerry!’ They could not believe it.”
He had already returned to the Kerry panel while training with the Underdogs and was slowly making progress. By the following July he was ready for unveiling. He came on during the second half of the Munster final against Cork with the sun burning the grass brown, set up a point and got through an admirable amount of work. Kerry held on for a win and Donaghy’s summer was made.
“I just felt, ‘This is the middle of it. This is a Munster final. I’ve been watching these for ever.’ The heat that day inside the dressing rooms in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, microphones everywhere. We were about to pass out. It was ridiculous.”
After the game he sat in the dressing room, ice packs pressed to the sides of his head, trying to stay conscious in the burning heat. For the rest of the year he watched and learnt, experiencing the devastation of losing an All-Ireland and the demands inherent in getting there.
Kerry’s hearts were broken last September but a steady winter has mended them. Cork today and Mayo next Saturday as the League begins. Donaghy has opportunity to match his motive. Another January dream takes flight.