Interview with Kieran Donaghy:  Keith Duggantalks to the Kerry full forward about how he sprung from his natural habitat of the basketball court to make such a dramatic impact on last summer's All-Ireland championship

Late last month, Kieran Donaghy appeared on the basketball court at the University of Limerick, a young man in a hurry. There is a ghostly feel about all college campuses at weekends and on this twilit Sunday afternoon, the university was deserted except for a group of hungover students watching Chelsea and Everton on the plasma television in the college bar, while, in the gym, 100 or so die-hard basketball fans were gathering to see Tralee playing Limerick in the league.

The night before, Donaghy had featured (all too briefly) in the televised RTÉ debate featuring the heavyweights of popular punditry (Hook, Dunphy, Spillane, etc) at the glittering Sports Star of the Year ceremony in Dublin, but the rangy Kerry man had not been in attendance.

"I had an auld 'do' to go to locally," he said solemnly. Plus, he had this match to think about. After enjoying his magical and seemingly effortless spell as the full forward that changed the direction of the All-Ireland football championship, Donaghy promptly melted back into his alter ego.

The jaded Irish basketball halls and the almost semi-secretive nature of the winter league was Donaghy's natural habitat, his sporting bread and butter since childhood.

From September, he attended 20 Tralee Tigers training sessions, missing 12. That is no mean feat given the demands placed on a Footballer of the Year winner. It will probably change once Kerry training resumes in earnest, but after the exposure and comic-book adventure story he starred in last summer, returning to basketball with Tralee was like a welcome retreat.

With hip-hip sounds blaring in the background, a small but vociferous crowd and a game shaped by the languid, uncanny athleticism of Auguste Wilder and Dave Fanning, Tralee's two American players, Donaghy could not be further removed from that significant day when he punished Francie Bellew and Armagh in front of a packed house at Croke Park.

That match sent not only Donaghy's profile but the All-Ireland championship spinning in a new direction.

FEW SPORTS SHOW up lack of practice as cruelly as basketball and for the first half in Limerick, Donaghy was made look rusty by the game rather than his immediate opponents. But his coach, Dave Falvey, gave him plenty of court time and it was fascinating to watch Donaghy gradually gather up the pieces of his game. In the first half, he took a rebound and dribbled end-to-end before flicking a wonderful, deceptive little pass which Wilder jubilantly dunked.

That swift, instinctive fast break carried elements of the goal rush Donaghy pioneered against Longford last July. But it wasn't until the second half that he came into his own. Donaghy was shadowing Rick Harrigan, Limerick's smooth and confident American guard who possessed a disconcertingly fast shooting touch.

If he knew of Donaghy's GAA fame, Harrigan appeared to care less. Scoring with ease for the majority of the game, Harrigan was held to two points in the fourth quarter, when Donaghy also swooped through the air to imperiously block two elementary lay-ups on a pale, leaping Tomas Wojialik.

In addition, he found his scoring touch, firing a three-point shot, stealing possession and rushing for an uncontested lay-up and then, facing Harrigan in the corner of the court, throwing the shoulder fake now familiar to all attentive full backs and driving at the basket before making a wonderful reverse lay-up.

Another steal gave Tralee their first lead, 89-88 and, in a thrilling last 90 seconds, both teams missed chances before Harrigan made one of two free throws to level the scores. That gave Tralee one final opportunity and pushing the ball up court, they found James Mooney, who calmly shot a three-pointer to win the match 92-89 on the full-time whistle. The Tralee players went berserk, swamping Mooney while Donaghy's delight was uncontained as he got down on one knee and began thumping the floor with his fist.

"I don't honestly see the difference in playing in front of 82,000 people or 10," he said after the madness had subsided. Freshly showered and still flushed from his exertions, he sat his gangly frame on a bench and enthused about the Tralee basketball culture as the caretakers began winding up the bleacher seats and locking up for the break. "I just love to go hard at it and sometimes it works, sometimes it goes horribly wrong. But playing out there with Michael (Quirke, his Kerry team-mate) and John Teehan and winning a game like that at the death, it is a brilliant feeling. Tralee basketball matters to me and I love this game. But I do understand I have to respect my body because I suppose there are begrudgers out there and people who will want to put me down if I have a bad year. So I have to give myself a proper chance.

"I told the lads here I will have to curb the basketball in the new year because I will have to probably even play better next year in the football. Which is going to be hard enough it itself when I have been built up so much this year. And unfairly built up really, because I am not as good a footballer as they make out. Do you know, I am a good enough footballer and a lot of things went well for me last year. And there will be fellas out there waiting to have a cut off me."

THE POPULAR NOTION that Donaghy became an accidental footballer is wrong. Although he was primarily known as a basketball player around Tralee town, he always had ambitions to make his mark in Kerry's holy game. Like the best of Irish hoops players, he merited interest from several American colleges. Ultimately, he turned down what would have been a decisive, fortnight trial in Chicago two years ago because he wanted to play for Kerry against Cork in the under-21 All-Ireland championship.

"The game was in Tralee, my hometown. And I was midfield. We had The Gooch (Colm Cooper) in the corner, we had Declan O'Sullivan at centre half and I believe we had an All-Ireland in us. So I told the Americans I wouldn't go over. In the wind up, Gooch strained a hamstring against Dublin. We were five points up with 10 minutes left and lost by a point. And that was the most disappointing loss I ever suffered on a football field."

Blowing a silver-plated college scholarship opportunity for a provincial under-age game was, Donaghy admits now, "a huge call". After all, Kerry football was promising him nothing only the chance to be a contender. Around that time, a small and intense American named Rus Bradburd breezed into Tralee to explore traditional music and coach the Tigers.

Last November, the University of New Mexico published his book about that time, Paddy on the Hardwood, a curious and affectionate account of the strange world of Irish basketball.

It is clear, though, Bradburd looked out for Donaghy, who is portrayed as a happy-go-lucky youngster unsure of what direction he was headed. In one passage, Bradburd deputises in a debate over career choices and Donaghy, somewhat outrageously, points out to his mother and coach, "we all know there are plumbers out of work all over Ireland."

Bradburd was, Donaghy admits, a strong and positive influence in his life. When he read the book, he was astonished by just how distant those times feel.

"He was and is a great friend," he says. "I gave the book to my Mum there recently and I was telling her I had forgotten a lot of the things that happened. He still rings me from New Mexico every week - in fact, he will probably ring about this match. He was a guy I probably needed in my life at that stage. I suppose at 19 and 20 years of age, I was going out every Thursday to Saturday night. And even though every time I met him I told him I was off the drink for three weeks, I had probably been out the night before. And he influenced me, he got me to change and I will never forget that.

"The second year he coached, I promised him a full year and I was over the partying issue. I never missed a training session and probably played my best basketball."

EVEN THEN, HE COULD have fled. Bradburd could have found a spot for him in New Mexico. But the lure and honour of a Kerry football career was too great. Jack O'Connor had drafted him into the squad. An optimistic assessment would have made Donaghy heir apparent to Darragh Ó Sé.

A colder analysis would have suggested one of those intercounty careers that never fully fire. Nothing was set in stone for Donaghy until O'Connor was hit with the brainwave of sticking the big man in at number 14 and the football summer was electrified by the startling simplicity and effectiveness of the result. In a sense, Donaghy had greatness thrust upon him and although he is by nature an open and confident young man he remains somewhat wary of the hype.

And diving into the wintry realities of the indoor game was as good a way as any of getting back to normal. He does not know how much more he can give to basketball, but his face brightens at the fact Pat O'Shea, the new Kerry manager, was a distinguished point-guard for Tralee and Killarney.

"Yeah, Pat played for our club. I remember back in 1989, I was only about seven and I was at the ICS Cup in Neptune and they got beaten 92-89. Gerald Kennedy was playing with Tralee that night and Roadspeed had LaVerne Evans. And they kicked it back out and Simon Kennedy hit a shot to beat them on the buzzer. Jack Carey, a good friend of mine from Tralee, was the coach that day.

"I was only young then and that was the first big game of basketball I was at, the gym was packed and the place was nuts. Seanie Burroughs took me down to it and I never forgot it. Cork was the home of basketball and the atmosphere was something else."

HE TALKS OF THAT period, probably the most successful and glamorous in Irish basketball history, with the fierce devotion and knowledge you accumulate as a child, mentioning fleeting American sensations from a decade ago as if they were household names. In early December of last year, Tralee travelled up to Ballina for a cup quarter-final. On the bus, Donaghy had explained to Wilder and Fanning about the passion for the game in Mayo. He probably did not mention it also meant he and Ronan McGarrity would go head to head.

Although not as intense as when the McStays and McHales were kings, Ballina remains an intimidating venue and watching the two All-Ireland football finalists playing in the bright, claustrophobic gym deepened the occasion. McGarrity is a classy player and - on this night - stays resolutely silent on court. Donaghy was talkative and seemed to revel in the chorus of boos reserved for him alone. The football men marked one another for a while, but it was notable they never spoke a word to one another.

Ballina were poised for an upset after a brilliant third-quarter performance by McGarrity. Then, in the fourth, the Tralee Americans just ran riot, forcing a 20-point turnaround and allowing Donaghy the luxury of cheerleading with a towel from the bench.

"It was a great atmosphere, yeah," he grins. "The Ballina people didn't give me the greatest of welcomes and I wasn't expecting it. I never talked to Ronan McGarrity really, never met him much. He was awesome that night. He had a pair of free throws with two minutes to go when we were 11 down and missed them and I felt if they had have fallen, it might have killed the game. But our Americans were incredible then. You have nights like that. That's what makes it worth it, boy."

WHEN WE LEFT the gym, it was dark and raining and the college felt closed down. There were no autograph hunters for the freshest face in Gaelic games, just the solitude of an empty carpark and the private glow of victory that comes with being an Irish baller. The most admirable part of Donaghy's dramatic, overnight success has been his ability to keep his feet on the ground through it all. As we walked, his phone flashed blue with a text message from the car where his friends were waiting.

"Better run," he apologised. "Late again."

Tomorrow, Donaghy flies back into Ireland after a holiday in Australia with the Kerry team. Tralee are due to face St Vincent's in the cup semi-finals at the Arena in Tallaght at 1pm. The big man won't be available, but, should they make the final, who knows - not withstanding a verbal committment to go to Dubai with the All Stars. Football will rule for the moment and, although Donaghy could have gone in a different sporting direction, he knows he made the right choice.

As he said in the empty hall in Limerick: "I suppose I was close to heading to America, but I just had this itch to try and make it with Kerry. And maybe I wouldn't have the All-Ireland medal now. There are always pluses and minuses to things like this. I know I suffered.

"I didn't get an education. But as my Mum says, I don't know how hard I would have studied out there even if I did go out. It was a huge call. But there are a lot of benefits when you are on the Kerry team."

And it was the right call, surely. Kieran Donaghy seems part of the Kerry furniture now and whether in the cramped basketball auditoriums along the western seaboard or the vast stage of Croke Park, he fairly fills the room.