Last thoughts of the Kerry football captain in the week of the All-Ireland final: will he or won’t he be starting? How will he handle Rory O’Carroll? What might he say if he lifts the Sam Maguire?

Kieran Donaghy is perfectly open to sharing those thoughts – except, of course, the last one. For all his enduring frankness, not even Donaghy will admit to entertaining that thought. Lifting the Sam Maguire?

“I banish it out,” says Donaghy. “Banish it out, yeah.”

The other two thoughts have been filling his head all week. The Kerry team will be named on Thursday night, and while no player will feel utterly sure about their starting place, Donaghy's uncertainty is well founded: he was replaced at half-time in the semi-final win over Tyrone, Paul Geaney coming on and helping to turn the game in Kerry's favour.

Still, there is as good a chance that Donaghy will start, and so renew acquaintances with O’Carroll, the Dublin full back who won’t stray very far beyond the customary handshake.

“Aye, he’s unbelievable at being close to you all the time,” Donaghy says of O’Carroll. “He’d be like the fellas in the Aussie Rules, the ‘taggers’. He doesn’t really have any interest in playing football, or the game. He just wants to get as close, and pull and drag off you as much as possible. And to try and get away with it at the same time.

"But he's tight, he's aggressive, he's good in the air. He's one of the best around at the number three position. Dublin had that real presence and that real security of him, especially in the replay [against Mayo]. Obviously [with] Stephen Cluxton behind him, that axis works very well for them. We've had good battles down the years."

‘A huge honour’

Clearly Donaghy would relish that battle again, although his thoughts remain evenly split between the prospect of starting or coming off the bench. The Kerry captaincy, he says, is “a huge honour, something I take seriously”, and yet he also knows it doesn’t assure him of a starting place. It’s the one thing manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice continuously preaches, that no Kerry jersey is a certainty, and Donaghy, like everyone else, is a faithful convert.

“Éamonn’s been a big advocate of that from the start,” says Donaghy. “Being replaced at half-time against Tyrone was tough. I scored a point just before the break, and was hoping that might buy me a few more minutes, because I knew I wasn’t setting the world alight.

“But at the same time I know the calibre of player that is coming in for me. And I’ve been on both sides of it recently. I’ve come on for a guy, and I’ve been taken off. I don’t know if it’s from my basketball days, but I’ve always seen it as a thing where coming on and coming off is a part of it. Obviously it’s something to be disappointed in, yourself, but my main thing was Kerry were going to win.

“If I had been taken off, and Kerry lost, I would have been unbelievably gutted.

“Paul Geaney came on for me, he was outstanding in the second half, and the rest of the guys who came on were huge in that game because Tyrone, with 10 minutes to go, were asking all the questions and had huge momentum, and we found it in ourselves to dig out a good result against them.

“We’ve talked about it, and I know I’m in a different place compared to last year, going into the final, having played relatively well in the two Mayo games. Coming on in the drawn game, and finishing the full whatever it was, 90 minutes, in the replay. So it’s a different buildup and there is added pressure to try and cement my place, try to hold on to that jersey. But I’ve always prided myself on how I have done in pressure situations, and just working hard on my own performance, to help the team.”

‘Serious edge’ in training

The fact that Donaghy is not certain of his starting place on Sunday reflects what he calls a “serious edge” at Kerry training in recent months. If they were going to defend their All-Ireland title, then it had to be that way.

“The battling for positions and starting jerseys has been huge all summer. It’s probably the main reason why we’re back in this position. Often, when you win an All-Ireland, it’s nearly the same bunch that goes at it again the following year. Sometimes a staleness or lack of hunger can cost you. The level of competition this year, the bite to training, and the pursuit of the jersey and a place on the match-day squad is huge.

"With the addition of Tommy Walsh, back from Australia, the Gooch, back from injury, Darran O'Sullivan having being relatively healthy, fellas aren't comfortable going into training sessions, or games, that they are automatically going to start. We all have to fight for that jersey. That can only be a good thing in my eyes."